Apple “is reportedly talking to Japan’s top tier telecom carriers about selling its popular multimedia phone for use on their networks. A report by The Wall Street Journal says Apple has approached NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest carrier, and Softbank, currently the No. 3 player,” Daniel Del’Re reports for TheStreet.com,
“The move would take the iPhone to one of the world’s most tech savvy populations. Japanese consumers are avid gadget fans, especially when it comes to pricey multimedia cell phones… The challenge for Apple is to get Japanese consumers, who are used to fast mobile Internet connections, interested in a phone that operates on a slower 2G network,” Del’Re reports.
MacDailyNews Take: It would be a challenge unless Apple offers a 3G iPhone. Duh.
Del’Re continues, “In all four countries where the iPhone is available, consumers lined up outside of stores for hours — and in some cases, days — before of the product launch waiting to be one of the first to own the iPhone. Within hours of store openings, bloggers posted photos of eager shoppers making their purchase. Apple is clearly hoping that the same behavior plays out in Japan, where the company’s presence is still very small.”
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
Apple’s iPod currently dominates the Japanese portable media player market with 60% share. Characterizing Apple’s presence in Japan as “very small” — along with the inability to imagine a 3G iPhone coinciding with a Japan launch — leads us to severely question not only the quality of Del’Re’s “reporting,” but also his basic ability to reason. As both the imminent arrival of a 3G iPhone by mid-2008 and the iPod market share figures in Japan are widely known and have been widely reported, we can only conclude that Del’Re is either playing dumb or is, in fact, just plain dumb. Which is it, Danny? And, when can we expect better reporting about Apple Inc. from TheStreet.com, if ever? Sometimes these Apple articles from TheStreet.com are so slanted we can’t get through them without wearing hiking shoes.
“3G chipsets… are real power hogs. Most phones now have battery lives of 2 to 3 hours and that’s due to these very power-hungry 3G chipsets… [iPhone] has 8 hours of talktime life. That’s really important when you start to use the Internet and want to use the phone to listen to music. We’ve got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the 5+ hour range. Hopefully we’ll see that late next year.” – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introducing iPhone to the UK, September 18, 2007.