Softbank to sell the iPhone in Japan

13 Responses to “Softbank to sell the iPhone in Japan”

1. O Creative − Softbank to sell Apple’s iPhone in Japan: Identity, Branding, Marketing and Insights from Tokyo and London on June 4th, 2008 5:39 pm

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2. Gezza on June 4th, 2008 7:48 pm

   “Softbank to sell the iPhone in Japan”

   More correctly, “Softbank to put the iPhone on shelves in Japan.” Whether or not it sells is a different issue.

3. Ken Worsley on June 4th, 2008 10:07 pm

   Gezza: I assume they’ll sell more than zero. If you don’t think it’s going to sell well, why not?

4. Contrarian on June 5th, 2008 1:46 am

   Apple is going to be breaking into a lot of markets with the hyped 3G iPhone. These things are going to sell like hot cakes because everyone wants to wave around a status symbol. Nothing screams “I’m a hip techie with a disposable income” like an iPhone.

   I know four people that have bought iPhones. Each of them is a satisfied customer. I’ve played around with them and I can’t see what the big deal is (or smart phones, in general). I use my phone to talk. If someone sends me SMS, I call them back. I have a memory that obviates a personal organizer. Gaming is better on the DS. My mp3 player is much smaller and has more features. The iPhone is jewelry.

5. Ken Worsley on June 5th, 2008 11:49 am

   Contrarian,

   We’re much of the same mind. I hate the fact that a useless camera adds a few grams to my phone. I do use text messages, since they’re free, and minutes are not free in Japan. Though, I would prefer to call. Other than that, the rest of the iPhone is useless to me. And gaming is much better on a PS3.

6. Durf on June 6th, 2008 7:57 pm

   I look forward to the iPhone because every other cellphone maker in the history of the blasted things is utterly inept when it comes to making one that can sync data nicely with a Mac. (That said, I don’t care much for the camera and music functions on the thing either.)

   Who does the advertising for Apple in Japan? The carrier isn’t going to be the only company selling the things, if the sales models in other countries are anything to go by.

7. Joe Birdwell on June 7th, 2008 11:53 am

   >>Other than that, the rest of the iPhone is useless to me. And gaming is much better on a PS3.

   Ditto.

   WiiPhone, now there’s an idea that needs exploration.

8. BlogD on June 8th, 2008 3:22 pm

   This last week my boss handed me his cell phone, bought and used here in Tokyo, and asked me to find out what his number was. I am far from technologically inept, but despite searching for a good several minutes, after having pressed every button and gone down every menu that made sense and then every one that didn’t, I couldn’t find the number.

   Japanese cell phones have feature-creep galore, and/but they suffer from the ancient stereo-instructions disability. You might want to use all those features, but you can’t because they’re too hard to figure out. I’ve had my phone here in Tokyo for years, would like to use more features, but I can’t without consulting the manual all the time.

   If all you want is a phone, then forget the iPhone and get a free cheapo unit that comes with your carrier contract. But a lot of people out there–especially in Japan–want those features.

   Everybody goes on about how the iPhone is great because of its style or because of its features, but that’s dead wrong. The iPhone is popular because it is dead easy to use, in addition to being stylish. It has fewer features than lots of phones, but you can use more of them on the iPhone because you don’t need an advanced degree in bad interface design to figure them out. The classic “less is more” lesson of industrial design (and Garfield Cartoons) is in play here.

   Looking at it that way, the iPhone should do extremely well in Japan. Like the iPod, before its release it is seen as not able to penetrate a rich market in Japan saturated with advanced devices. For a while it may not sell too well. But eventually, people will get past the outsider branding and the shorter feature list, see the appeal of the device, and it will do well here–and seeing as how the iPod brand is doing in Japan and the associations that may be made between them, it may do well sooner rather than later.

9. Ken Worsley on June 9th, 2008 11:36 am

   Was calling yourself out of bounds for getting his number?

   I’ve never really understood the talk about the features on Japanese phones being difficult to use. There are probably too many of them, and often they cost too much to use, but they seem pretty easy to figure out how to use. I’m not sure what’s so bad about the design of the user interface - maybe it’s a cultural difference?

10. BlogD on June 9th, 2008 9:07 pm

    Ken: very nice workaround! I don’t recall if I had my own cell phone handy at the time, but I’m sure we could have used someone’s. However, there are many times when you don’t have another phone handy, or have the time to check–there have been many occasions where I have been on my cell phone to an ordinary phone and they ask me my number. Calling another cell phone (even if one happens to be handy) in that situation wouldn’t cut it.

    The main point is, it’s a basic feature and should have been easy to guess. On the iPhone, it’s easy–check both contacts and settings, and your number is listed at the top of both. Easy to figure out, easy to do. I don’t think there’s anything cultural about it–easy to use is easy to use. And I can’t agree with you that Japanese cell phones are easy to use–you are the first person I have heard say that. My personal experience and those of many people I have spoken to differ from yours.

11. Ken Worsley on June 9th, 2008 9:40 pm

    BlogD, I don’t think Japanese mobiles are anywhere near as easy to use as an iPhone, but I also don’t think that all of them are that bad. There are some bad ones out there, but the model I have now, for example, has one button that brings you to all functions as icons, and in there is a ‘profile’ setting that shows your number and email address. Of course, they didn’t bother making it bilingual.

12. WG on June 13th, 2008 8:57 am

    July 11 - I’ll be getting mine that day.

13. Rog on June 19th, 2008 8:22 am

    I’ll be getting one the first week as well. Does anyone have an online coutdown? I haven’t seen much marketing yet.

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