“Two months after its launch, the latest version of Apple Inc.’s iPhone is showing strong sales around the world — except in Japan,” Yukari Iwatani Kane reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple’s partnership with Japan’s third-largest mobile operator, Softbank Corp., to sell the iPhone 3G certainly created a buzz. Like elsewhere, Japanese consumers lined up at stores in advance of the phone’s release on July 11, and many locations sold out almost immediately. But now analysts estimate that demand in Japan has fallen to a third of what it was initially and analysts are now expecting fewer iPhone sales. There is no supply shortage: The device is readily available in Apple and Softbank stores and other outlets,” Kane reports.
“According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the one million units that they previously thought Apple could sell. One big challenge is that Japanese users already have access to some of the most advanced mobile-phone technologies in the world. Models currently sold by Japanese cellphone makers typically contain a high-end color display, digital TV-viewing capability, satellite navigation service, music player and digital camera. Many models also include chips that let owners use their phones as debit cards or train passes. Noriko Tanaka, a 34-year-old Softbank customer in Tokyo, said she likes the iPhone’s touch screen, but would prefer a phone with digital television capability,” Kane reports.
“One iPhone feature that is unique even to Japanese users is the App Store, Apple’s online clearinghouse for software, such as games and reference guides. The App Store is popular among U.S. users, but hasn’t taken hold as much in Japan, where consumers tend to be more cautious about making purchases online,” Kane reports.
Full article here.
What we have here is, a failure to communicate.
Apple needs to create or add more iPhone expository ads and run them with high frequency in Japan; ads that explain the app store, demonstrate 3rd-party apps, and show off what the iPhone, and only the iPhone, can really do.
i read it was more about:
“The 3G iPhone is not able to use pictograms in text messages and emails. This may be a show stopper for the average user as text messaging is far more prevalent then voice calls due to the high cost charged per minute. The ability to convey a message with a single image is significantly faster than typing out the entire word. “
NOT a failure to comunicate.
Seems that this is not a failure of Apple but maybe a failure of Japanese apps developers. It should not be Apple’s responsibility to create every application for every locality , this is why the App store was created. There is already an app extension to listen to over 1000 different digital radio stations. If they are so advanced over there the same can be done for TV and buying train tickets. Who knows these things may already exist or are under development for the Iphone in Japan and maybe we just have a lazy analyst.
I bought an iPhone in Osaka on Saturday evening. The sales assistant said it was her first sale all day. They dropped the minimum data (packet) fee to a little over 1,000 yen so if you don’t use the web over the 3G network much the cost could be as low as 2,324 yen per month (about US $20.00) Did you know you can download YouTube videos with MPEG Streamclip? Check it out. (Just choose Open URL, download as MP4 and then drag the file into iTune. Don’t forget to check it in the Videos tab of your iPhone/iPod before syncing.) As for iPhones not being popular with Japanese, who cares?
Actually the real truth is email is the problem. The iPhone does not support the picture symbols (emoji), does not support MMS, you cannot easily send pictures (have to take a screen shot of the picture you took with the iPhone camera to make the size small enough or it bounces back when sent), cannot select a custom ring tone for mail (the default tone is useless.. you never notice you’ve got mail and Japanese phones all have a little light that blinks every few seconds to let you know you have email).. above and beyond that the input is better with 2.1 but still tough for many people to get used to. I think that if you had what Japanese people consider to be basic features then people would be happy to get used to the touch panel input.
As for TV and using your phone for payment – these are NOT deal breakers for the majority. Email is the killer app in Japan.. people live and die by Email on their cell phone. If it’s not right then it won’t sell except to the computer geeks and older people who don’t care about email so much. The problem is that young people in Japan set the standards and determine what is popular and what is not.
@LostinTranslation
Wow…I didn’t know they dropped the minimum packet fee to just over 1000 yen. I knew they dropped it down to under 3000 yen last month. Hmmm…I was holding out until the price of the 16 GB iphone dropped or they released a 32 GB iphone, but I may just dump my Au phone now!
When Apple adds a feature to the iPhone that facilitates groping of female train commuters, then Japanese businessmen will buy it…
I hate these Japs…they have small d*cks
Wouldn’t it just be simpler if when you bought a iPhone 3G to also bundle a slipcase with a keyring that also had one of those tiny dongles that works as a debit card? I thought the japanese market loved to accessorize their cells with Hi Kitty trinkets and the like.
Remember in one of the Seinfeld episode, Jerry & Gorge tries to sell their shows to Japanese? Japanese dude thinks that they are not funny for them. There is no point in selling US TV shows on itunes.
Say all ya want about Japan being so technically advanced. For just about every point of being “advanced”, I’ll bet I can show you something so bass-akwards you’d be astonished. (70-80 yr old grandmas doing roadside weed cutting is one example)
Lots of commentary here — some insightful and some totally out in left field. Steve Jobs has said that Japan is Apple’s toughest market and the iPhone is a perfect example of what he means. I watch my Japanese students using their cell phones to do just about anything. Until the iPhone can compete at that level, it will continue on as an interesting little conversation piece, but not much else.
Umm…I’ve paid train tickets from my Blackberry for at least 3 years in Germany. And I know that my sis in Stockholm pays most of her movie tickets on her mobile…and has done so forever. These are no future technologies.