“Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn’t about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either,” Yuri Kageyama reports for The Associated Press. “That kind of cautious response to the July 11 arrival of Apple Inc.’s phone appears common in Japan.”
“The iPhone was welcomed here with long lines of gadget fans. But it’s also being seen as shockingly alien to this nation’s quirky and closed mobile world… For example, young people in Japan take for granted the ability to share phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact information by beaming it from one phone to another over infrared connections. Being without those instantaneous exchanges would be the death knell on the Japanese dating circuit,” Kageyama reports. “While the iPhone has Bluetooth wireless links, it has no infrared connection.”
“Also missing from Steve Jobs’ much-praised design: a hole in the handset for hanging trinkets. Westerners may scoff at them as childish, but having them is a common social practice in Japan,” Kageyama reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Get an iPhone case that offers a hole for hanging trinkets. “Problem” solved.
Kageyama continues, “Softbank Corp., the Japanese carrier of the iPhone, said it sold out of the devices on the first day. But it did not reveal how many had been available. One clue comes from GfK Marketing Services Japan Ltd., which said Softbank sold half of all mobile phones in Japan that day, up from a typical 19 percent.”
“Many Japanese buyers were curious about the iPhone’s sleek design. And some acknowledged that the device might show the Japanese market some new tricks,” Kageyama reports. “Tohyama’s eyes were opened by the iPhone’s quick access to the Internet, much like that of a personal computer. Some Japanese cell phones show Web pages, but access on even the latest models is slower than on the iPhone. Most Japanese phones don’t present as colorful a picture as the iPhone does… ‘Until I owned an iPhone, I didn’t see as clearly how closed Japanese content was,’ Tohyama said. ‘It was not a global standard at all.'”
More in the full article here.
“Get an iPhone case that offers a hole for hanging trinkets.”
Or just use your favorite exposable appendage.
Ah yes, trinkets.
You place it in the phone, and as soon as you get a call, you pull the phone out only to find that the trinket has hooked onto your “Johnson&Johnson;”.
But maybe the asian “Johnson and Johnson” isn’t as big as the western world hence may not experience the same problem.
I wonder if they will ever be able to exchange phone numbers some other way, or if it will just prove too much for them and the iPhone will fail?
Preemptive Raving Mad Lunatic Mac Head Comment:
1) iPhone is a toy and I’m yawning.
2) I have a flip phone that’s pre-paid. Apple needs this to survive.
3) My MacBook Pro has Wi-Fi which makes it better than an iPhone.
4) AT&T is controlled by the NSA.
5) Obama did or will do something I don’t like and it doesn’t matter that it’s irrelevant to this thread.
I find it incredible how dumb the world (or maybe its just writers) can be.
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THIRD PARTY MFG. ………. If a case mfg cannot figure out how to add a little circle of plastic to add trinkets to, or even glue on to an existing product, …….well.
Of course the stupid comment about longer battery life just goes without comment. Especially since its asian mfg that make the plug in external battery booster.
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So we will see who will be smarter and more innovative. Making a iPhone plugin to the bottom of the unit that can read information and “beam” it to existing japanese phones. Will it be an asian company or a US company that uses just a bit of imagination and creativity.
My guess is on the USA. After all. Who invented the iPhone???
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Just a note to the quasi-racist opinions being expressed here …
While the word “trinket” was used in the article, that’s just a bad translation and people’s use of it here seems intended to demean the entire practice.
In Japan, as well as in many Asian cultures having a solid loop on a pocket device, both for securing said device to a person and for hanging fobs and tassles off of is NON-OPTIONAL.
This just shows how little Apple understands the Japanese market and why they have had such major problems making inroads in Japan.
The whole tassle/fob/trinket thing might be silly to people in the USA, but it isn’t to most asians and it’s wrong to make fun of it or belittle it as some are (seemingly) doing here.
It’s almost the same as making a car without a car radio to make a cell phone for Japanese people that doesn’t have a way to attach things to it. It’s a central part of the culture and so expected that it must have been a shock for them to see a device without one.
“For example, young people in Japan take for granted the ability to share phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact information by beaming it from one phone to another over infrared connections.”
Simple solution: Hand them your card. Call them “personal cards” or “call me” cards rather than “business cards”.
I’m sorry… but the lack of a few fundamentals of the Japanese will hamper the iPhone’s adoption rate there.
In typical fashion, I wouldn’t doubt it if the Japanese take the iPhone improve on it and introduce it to the Japanese market. It’s only a matter of time.
Preemptive response to Raving Mad’s response to AMPAR
Oh for crying out loud… we GET it ALREADY. Enough.
We understand you don’t want an iPhone.
Don’t get it. Prepay all you want. This is clearly not marketed at you.
I hang at the BMWDailyNews.com site
I see you whining over there about the price of the 750i too.
You’re not going to get BMW USA to market the BMW to the Yugo crowd, any sooner than you are going to get Apple to market the iPhone to the prepaid crowd.
@ApplePi
Um, o.k. Sony has done a great job of this with their phones. Right?
I think the Japanese will trade a trinket hole for a multi-touchscreen any day. Use your push email to hook a babe on MobileEverybody(Me).
Start your own fad.
I sympathize with the comment about battery life. The infrared interface is obsolete and market-specific features can be added in software, but the iPhone 3G should have come with a bigger battery (not a smaller one, which is what it has). It’s better than other 3G phones, but their battery life sucks and they have exchangeable batteries. You shouldn’t have to glom an external battery onto this thing to last through a typical day.
On the other hand, I have noticed that the situations that really drain battery life kill it so fast that it’s a hard problem to solve. For example, games can really drain the thing dry quickly, as can GPS use. I just bought a car charger to address the GPS issue — I never needed one for my old iPhone.
Two words…. Super Glue
That will hold those trinkets
Ampar: Thank you.
ElderNorm:
“My guess is on the USA. After all. Who invented the iPhone???”
Heck, who invented the PHONE!
Jeremy: The Japanese can take the same thing everyone else gets or go without. I don’t think it’s racist to say that they aren’t any better than the rest of the world.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone sets up an app that uses bluetooth to transfer contact stuff.
just crazy glue the damn trinket to the corner.
@ Ampar,
You forgot Windoze Raving etc. comments, “You loser fanbois who suk Job’s ******* and drool whenever your master intros some new craptastic product are so lame, MAC suxxors and Vista is teh Bomb!”
The Japanese need a developer to make a Trinket App that allows teens to display their trinkets on the touchscreen and trade them via WiFi.
While they’re at it .. the Catholics could use a Confessional App with some Rosary Beads to fondle.
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What is racist about trinkets? Childish yes, racist no. Tattoos and piercings are childish as well, no matter how many cultures condone them.
Saying Japanese phones without belt clips would not sell in America is not racist either. Cell phone belt clips are just as stupid as trinket rings. Cell phones on belt clips are modern six shooter belt holsters. Kids playing cowboys.
Grow up.
To Sir Gill Bates: No Sir! Thank you!
To Roberto: That was poetry! <sniff>
To Brau: “and trade them via WiFi.” A little too close to squirting?
“Or just use your favorite exposable appendage.”
Or as Zune Tang would say,”Suck on that dork, MAC.”
No, wait……
You can’t glue the trinkets on the iPhone and they can’t be software based because they need to dangle. They hang on an inch or two of string where they swing and swoosh and swoop as you fiddle on your phone. Oh, they also blink furiously in multiple colors when a call comes in. Sometimes the string is tough and long enough as in a necklace so that you can ‘wear’ your phone and prevent you from losing it and needing to remember where you put the thing. More trinkets can then be bought individually and attached individually depending on your style and mood. IT’S EFFING AWWWESOMEEE!
I do want to express myself, okay? But I don’t need 37 pieces of flair to do it.
I could do without the racist and cultural elitist comments. You guys are not nearly as clever or funny as you think you are.
Hopefully the Japanese will find the iPhone inspiring enough to make a phone that can actually compete with the iPhone’s features. Till then they will just have to complain about their missing pet features, like everyone else does.