iPhone a drop in the bucket?
While elitist nerds across the world have been changing their pants, LA Times staff writer Bruce Wallace has written how the iPhone is “business as usual” in Japan. He says that while it’s big news in America, “many Japanese had a harder time buying Jobs’ line about “reinventing” the phone.” He backs up his claims by interviewing… a clerk at a keitai shop? In… Harajuku? Umm… OK, but his second set of interviews holds a lot more water. He goes on to interview… gyaru? Who apparently claim to have a $170 phone, but then go on to say they would never pay more than $100 for a phone.
Between his shoddy interviewing skills and lack of consistency, it’s hard to say how the LA Times can make any kind of claim that the phone won’t make any kind of impact in Japan. The real strength of his argument is that the functions the iPhone is offering are ones that already exist in Japan. And that’s true enough: you can already shop online, check your train schedule, etc on Japanese phones. And you’ll be able to do that all on the iPhone. The point he seems to be missing is the absolutely unparalleled user interface that completely blows anything Japan has ever created out of the water. This is not a point to be taken lightly. Anybody who has used a Japanese keitai knows that the interface tends to be clunky and convoluted at the best of times. The iPhone has cleaned it all up with a couple of quick touches.
Hey Bruce, next time you’re gonna write a technology article, go to Akihabara and at least make an effort to talk to people who know what they’re talking about. I understand that you may need to go to Harajuku and use your “work” as an excuse to talk to Japanese girls in mini skirts, but don’t do it on the Times’ dime.
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http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/12/japan-iphone-just-looks-like-another-phone-to-us/
While Endgadget’s article was about the same thing the comments to the post made me think. How popular is WiFi overall in Japan? 3G or not 3G? Outside of the iPod how much pull does the Apple name have in Japan? Also, is there a provider for the iPhone in Japan?
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Until the iPhone supports WCMDA or CDMA2000 it’s not going to work in Japan. The only GSM phones that work in Japan are 3G ones that support UMTS 2100 band (which means it’s not really running GSM it’s running under WCDMA).
2MP camera seems a bit weak for the Japanese market, especially since we don’t know how good it really is.
And finally, as big of a Mac fan as I am, and I do love the iPhone UI, the user experience just isn’t that much of a jump over say a Symbian handset using the UIQ UI, and Opera…
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NTT DoCoMo seems a bit too high-brow to offer something that even partially relies on Apple’s brand recognition. It doesn’t seem to fit with KDDI’s demographics or market positioning.
So I’d guess SoftBank will pick it up. If I remember correctly they have a number of other handsets from foreign makers, like Nokia, HTC, and Samsung, so it seems to fit with their lineup.
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I also forgot to mention that Keitai Watch’s “Question of the Week” this week is whether or not you “want” an iPhone:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/readers/odaibeya/32688.html
The results should be posted on the 19th or so.
Of course surveys like this are sometimes taken too literally; is there anyone out there who doesn’t want an iPhone? I want one. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to buy one.
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I read that article and thought similar things, was meaning to write something up about it. Not just Akihabara, but he should be talking to market analysts and tech consultants. I agree, the reporting is just shoddy.
And a lot of Japanese people I know oohed and aahed when they saw it. they hear the same ‘reinvent’ blah blah talk from all CEOs, so that was nothing new.
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Archie is pretty right on, but I’d assume Apple will work to make the necessary adjustments as they’ve been pushing pretty hard in the Japanese market what with Apple stores and everything.
That said, the Japanese ARE really resistant to Apple. They’re stuck in the mental mind block that Americans were about 5 years ago: “My work uses PCs, and I know how to work with them”
Also, Softbank is probably the best guess at the moment. More reasoning going something like this: Apple has ties with Yahoo. Yahoo has ties with Softbank.
I agree that Softbank is the most likely carrier for this thing when it (well, its second or third generation) makes it over here.
The LAT interviews could have been chosen more wisely, but the basic point holds, I think. As the iPhone stands today it would not sell well in Japan. It’s too big to use as a phone, too small (capacity-wise) to use as an iPod. I think most Japanese consumers who keep track of such developments overseas would look at this thing as a PDA, and the market for those things is just plain small.
On the plus side, it’s Apple kit, so it’s stylish and nicely put together, which are always good things for Japanese consumers. And since it runs on some flavor of OSX it should be multilingual from the get-go, or else very easy to localize (just include the appropriate .lproj files in the software you build for it). In late 2008, when there’s an iPhone Nano out that works with whatever 3.5G networks are up and running in Japan, the thing will come over here and sell like the Nintendo DS, probably. But not this thing. Not now.
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Brent:
I know, you almost never see any one on the train with an iPod as they’re all sticking with the safe option of a Sony or a Panasonic, or if they do go American, they get the Zune.
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