“According to a survey by iSHARE, 91.0% of Japanese mobile phone users are not planning to purchase Apple Inc’s ‘iPhone’ mobile phone,” Yukiko Kanoh reports for Tech-On.
“This research was conducted in the wake of the announcement by SoftBank Mobile Corp that it will release the iPhone in Japan,” Kanoh reports. “Targeting Internet users aged primarily 20 to 49, iSHARE asked questions about their intention to purchase an iPhone, as well as other questions and received 402 responses over the Internet.”
Kanoh reports, “The survey had been conducted from June 5 to 6, 2008, before pricing [and features] for an iPhone handset was announced.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, so the survey is virtually useless. Thanks.
Kanoh continues, “Asked if they have a plan to purchase an iPhone, 36 respondents (8.9%) said “I am planning to purchase one.” Nearly half of these 36 respondents were SoftBank Mobile users, iSHARE said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Japan’s population is 127.3 million. Let’s take a wild guess that, oh, 30% of Japan’s population is between the ages of 20-49. That would be 38.19 million. 8.9% of that is 3.4 million iPhones sold to Japanese buyers who had no idea of the feature-set or pricing. In other words: 34% of Apple’s total iPhone unit sales goal for 2008 (10 million). Sight unseen. Fun with statistics. This bodes very well for Apple when you break it down, doesn’t it?
There’s more in the full article, in which we find that many Japanese people really, really, really love replaceable batteries, here.
MacDailyNews Note: We really couldn’t find out much information about what iSHARE even is, much less what their methodology was for the survey. If anyone has more info let us know.
For another viewpoint, WhatJapanThinks.com reports, “On the 13th of June 2008 330 mobile phone-using members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in private industry completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire.”
For the question, “SoftBank customers: will you upgrade your current phone to an iPhone?” (Sample size=56, SoftBank customers), 25% said they would or maybe would upgrade to iPhone.
More questions and answers here.
[UPDATE: 8:27pm EDT: Added WhatJapanThinks.com article snippet and link.]
Well, it turns out that 95% of the world isn’t buying Macs either yet Apple is doing fine. I will be really happy when 90% of the population plans never to buy a Mac.
How dumb do they think we are? 47%?
Ohh Yes, they love replaceable exploding batteries…. they made them…… Let them have nokias and LG with exploding batteries…
@Dutch-I agree , except I’d like 80-85% or so to not buy a Mac.
Apple just needs to keep cranking out the neatest stuff, maintain their agility and keep making money.
Let MS have their 70-80% share, bogged down by having to support the majority by being shackled to legacy code and hardware.
Uh. It’s common knowledge that 47.3% of statistics — are made up.
And that that statistic, has a 51% margin of error.
@Riddler, Actually, it’s closer to 48.1%
In Japan, they have mobile phone charging stations for popular brands… they’re in malls and other places. Plug in your phone, add some money and it charges the phone.
Also, EVERYBODY “PREFERS” replaceable batteries… but does it influence whether you will buy a phone or not?
In any case, the iPhone will not become popular in Japan on its own merits. It will become popular the first time it is seen being used by a popular actor. If a well-respected person or organization ensorses the iPhone it will be a raging success.
Last winter I saw the iPhone on numerous Japanese Dramas.
They probably laughed when 3G was announced….we are still very much behind. I’m tellin yall, when iPhone gets WiiMax (Sprint only) it will outsell laptops.
Are you suggesting that the MOE is, 51.4%?
There’s only a 1.59% chance of that.
90% of statistics can say anything you want, 50% of the time.
WiiMax?
The new iPhone Wii controller
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/smartass/
@Dutch et al.,
I’m looking forward to the day when MS starts talking about their 90% ‘installed base’ rather than new sales. It will be a significant change in mindset when MS sells less than the magical 90-something-percent of US sales.
4 out of 3 people have problems with fractions.
Let’s take another survey.
How many people give a crap if Japanese iPhones sell.
Vote – GAC (Give a Crap) or DGAC (Don’t Give a Crap)
Personally, I need to take a crap.
This survery is crap. They’ll buy it for sure! Any time something new comes out here, there are lines around the block.
…and I’m buying on too!
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You’re saying — 133.3% of ‘all people’ — have difficulty understanding fractions, yeah?
“91% of Japanese will not buy iPhone says survey conducted before Apple released features and pricing.”
And after Apple released features and pricing, 84% said they would.
What a moronic post MDN.
Does pre-WWDC Japan really have over a fourth of Apple’s iPhone goal. Wow.
If 91% of Japanese consumers DID want to by iPhones, Apple would have a supply chain crisis and Steve Ballmer would be inconsolable.
Ron included a percentage and/or fraction in his post.
He’s in the club!
“4 out of 3 people have problems with fractions.”
And there are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.
01100111011001010111010000100000011010010111010000111111
DGAC
Ohh, that was rhetorical…. woops. 31.8% of me thought is was rhetorical, but 50.49% wasn’t sure, and 20.222 thought is was a real poll… and wait… how much am i up to now? uhhh…. all these “Numbers”… i need to make spreadsheet.
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The Dude abides.
iSHARE = Steve Ballmer and a huge bottle of sake.
japan has a serious population crisis.
most of japan is probably over 40. no shit.
Personally, I find the replaceable battery in my Palm Treo invaluable. When the Treo locks up every couple weeks, the only way to reset it is to remove the battery, reinsert it. If the Treo battery were built-in, I’d be stuck. I guess that’s why all the Treo uses are amazed that you can’t remove the iPhone battery.
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Treo… sounds like something my grandmother would name her dog.
The Dude abides.
Japan’s population:
127,288,419 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 13.7% (male 8,926,439/female 8,460,629)
15-64 years: 64.7% (male 41,513,061/female 40,894,057)
65 years and over: 21.6% (male 11,643,845/female 15,850,388) (2008 est.)
Median age:
total: 43.8 years
male: 42.1 years
female: 45.7 years (2008 est.)
(source: CIA factbook)
shoudn’t these Treo users look for a better device that doesn’t require resetting or needing its battery to be popped out every so often, instead of expecting the iPhone to give them the same crappy experience with their Treos?
It might be a bit of a surprise but, Apple is gaining Market share in Japan. And the cell phone charging stations in Japan also include the ability to charge iPods so, the iPhone is all set their. The iPod is after all the #1 selling portable media player in Japan. The big thing in Japan is Mobile TV on the cell phone and a number of Mobile TV companies are working to add their Mobile TV Apps to the iPhone. Expect Japan to be a huge market for the iPhone and Apple in late 2008 and exploding in 2009.
@American in Japan
<<Any time something new comes out here, there are lines around the block.>> Ain’t that true ! And they’ll pay a premium and be proud to do so ! (And yet complain continously about it… たかいですね？！そうですよう！)
As for the statistics…
I’m 100% not unlikely to want an iPhone
… or is it 0% likely to not want an iPhone?
Oh.. also, about the battery thing in Japan. Aren’t we constantly hearing that one reason the Japanese market won’t buy an EXPENSIVE iPhone is due to their frequently updating their phones ? Well, if that is true…Why in the hell would a replaceable be a factor. I’ve had my current phone for over 2 yrs and the battery still works just fine. Any time I have power problems it is due to forgetting to charge the thing over night !
And we all know how unpopular Apple is in Japan.
Hope I didn’t come off as an Anti-Numerite.
Of course binary and hexidecimal numbers are included.
Gosh, even multi-decimals — like 10.5.3 or 10.4.11
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to say 91% of Japanese SURVEYED don’t want the iPhone? There could have been ten people surveyed for that, for all we know. Statistics are the most useless invention since the Big Ass Table.
who care really? I don’t care even I live in US. because a lot of Japanese phones give people more function than iphone. of course, UI, using the phone are little difficult. but there are a lot more nicer in Japan. don’t push us to use iphone, blame because this is mac apple whatever site.
Amen! According to the study Apple will sell 8 million iPhones in Japan next year. That is a huge number. I can’t believe the negative spin!!!
GAC
One word…..China
Ok three….
No wait, eight.
Yea, what edward said….
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What edward might of meant…
Someone worries really? I don’ Worried I of t have lived in the United States. Because many Japanese telephone iphone gives many functions to the people at times. Naturally, using the telephone, UI a little is difficult. But it is more splendid than the large quantity in Japan, but it is. don’ Because t what kind of place this is the apple of the raincoat, we are pushed in order to use iphone and responsibility.
And when it catches on, no one likes to feel left out. I’ve no doubt they’ll come around when they see the gorgeous anti-aliased kanji.
ー えええ!? iPhone かっちゃったの？
ー うん、三時間ならんでったよ！
402 responses??? what a crappy publication that must be.
And who creates stats for 120 million people based on 400 responses?
50% of all statistics are made up 90% of the time.
61% of all statistics are made up on the spot (i.e. pulled out of someones ass).
There’s still Japs around? Didn’t we fry up those bastards?
You couldn’t fry an ant if you tried, pussy-boy.
> 4 out of 3 people have problems with fractions.
I thought it was 3 out of 4 people..
I bet 99.99% of the ppl bashing statistics would be of diff opinion had the survey been positive to iPhone
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A clamshell iPhone in Japan would go down a treat
@Ampar
I got it.
@Ampar
01100111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100001
Freddy: Don’t you mean PorcineDailyNews? There’s a lead story about Kevin Bacon. Unfortunately, it’s a real boar.
To Slowly But Surely:
47 72 65 61 74 21 20 42 75 74 20 64 6f 6e 27 74 20 63 61 6c 6c 20 6d 65 20 53 68 69 72 6c 65 79 2e
(And I would be skeptical if a Prophet didn’t get it.)
Just wait until all the people in the train SEE ME USING my iPhone. Then they will reconsider getting one too.
95% of Americans won´t buy Apple computers.
And I am sure that more than 91% of Americans aren´t buying iPhones.
In Germany, they have only sold 100,000 iPhones in a population of 82,000,000.
That is about 99.99% of the population not wanting an iPhone.
——————————————
Why is this news?
It’s the keypad. SMS is much more popular outside of the U.S.
just my $0.02
Scott in Japan got his wish that SoftBank would be the carrier here, and not DoCoMo, as had been widely predicted. Although I didn’t much care which company would get the rights, I’m happy that somebody did. As soon as the SoftBank iPhone is in my hands, I will not miss my DoCoMo phone for even one second. I’ve been practicing up for the past six months on my iPod Touch.
I only hope that SoftBank continues its aggressive pricing policy, which has made it the up-and-comer after buying out the languishing J-Phone business from Vodaphone.
Japan’s phones have been way ahead of those in the US for a long time. No wonder they don’t want to buy one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cell_phone_culture