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iPod Touch Released in Japan

October 7, 2007
By Ken Worsley


I got to try out an iPod Touch and iPhone in the US a few weeks ago, and they are very, very impressive. The iPod Touch was finally released in Japan today, and reports have it that people began lining up to buy them from the early hours of the morning.

Releasing the iPod Touch should be a good marketing test for Apple. Hopefully they will be able to use feedback on its display and input system to further improve the iPhone, which we should see in Japan sometime next year. An article in Yahoo News today described the iPhone’s domestic competition like this:

[T]here’s more to the world of cell phones than Apple, and users outside Japan are missing out on some of the nicest-looking and most sophisticated phones ever made.

The first part of that sentence should be obvious, given that Apple still has a tiny share of the global cell phone market. Nonetheless, they will have three distinct advantages over the domestic makers once they finally launch the iPhone in Japan: 1) The handset itself is properly branded and can generate its own buzz, which can’t really yet be said of any domestic units; 2) The iPhone will have a design unique enough to make it stand out. Domestic units, even when they look cool, still all look frightfully the same, and 3) Apple has been busy securing prime floorspace in Japan’s biggest consumer electronic retail shops over the past three years. Sony-Ericsson, Toshiba, Kyocera, Mitsubishi and Sanyo (if they’re still making handsets by then) have nothing on the amount and quality of floor space that Apple enjoys at Bic Camera, for example.

It’s as if they’re already playing catch up, and the competition will be good for those who want extreme gadgets. For those of us who want to simply call people and send the occasional email, maybe Sony can put out a throwback “Talkman” model.

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Comments

5 Responses to “iPod Touch Released in Japan”

  1. Chris on October 7th, 2007 6:42 pm

    I rushed down to the Apple Store in Sapporo and hooked myself up with the touch.

    I am loving it. Safari is wonderful.

    Typing in English is no problem.. and definitely the more you use it the easier it gets.

    Japanese is more difficult… especially with my paws…. but workable.. (maybe if my J. was better I could type better).

    And fingernails will have to go….

  2. John s on October 8th, 2007 5:48 pm

    I love it. Japanese input is different to get used to, and might be their biggest issue in the transition to the iPhone. I’m sure they’ll find a way to solve it. I see the Japanese manufacturers ending up copying what Apple is doing.

  3. Joe on October 8th, 2007 7:51 pm

    1) The handset itself is properly branded and can generate its own buzz, which can’t really yet be said of any domestic units

    True.

    2) The iPhone will have a design unique enough to make it stand out. Domestic units, even when they look cool, still all look frightfully the same

    You think so? I think Japanese phones are way ahead of the international norm in terms of design. In the US, it’s your choice of either a bland candy bar, a bland flip phone or a Blackberry—here you can have any color in the rainbow, a rotating screen, a touchpad, a Wii-style game controller, etc. etc. Yes, the iPhone has a unique design, but by Japanese standards it isn’t horribly unique except in the regard that it doesn’t have buttons.

    3) Apple has been busy securing prime floorspace in Japan’s biggest consumer electronic retail shops over the past three years. Sony-Ericsson, Toshiba, Kyocera, Mitsubishi and Sanyo (if they’re still making handsets by then) have nothing on the amount and quality of floor space that Apple enjoys at Bic Camera, for example.

    Not really. The mobile phone providers have *the* best floor space in *every* electronics store, and way more high street space than Apple can ever hope to have. Phones have never been associated with manufacturers here—they have always been associated with service providers. And so long as locked handsets are the norm (Apple still locks the iPhone last I checked) the relative low profiles of other manufacturers don’t matter quite as much… you aren’t buying a Sony phone, you’re buying an AU or DoCoMo phone.

    Also… well, I’ll let Maddox say the rest (don’t open at work, unless the people looking over your shoulder have a really good sense of humor)

  4. Ken Worsley on October 9th, 2007 1:48 am

    Joe, as far as #2 goes, I mean that the iPhone actually looks different, especially in terms of its interface, as well as design. Given what’s gone on with the success of the iPod, and the folks on the Apple Japan team, I have little doubt that this will translate into a product that is well differentiated from the domestic units for sale. I don’t see anything like what you’re describing for sale in Japan right now - Do you live in Japan? All the phones at Bic Camera look the same and bore me. The iPhone at least didn’t bore me - and I am NOT an Apple fan, by any stretch of the imagination.

    3) Don’t take my word for it. Go to Bic or Yodobashi yourself and see the floorspace coverage Apple has. Near my ‘high street’ we have an Apple Store that is always jam packed, a small AU shop with no one in it…and that’s it. I admit that DoCoMo, AU and Softbank have shops everywhere, and that they will remain mass market, but I don’t see how that helped Japan’s domestic mp3 makers…

    But let’s not forget that the days of the 0 yen handset come to an end next quarter.

  5. Ken Worsley on October 9th, 2007 1:57 am

    Joe, the Maddox site was funny - I wonder what other disgruntled ex-Apple employees out there are posting?

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