Saturday, February 28, 2009
Free iPhones in Japan
Starting Friday, Softbank Mobile, the carrier of Apple's smartphone in Japan, will give anyone a free 8GB iPhone 3G for a two year contract. Even if customers wanted the 16 GB model, it'll be available for $118, reduced from $350. (The service still costs pretty much, but yeah.)
Japan's cell phone market is pretty tough, and the reason for this is probably because they've been having these type of things on the market for a long time now. iPhone's must not be that big of a deal to them...
"Toto, a marketing consultant based in Tokyo, had predicted that Apple might have trouble getting traction in Japan’s highly competitive cell phone market. In June, he posted 10 reasons why Japan will hate the iPhone (or maybe not). To get a feel for how the iPhone is perceived in Japan, we re-post them below the fold:
2. No Felica (e-wallet) function
3. Weak camera
4. Only one panel color available
5. Display of cute emoticons, emoji, is difficult
6. Japanese cell phone contracts are long-term (2 years standard, almost no pre-paid) and expensive to terminate
6. A lot of Japanese already own an iPod Touch (launched in October 2007)
7. Japanese women with long fingernails will not buy it (and there are a lot of them)
8. High-school kids use cell phones mainly for emails using one thumb, a dialpad and a jog dial (ideal for Japanese character input)
9. Softbank will probably charge a lot of Yen for the handset itself, accessories, data plans etc.
10. Japan is the toughest cell phone market in the world
(high level of technical sophistication, critical customers, high innovation rate etc. )"
Phewwww. o3o
I'm pretty sure they have plenty of more high-tech stuff than we have here. I NEED TO GO TO JAPANNNN~
On a totally different note, Japanese emoji's are awesome.
Yes. I noticed my last post was about free stuff too. .___.
Elmer-DeWitt, P (2009, February 26). In Japan, iPhones are now free.
CNNMoney, Retrieved February 28, 2009, from
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/02/26/in-japan-iphones-are-now-free/
Japan's cell phone market is pretty tough, and the reason for this is probably because they've been having these type of things on the market for a long time now. iPhone's must not be that big of a deal to them...
"Toto, a marketing consultant based in Tokyo, had predicted that Apple might have trouble getting traction in Japan’s highly competitive cell phone market. In June, he posted 10 reasons why Japan will hate the iPhone (or maybe not). To get a feel for how the iPhone is perceived in Japan, we re-post them below the fold:
1. No One-Seg digital TV tuner
2. No Felica (e-wallet) function
3. Weak camera
4. Only one panel color available
5. Display of cute emoticons, emoji, is difficult
6. Japanese cell phone contracts are long-term (2 years standard, almost no pre-paid) and expensive to terminate
6. A lot of Japanese already own an iPod Touch (launched in October 2007)
7. Japanese women with long fingernails will not buy it (and there are a lot of them)
8. High-school kids use cell phones mainly for emails using one thumb, a dialpad and a jog dial (ideal for Japanese character input)
9. Softbank will probably charge a lot of Yen for the handset itself, accessories, data plans etc.
10. Japan is the toughest cell phone market in the world
(high level of technical sophistication, critical customers, high innovation rate etc. )"
Phewwww. o3o
I'm pretty sure they have plenty of more high-tech stuff than we have here. I NEED TO GO TO JAPANNNN~
On a totally different note, Japanese emoji's are awesome.
Yes. I noticed my last post was about free stuff too. .___.
Elmer-DeWitt, P (2009, February 26). In Japan, iPhones are now free.
CNNMoney, Retrieved February 28, 2009, from
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/02/26/in-japan-iphones-are-now-free/
Labels: school work
itsyourtimeso
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