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More on the iPhone in Japan

March 29, 2009
By Ken Worsley


Over at Mobile in Japan, Paul Papadimitrou has written a good post on the perception that the iPhone has been a failure in Japan. His post looks into the structure of the Japanese mobile market while debunking many of the claims that the iPhone has been a failure, while my own article on the subject published at Japan Inc four months ago takes a look at the practical problems holding the iPhone back from dominance in the Japanese market.

It’s unfortunate, however, that one has to sign up for an account simply to post comments at the Mobile in Japan website.

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Comments

5 Responses to “More on the iPhone in Japan”

  1. Taro on March 30th, 2009 9:35 pm

    Iphone took Sony’s invention of the Walkman, personally would prefer Sony over Ipone…
    Sony it’s your creation, Apple is just wrong period! Apple you are certainly a thief!
    Iphone lately is just so overrated…
    Sony don’t let Apple walk over all over you like this!

  2. J on April 9th, 2009 5:59 am

    Taro,

    i don’t know where you got the idea that apple took sony’s idea of a walkman and turned it into a phone. but i do know that apple is a company known for its innovations. the reason why i think apple has a hard time adapting into the Japanese market is because there is just one form factor available to choose from. the majorities of other phone manufactures has tons of different choices made available to a wide range of diverse consumers. the only think lacking in Japanese phones is the OS. the usability and navigation lacks in this area where apple OS is far more superior in terms of its simplicity and elegance.

  3. Paul Papadimitriou on April 11th, 2009 1:04 am

    Dear Ken,

    thank you for the mention. The article you wrote at Japan Inc was right on money. It still is impossible to know the real sales numbers from SoftBank, hence getting a full picture. I guess the words “failure” or “success” are very relative.

    On a side note, I understand your point about the registration, that’s a limitation of the platform we’ve chosen. Thinking about ideas to let people react via other means, though.

    Cheers.

  4. Andrew Shuttleworth on April 11th, 2009 1:29 am

    Hi Ken - Thanks for the comment on the Mobile in Japan post.

    I hadn’t thought about the issue of commenting without registering but your point is a good one. The platform we use is Ning which is primarily a DIY SNS rather than blogging platform, so I understand why they haven’t implemented this before. Having said this I think their networks could benefit from such a feature and have made a suggestion on their GetSatisfaction page:

    http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topics/allowing_people_to_leave_comments_without_registering

    Given my experience to date, they listen to this and do put good requests into the plans.

  5. Mike on April 22nd, 2009 6:47 am

    And Sony took the Walkman idea away from Thomas Edison’s phonograph and Apple is now taking it back. It was originally America’s property anyway. Don’t let Sony walk all over dear old Tom like this!

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