[Macworld]

Post your comments for Little buzz ahead of iPhone 3GS Japan debut here

[Nagoyan]

Gee. What a surprise!
Apple has yet to provide Japanese kanji input on the iPhone, without activating 'Chinese' language support,. No wonder the locals are not enthusiastic for a product that does not support their own language properly.

[gglick]

Oh really? And how many of the millions of other Japanese phones with number key-only inputs have support for handwritten kanji?
This is the biggest non-reason I've ever heard for the iPhone's supposed lack of success in Japan. The iPhone's QWERTY keyboard option is just as good if not better than the multiple button presses per key required to input Japanese on 95% of the other cell phones here. There are plenty of reasons why the iPhone hasn't (yet) caught on here like it has in the States, but I can guarantee that this is not one of them.

[Kuma]

what complete rubbish.

The iphone has 2 methods to input kanji.
Either through a qwerty interface or through the extremely intuitive and quick kana interface.

As for lack of excitement...

I went to order mine last Thursday... Softbank had almost every customer in Yodobashi ordering an iPhone... docomo and au had 1 customer each.

it may not be as hot as last year.. but there is still a buzz in the community.

[JDW]

I have lived in Japan for nearly 15 years, so I believe my input has some merit. The simple fact is that the iPhone would sell in better numbers, even in the absence of key features that many Japanese want (emoticons, etc), if Apple would sell it unlocked for use with any carrier. Many AU users like AU over SoftBank because AU has a better network (e.g., fewer dropped calls). Choice among carriers is good. Until Apple realizes that, their iPhone sales here in Japan will always be lackluster at best.

[ChrisLJ]

It's hard to imagine offering a phone that doesn't have emoticons for e-mail to people in a civilized country.
What was Apple thinking?

[uchuugaka]

This is really really simple.
iPhone lacks features found in most other phones in Japan.
iPhone has 2 yr contract, unheard of in Japan.
Other phones in Japan have new models 4 times a year in Japan.
iPhone is much bigger and heavier than other phones in Japan.
Softbank is the Number 3 carrier, after Docomo (no1) and AU (no2).
Other carriers have either Japan-specific networks, or combinations of unusual frequencies used for their specific wireless tech, making it difficult to technically market phones from the rest of the world in Japan.
Japan phone market is tough nut to crack, hard to compete in, novelty alone will not maintain anybody there for long.

[Kuma]

that's not an entirely accurate post.

iPhone lacks features...

the 3 main features it lacks
an IC chip (that's a redundancy)
1Seg TV (there is a add on for that if you really desire it)
and access to the proprietary internets.

The iPhone does everything else (and now with a better camera it will be able to scan 3D barcodes.

The 2 year contract

All Softbank phones are 2 year contracts (unless you buy outright)
AU work on a 2 year contract too
docomo I am unsure of... although it wouldn't surprise me.
The only thing is "contract" is a bit misleading... you can cancel at any time you just have to pay a fee.

New models all year round...

this is true.. but so what... most Japanese keep their phones 2+ years. True many do upgrade frequently.. but you would find most do not upgrade so frequently.

iPhone is bigger and heavier

heavier.. definitely and for those who have handled my it has been worthy of a comment or too...
bigger.. on total volume it would be smaller than most. it is however wider and longer....

Softbank no 3.

Softbank is the fastest growing carrier in Japan.... take Mays figures... it had 2x the number of new subscribers of Au and almost 40% more than docomo. That said it is still 10m users away from au and a whopping 34m away from docomo...
But that doesn't mean anything as an Au and Softbank subscriber I know which carrier I would rather use. But I don't have a choice... Softbank sucks. The customer service is woeful, the reception is just shocking... if I had a choice with the iPhone I would be out of there faster than a mouse called Gonzales with a chunk of cheese.

The other carriers Japanese specific networks

This only applies to Au. The iPhone would work on docomo if it were released on their network. As I was clearly demonstrated to me by a bunch of Aussies in Niseko who were all happily emailing, surfing away on their iPhones using the docomo network. Meanwhile, I, with the local iPhone and Softbank, could only take photos of all the Aussies using their iPhones.

Japan phone market is tough nut to crack, hard to compete in, novelty alone will not maintain anybody there for long.

I completely agree.

But make no mistake, the iPhone, while not kicking arse here like it does in other parts of the world. Is doing reasonably well for a phone that is not designed for the japanese market.

I have demo'd the phone in all sorts of places and seen friends go out and buy it after playing with my phone.
The queues (as I mentioned above) on reservation day while not very long, were consistently having new people join, a person would get served and a new person would join the queue. In the time I was there Softbank had processed 40 orders, Au and docomo had processed 1 each. (granted this is one store on the first day of reservations but still...)

Last year at the Sapporo beer garden I saw many iPhone flashing around. 2 weeks ago I went to a bar and 17/25 people there all had iPhones...(it was a Poken meet up).

the iPhone, while not a hot cake, is definitely getting supporters and evidence of its slow growth and incremental popularity is present all over the net. (Twitter for example).

[DVA_Airwolf]

You obvously don't get how vastly different the cultures between the States & Japan are then to make an ill-informed comment like that.

[ChrisLJ]

You are correct, I had absolutely no idea that there are difference between our cultures. Thanks for enlightening me to my ignorance.

That being said, the lack of emoticons in email sounds like an emotional quandary only for 14 year old girls, not adults. Would you care to educate me on this subject? I'm quite willing to listen to an explanation.

[Kuma]

I'll step up...

First of all the foundation...

kanji is an ideogram ie a picture with meaning.
Analysis of the Japanese mind (and Chinese and other ideogram based cultures) while reading shows a different part of the brain being used, alphabet based cultures use the logic part of the brain, ideogram use the art part.

Add to the fact that Japanese love "the cute" kawaii!! emoji is just a natural extension of the ideogram based culture.

Back when the iPhone was released it didn't support any emoji and any emails would actually be unreadable.. and I mean unreadable..

"I'm at the ⌷. Waiting for my ⌷.. let's got to ⌷ and have a ⌷." would be the kind of email one would receive... (although it might be in Japanese).

With emoji enabled you would see the first picture would be the "train station" then a "train" the last 2 would be "pub" (izakaya) and "beer"

Even if as a user you hate emoji, your Japanese friends (of all ages) would laden their emails with it, it is important that the phone be able to render it.

All of this is now a mute point now.. as emoji is enabled and works on 2 of the 3 carriers. (still has problem with some docomo emoji).

For the record - I was at Yodobashi this morning and there was around 120 reserved phones on the shelves. The queue was an hour long when I left. (but it takes for ever to be processed so 1 hour is not really a good indication).

[ChrisLJ]

Well now that makes a little more sense. Apparently there's a lot more to it than a few 'smiley' variations like I was thinking. Now it sounds rather intriguing. Thanks for the education Kuma.