iPhone not popular in Japan

It is so bad, according to this article, they are giving them away!

FOXNews.com - Apple's iPhone Flops in Japan, Now Sold for Free - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

That article is utter trash.
Why the Japanese do not hate the iPhone

I live in Japan and the iPhone is doing alright but you have to remember that the iPhone has nothing new here. I have had e-mail on my phone since 2004 or something like that. It was around before that. I had full PC browser in 2006.

Also softbank are only letting their customers have iPhones with an unlimited data plan. The iPhone has no TV tuner built in, the mail system in Japan isn't totally supported, they did a really bad job of converting.

It just nothing new here but it is doing better than most phones, remember the phone market here is the fastest in the world. So fast Vodafone left the market as they couldn't keep up and they were the biggest provider at that time.

lifeisabeach said:

That article is utter trash.
Why the Japanese do not hate the iPhone

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That is weird! Only thing that is consistent appears to be (according to next post right below yours) Japan being a very advanced and changing market. Thanks for the second article.

The phone that they're giving away is the first gen iPhone. Of course they're going to have to give that one away as it's not even 3G and I would guess almost any other phone in Japan is 3G if not faster. Leave it to Fox News to take a simple fact and slant it out of proportion for a story.

But it is true that the US is often on the back end of mobile phone technology and there have always been features and handsets overseas that we don't see for some time. You can't blame that on Apple. That's the situation with every phone maker. How many phone here have a TV receiver??

The iPhone was never released in Japan. It has to be the 3G as normal phones don't work here due to the mail system.

In Japan, I think over 50% have TV tuner/recorder.

Just found this: apparently the story was bogus. I hate it when someone does that:

AppleInsider | Japanese "hate" for iPhone all a big mistake

lol you americans must be behind, we are behind in uk too though, but not as much - our high end phones have TV tuners.

Do they suck as bad as the TV tuners in Japan?

i dont know, never had one. im an iPhone user, would be a bonus to have TV but i dont care to be honest.

The TV tuners in Japan are good but I had one for a year and a half and used it maybe twice. I never felt the need for it but you can buy one for the iphone that attaches via USB (it also acts as a battery charger.

I am living in Japan and the iPhone is not being adopted as quickly as the North American market. In my opinion, Apple brought a product to Japan that was going to fail from day one. Apple thought they had the greatest product in the world but didn't take into account that Japanese mobile users want different features in a mobile phone than North American users. Apple forgot to cater their products to the end users. Japan and their mobile phone industry is very unique compared with other markets around the world. I am from Canada and all I wanted when I came here was a Blackberry style phone but that is JUST starting to gain some market share. Japanese people don't seem to like these types of phones. Just chalk it up to different personal preferences/tastes.

BTW, the TV Tuners on the cell phones are pretty good quality. I've watched a few people on trains watching baseball games and Japanese variety shows and I didn't have any problems with quality.

Thanks for the inside insight yellow19man! I have heard that some countries outside of the US have better cell phones/service and contracts then we do here.

PapaNoHair said:

Thanks for the inside insight yellow19man! I have heard that some countries outside of the US have better cell phones/service and contracts then we do here.

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I hear that in the US 3G is a joke. I know a lot of people that won't switch because they want to stay with NTT because of it's history other just don't want to pay 6000¥ for internet that they don't use.

The article was from FOX News so I'm not surprised it was false and/or over-exaggerated.

Not trying to get political I just can't stand a station that claims to be "fair & balanced" and is so blatantly the contrary. But I could go on forever about the problems with America's news networks, so I'll stop.

Clarity is important....

I am sure that cellphone experiences in Japan vary but as an ex-pat who has been here nearly a decade I can attest to the fact that in almost ALL respects the mobile phone tech and the "savvy" of average users is far ahead of most other countries in the world...

To clarify a few things already mentioned...

- ALL portable phones in Japan that have TV capabilities ( perhaps only 50 % of existing market but closer to 95% of new model releases ) have what is called "Digital Terrestrial Broadcast" or " 1 seg " receivers which means that the signals are "HD" capable and are "digital" signals as opposed to "analog" UHF - VHF signals that most people in North America can get via antenna... FWIW, ALL standard TV broadcasting will be in this "DTB" format by 2011 countrywide in Japan meaning no more analog antenna broadcasting and everything full digital...

- The current iPhone 3G 8gb model does NET out at NO COST to the user as the monthly purchase cost is cancelled out by purchase rebate... the 16 gb phone nets out at a cost or roughly $ 5 usd / month...

- Current plans for the iPhone in Japan require that you sign up for a internet usage / packet plan that starts at a low price and goes up to about $ 50 usd / month maximum for "unlimited" use...

To put the current plans in perspective for about $ 70 usd per month you get - - -

- a 16gb iPhone 3G on a 24 month plan

- basic (ish) phone plan ( white plan & family pack ) which allows unlimited calls between family members and unlimited calls between phones on the same Softbank network during daytime hours

- unlimited internet use - for sake of simplification I am counting on maxing out the packet communications

- voice mail & some limits on SMS and email when done "off-network"

As posted above by others the "sophistication" of mobile phones here in Japan have been far ahead of the curve for a number of years.

Add to this the fact that at "initial" introduction of the iPhone 3G to Japan the cost was almost DOUBLE the current packages and with similar ( and in some cases lesser ) features to phones that have been ion the market for a couple years - the general Japan market did a collective YAWN...

The iPhone may get ooohs and ahhhs in the rest of the world but to this market it was just "another phone"... Factor in it being bigger with no TV and a smaller MP camera at a cost which is almost double and the writing was on the wall...

Since the changes to the plan / cost structure introduced at the beginning of March it appears that the iPhone are starting to move quite well - - heck I even broke down and finally got one... ;D

Now at least people will look past the price and "lack" of features they are already accustomed to and will start to notice the other features that DO make sense to them - me - such as syncing with my MBP, Apps, Nav, etc., etc.,

Cheers,

Thanks for the update and putting it all in perspective!

PapaNoHair

A couple of other points that I omitted that are pertinent to the conversation...

- Many people here do not have personal computers or laptops at home - too busy working & they have learned to browse and email either at work or by using cell phones - which BTW are called Keitai Denwa (pr. kay-tie)...

- when Japanese consumers walk out of a store with a purchase they DO NOT want to have to go home and "ACTIVATE" it themselves ESPECIALLY if they have no PC at home or if they have to load Proprietary software like iTunes to accomplish it...

- The concept or fear that they might screw-up the activation and or "brick" the phone and then have to return to the store to admit their failure is Culturally Adverse - regardless of how unlikely...

The NO PC component of the discussion is vitally important to the over discussion as the iPhone experience is COMPLETELY COMPUTER DEPENDENT - if you have no computer the iPhone loses about 95 % of it's features and 100% of market appeal...

Cheers,

One of our greatest exports to the US was Rupert Murdoch!

I went to Japan last year and the iPhone in Japan was 750 dollars.Why are they so much out here?