a few month test drive in the Akihabara would prevent all the problems... don't need the hot phone, just the prototype of touch and feel, plus few key features... someone skipped a key step of market testing... http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Akihabara
Remind me the right side drive US car sitting in the japanese display window many years ago...
Agree about Akihabara. You'd think someone at Apple might have some experience in Japan. Why is it not reaching the top levels of the company?
Just because he says so makes it true? It would lend more credibility if he'd done a test with a specific phone instead of casual observation.
There have been a number of reports showing the iPhone besting other popular HSDPA 3G phones in battery life.
Yep, but if you knew anything about UMTS and how it works you would realise that much of the battery usage of the phone depends on the network and how the phone handles it. Obviously the iPhone doesn't work very well in all 3G networks. It was probably sitting on full transmit power the entire time. Hence the battery drain.
Yep, but if you knew anything about UMTS and how it works you would realise that much of the battery usage of the phone depends on the network and how the phone handles it. Obviously the iPhone doesn't work very well in all 3G networks. It was probably sitting on full transmit power the entire time. Hence the battery drain.
What evidence is their that the iPhone does not work well on all 3G networks?
This may have been the problem but at best is only speculation with lack of evidence. The problem is that the post was an anecdotal observation with no empirical data to back it up.
Can someone explain to me why Emoji is such a big deal in Japan? From what I've read here it seems to be an important feature, but from what I gather it's just a glorified emoticon system. I mean can't you just write, "雨" in Kanji instead of having the little rain icon?
Or is it just Apple's poor implementation of this that is really the problem? For example, if they weren't going to do emoji, then why not just make it so the software on the phone ignores the unicodes that show the emoji?
As an aside, do grown adults actually pepper their text messages with these silly icons? I'm assuming if this is the case it's a cultural thing, but I can't quite get my head around a middle aged salaryman sending a message with junk like this:
Emoji are more important for the Japanese language than English, becausse Japanese is a much mroe ambigous and less direct language. As anyone learning Japanese will know, you cannot simply translate from English to Japanese as you have to understand the culture and the way in which language is used. It's completely different and far less explicit. The emoji allow you to subtley make your feelings slightly more obvious, where amiguous language could be mis-interperated.
The biggest problem with the iPhone is that when other's send a message with emoji, all we see is a 'softbank plus' logo for every symbol. This can lead to great confusion and simlpy means we can't extract all meaning from the message. Emoji aren't just smiley faces and in my experience DO work across all networks now, even if the picture may slightly differ. I currently send and receive emoji with friends on all major Japanese networks with no problems on my Sharp phone.
It's not really up for us to debate how useful Emoji are, the fact is that they are widely used in Japan and the iPhone not supporting them is complete negligence on Apple's part and somewhat comparable to a Western phone not supporting capital letters.
Can someone explain to me why Emoji is such a big deal in Japan? From what I've read here it seems to be an important feature, but from what I gather it's just a glorified emoticon system. I mean can't you just write, "雨" in Kanji instead of having the little rain icon? ...do grown adults actually pepper their text messages with these silly icons? I'm assuming if this is the case it's a cultural thing...
It's a cultural thing. Come to Japan and you will see that there is a hefty amount of ultra-HelloKitty-style cuteness everywhere. And yes, even mature adults here like that cuteness. Emoji is a part of this.
Why not use the "ame" Kanji character for rain instead of an icon? Because Kanji are Chinese characters and overuse of them here in Japan makes people feel like you are throwing Chinese at them. Seriously. Put too many Kanji on a paper ad, pass it around the office for review, and your co-workers will tell you, "It looks Chinese." We therefore use more Hiragana and Katakana and English at times than Kanji.
But it's impossible to explain the mind of the Japanese fully. One book that does a decent job (at least, I personally feel it is accurate in many areas, after living here in Japan myself 14 years) may do the job for you: KATA.
But the point of all this is not that we, people in this forum, should be reading books about Japan. Apple needs to be studying up on it. What about Apple Japan? They've always played the yes-man, hardly using any force at all to dictate what Cupertino needs to do here.
you cannot simply translate from English to Japanese as you have to understand the culture and the way in which language is used. It's completely different and far less explicit.
this is true of any language
Quote:
The emoji allow you to subtley make your feelings slightly more obvious, where amiguous language could be mis-interperated.
this is true of any language. why do you think / / :x were invented?
emoji is popular because it is fun, well-established and (all-importantly) cute. i'm surprised no one is commenting on infrared beaming between phones. this is one unique function of japanese phones that is genuinely useful
Carniphage, you appear to be European, but your philosophy toward Japan parallels that of the US. Indeed, it makes sense as it is a typical "Westerner's ideology" on not modifying products for the Japanese market. So let's give deeper thought to what you are saying:
1) Japan really isn't that big/significant a market
2) We'd probably fail if we tried and lose money too
3) Our changes might drive up prices
4) Trying is a waste of time because it's a hard market to crack
5) The Japanese only prefer "local produced" gadgets
These are all the reasons why most companies outside Japan, run by those with Western ideology, fail to sell much of anything here. And sadly, the problem is further compounded by those same Westerners later laying blame on Japan and the Japanese for why they don't sell much!
Thankfully, Apple does have a history of creating things specifically for the Japanese, such as KanjiTalk OS's, Kotoeri Japanese input, outstanding Japanese fonts in OS X that put overpriced Morisawa to shame, Japanese keyboards, the PowerBook 550c (only sold in Japan), the Color Classic II (sold mainly in Japan), and others (which I cannot recall off the top of my head). Here's an article about Apple & Japan and how their heavy investment in KanjiTalk paid off for them at the time (1992).
You often reap what you sow in Japan. I can therefore hope that Apple will continue to be an "insightful" Western company who sees the importance of Japan and catering a product to it (e.g., emoji, improved Japanese input, bar code reading, swipe payments, swappable battery). Even if I personally never buy an iPhone here (and I certainly will not so long as the price is over $60/month for wireless fees), I can hope that the iPhone may be sufficiently catered to many Japanese who will want it more than they are now. This will help Apple's bottom line and drive up my AAPL stock price. That's something I want to see!
I know this is about iPhone and Japan but here's my recent experience after showing off my iPhone to my niece in Korea.
First of all, there's no GSM so I couldn't use the phone but they did have Wifi in the apartment so was able to show e-mail and other features.
She then pulled out her Samsung and showed off the interface. iPhone definitely had better resolution and probably a slicker interface. Samsung had similar size, touch interface and a few more buttons.
She showed off her pic album which you can reverse/forward pics by flicking the phone. Lot more low res games on the phone. Seems like they incorporated the accelerometer into the phone's basic features which I wish Apple would do with the iPhone.
I showed how I can play videos with iPhone's iPod feature. She then pulled out an antenna and showed how she can get live satellite broadcasts. In fact, we were watching the same show on her phone that we were watching on TV.
I said "Oh, wow"
The US HDTV initiative might have killed any possibility to have TV on US cell phone without getting it streamed through the cell network.
Analog data may have its problems, but it is analog. It doesn't take much to receive the analog signal over the air. For digital, at least it is not possible right now, and it is a huge waste to decode 1080P (huge CPU and power requirement) and then down sample to the cell phone screen.
Carniphage, you appear to be European, but your philosophy toward Japan parallels that of the US. Indeed, it makes sense as it is a typical "Westerner's ideology" on not modifying products for the Japanese market. So let's give deeper thought to what you are saying:
1) Japan really isn't that big/significant a market
2) We'd probably fail if we tried and lose money too
3) Our changes might drive up prices
4) Trying is a waste of time because it's a hard market to crack
5) The Japanese only prefer "local produced" gadgets
These are all the reasons why most companies outside Japan, run by those with Western ideology, fail to sell much of anything here. And sadly, the problem is further compounded by those same Westerners later laying blame on Japan and the Japanese for why they don't sell much!
If a company has a global product, that sells well to the rest of the world, it might not be wise to change the product just to meet the requirements of one market. If you invest in making that change, you need to get a return on your investment.
What is that Japanese saying? "The nail that sticks out should be hammered in?"
It does not play tv shows over the air (on line yes, but not over the air).
It does not pay my bills, oh wait, it does over the internet.
It does not access the Zune music store.
It does not play flash.
bla
bla
bla.
The iPhone. The best iPod ever, does the real internet, and oh yea, its a fully integrated cell phone. Period. NO tricorder included.......... yet. :-)
One last thing, I love that the iPhone has a full OS running it. It means that the future for MY phone as well as new iPhones is great. Those other phones that you need to buy a new one everytime that they add a new feature...... well....... pay pay pay. :-)
The US HDTV initiative might have killed any possibility to have TV on US cell phone without getting it streamed through the cell network.
Analog data may have its problems, but it is analog. It doesn't take much to receive the analog signal over the air. For digital, at least it is not possible right now, and it is a huge waste to decode 1080P (huge CPU and power requirement) and then down sample to the cell phone screen.
It has NOTHING to do with techical stuff.
It has EVERYTHING to do with business models --- both Japan and South Korea haven't been able to find a viable business model yet for tv on mobile phones.
One last thing, I love that the iPhone has a full OS running it. It means that the future for MY phone as well as new iPhones is great. Those other phones that you need to buy a new one everytime that they add a new feature...... well....... pay pay pay. :-)
Just a thought.
en
I agree.
The folks who dislike this iPhone usually pick a hardware feature they want to see.
What they miss is the massive lead Apple has with the software.
Any credible electronics vendor can add hardware features to a phone. There are trade offs. (Size / power consumption / cost) but it's not rocket science.
But the real problem with other manufacturers is software. They struggle to develop system software to support those features. They struggle to present a consistent and logical interface.
Third parties trying to make software face a battle with inconsistent platforms, confused APIs or wasteful interpreted languages.
Apple is literally years ahead in these areas. The mobile version of Cocoa is completely unique.
And it is this software advantage that will take Apple into Japan, and into markets traditionally dominated by Nokia and RIM.
"If you've never even been to Japan, what can you really offer that is useful to this thread?"
I think we all agree that the Japanese market is unique from the rest of the world. That is evidenced in Nokia selling the most foreign made phones in Japan. Only 500,000.
Where the debate comes is in the perception that Japanese mobile technology is more advanced. We who don't live in Japan are essentially saying we don't find that technology necessarily practical or ultimately more useful.
I think we all agree that the Japanese market is unique from the rest of the world. That is evidenced in Nokia selling the most foreign made phones in Japan. Only 500,000.
Where the debate comes is in the perception that Japanese mobile technology is more advanced. We who don't live in Japan are essentially saying we don't find that technology necessarily practical or ultimately more useful.
I agree with you on this.
Mobile cell phone tv --- is a financial dud.
Japanese people are buying new cell phones every 3+ years now. Americans replaced their cell phones more often, so we are not that far behind in real life.
Less than 10% of Japanese actually know all the functions in the phone. And the RFID contactless payment system in the phone is the hardest thing for the Japanese to learn to use (40% in the survey).
Japanese people are buying new cell phones every 3+ years now. Americans replaced their cell phones more often, so we are not that far behind in real life.
Less than 10% of Japanese actually know all the functions in the phone. And the RFID contactless payment system in the phone is the hardest thing for the Japanese to learn to use (40% in the survey).
All that is very interesting, but if it's really RFID, I don't understand why the payment system is supposedly hard to use, it seems it should be easier than any other feature. Just wave it within a few cm from the face of a reader, confirm the amount and that should be it. I wonder if there's some connotation with the word they used for "difficult" that doesn't translate well. Maybe there's some aspect about the fact that it involves spending money they can't touch when they are a society that strongly prefers cash.
The Financial Times article is interesting. Because the Japanese have a closed ecosystem. Manufacturer growth come from high phone turnover. If that turnover doesn't grow or stalls it hurts manufacturer sales. They will actually have to attempt to increase sales outside of Japan. Where they have to compete more directly with western mobile needs.
The Financial Times article is interesting. Because the Japanese have a closed ecosystem. Manufacturer growth come from high phone turnover. If that turnover doesn't grow or stalls it hurts manufacturer sales. They will actually have to attempt to increase sales outside of Japan. Where they have to compete more directly with western mobile needs.
The FT article said that sales in units drop 29.3% --- so it's a much bigger problem than just stalling sales.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
All that is very interesting, but if it's really RFID, I don't understand why the payment system is supposedly hard to use, it seems it should be easier than any other feature. Just wave it within a few cm from the face of a reader, confirm the amount and that should be it. I wonder if there's some connotation with the word they used for "difficult" that doesn't translate well. Maybe there's some aspect about the fact that it involves spending money they can't touch when they are a society that strongly prefers cash.
Ask an average American about Paypal --- the first 20 questions they would ask is how to put money into the paypal account (which is not exactly how it works). And the average American use debit cards and credit cards all the time.
For a cash-based society like Japan, it is going to be very difficult for them to understand.
I am curious. Can I take MY american AT&T iphone to Japan, with whatever international add-on feature that AT&T needs, & use the phone there? Also, email & browsing via wifi? I know that Japan's phone system has been proprietary for some time? With 3G technology in the iPhone does that open it up? Thanks
Comments
a few month test drive in the Akihabara would prevent all the problems... don't need the hot phone, just the prototype of touch and feel, plus few key features... someone skipped a key step of market testing... http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Akihabara
Remind me the right side drive US car sitting in the japanese display window many years ago...
Agree about Akihabara. You'd think someone at Apple might have some experience in Japan. Why is it not reaching the top levels of the company?
Just because he says so makes it true? It would lend more credibility if he'd done a test with a specific phone instead of casual observation.
There have been a number of reports showing the iPhone besting other popular HSDPA 3G phones in battery life.
Yep, but if you knew anything about UMTS and how it works you would realise that much of the battery usage of the phone depends on the network and how the phone handles it. Obviously the iPhone doesn't work very well in all 3G networks. It was probably sitting on full transmit power the entire time. Hence the battery drain.
Yep, but if you knew anything about UMTS and how it works you would realise that much of the battery usage of the phone depends on the network and how the phone handles it. Obviously the iPhone doesn't work very well in all 3G networks. It was probably sitting on full transmit power the entire time. Hence the battery drain.
What evidence is their that the iPhone does not work well on all 3G networks?
This may have been the problem but at best is only speculation with lack of evidence. The problem is that the post was an anecdotal observation with no empirical data to back it up.
Can someone explain to me why Emoji is such a big deal in Japan? From what I've read here it seems to be an important feature, but from what I gather it's just a glorified emoticon system. I mean can't you just write, "雨" in Kanji instead of having the little rain icon?
Or is it just Apple's poor implementation of this that is really the problem? For example, if they weren't going to do emoji, then why not just make it so the software on the phone ignores the unicodes that show the emoji?
As an aside, do grown adults actually pepper their text messages with these silly icons? I'm assuming if this is the case it's a cultural thing, but I can't quite get my head around a middle aged salaryman sending a message with junk like this:
Emoji are more important for the Japanese language than English, becausse Japanese is a much mroe ambigous and less direct language. As anyone learning Japanese will know, you cannot simply translate from English to Japanese as you have to understand the culture and the way in which language is used. It's completely different and far less explicit. The emoji allow you to subtley make your feelings slightly more obvious, where amiguous language could be mis-interperated.
The biggest problem with the iPhone is that when other's send a message with emoji, all we see is a 'softbank plus' logo for every symbol. This can lead to great confusion and simlpy means we can't extract all meaning from the message. Emoji aren't just smiley faces and in my experience DO work across all networks now, even if the picture may slightly differ. I currently send and receive emoji with friends on all major Japanese networks with no problems on my Sharp phone.
It's not really up for us to debate how useful Emoji are, the fact is that they are widely used in Japan and the iPhone not supporting them is complete negligence on Apple's part and somewhat comparable to a Western phone not supporting capital letters.
Can someone explain to me why Emoji is such a big deal in Japan? From what I've read here it seems to be an important feature, but from what I gather it's just a glorified emoticon system. I mean can't you just write, "雨" in Kanji instead of having the little rain icon? ...do grown adults actually pepper their text messages with these silly icons? I'm assuming if this is the case it's a cultural thing...
It's a cultural thing. Come to Japan and you will see that there is a hefty amount of ultra-HelloKitty-style cuteness everywhere. And yes, even mature adults here like that cuteness. Emoji is a part of this.
Why not use the "ame" Kanji character for rain instead of an icon? Because Kanji are Chinese characters and overuse of them here in Japan makes people feel like you are throwing Chinese at them. Seriously. Put too many Kanji on a paper ad, pass it around the office for review, and your co-workers will tell you, "It looks Chinese." We therefore use more Hiragana and Katakana and English at times than Kanji.
But it's impossible to explain the mind of the Japanese fully. One book that does a decent job (at least, I personally feel it is accurate in many areas, after living here in Japan myself 14 years) may do the job for you: KATA.
But the point of all this is not that we, people in this forum, should be reading books about Japan. Apple needs to be studying up on it. What about Apple Japan? They've always played the yes-man, hardly using any force at all to dictate what Cupertino needs to do here.
you cannot simply translate from English to Japanese as you have to understand the culture and the way in which language is used. It's completely different and far less explicit.
this is true of any language
The emoji allow you to subtley make your feelings slightly more obvious, where amiguous language could be mis-interperated.
this is true of any language. why do you think
emoji is popular because it is fun, well-established and (all-importantly) cute. i'm surprised no one is commenting on infrared beaming between phones. this is one unique function of japanese phones that is genuinely useful
I reckon if Apple changed course in an attempt to attract the Japanese audience, the price would be alienating the rest of the world.
Japan has its own unique traditions, technofetishes and a fondness for locally produced gagetry.
There's no easy way to break into that market. Even if Apple spent millions in re-engineering for Japan, I doubt if it would translate into sales.
C.
1) Japan really isn't that big/significant a market
2) We'd probably fail if we tried and lose money too
3) Our changes might drive up prices
4) Trying is a waste of time because it's a hard market to crack
5) The Japanese only prefer "local produced" gadgets
These are all the reasons why most companies outside Japan, run by those with Western ideology, fail to sell much of anything here. And sadly, the problem is further compounded by those same Westerners later laying blame on Japan and the Japanese for why they don't sell much!
Thankfully, Apple does have a history of creating things specifically for the Japanese, such as KanjiTalk OS's, Kotoeri Japanese input, outstanding Japanese fonts in OS X that put overpriced Morisawa to shame, Japanese keyboards, the PowerBook 550c (only sold in Japan), the Color Classic II (sold mainly in Japan), and others (which I cannot recall off the top of my head). Here's an article about Apple & Japan and how their heavy investment in KanjiTalk paid off for them at the time (1992).
You often reap what you sow in Japan. I can therefore hope that Apple will continue to be an "insightful" Western company who sees the importance of Japan and catering a product to it (e.g., emoji, improved Japanese input, bar code reading, swipe payments, swappable battery). Even if I personally never buy an iPhone here (and I certainly will not so long as the price is over $60/month for wireless fees), I can hope that the iPhone may be sufficiently catered to many Japanese who will want it more than they are now. This will help Apple's bottom line and drive up my AAPL stock price. That's something I want to see!
I know this is about iPhone and Japan but here's my recent experience after showing off my iPhone to my niece in Korea.
First of all, there's no GSM so I couldn't use the phone but they did have Wifi in the apartment so was able to show e-mail and other features.
She then pulled out her Samsung and showed off the interface. iPhone definitely had better resolution and probably a slicker interface. Samsung had similar size, touch interface and a few more buttons.
She showed off her pic album which you can reverse/forward pics by flicking the phone. Lot more low res games on the phone. Seems like they incorporated the accelerometer into the phone's basic features which I wish Apple would do with the iPhone.
I showed how I can play videos with iPhone's iPod feature. She then pulled out an antenna and showed how she can get live satellite broadcasts. In fact, we were watching the same show on her phone that we were watching on TV.
I said "Oh, wow"
The US HDTV initiative might have killed any possibility to have TV on US cell phone without getting it streamed through the cell network.
Analog data may have its problems, but it is analog. It doesn't take much to receive the analog signal over the air. For digital, at least it is not possible right now, and it is a huge waste to decode 1080P (huge CPU and power requirement) and then down sample to the cell phone screen.
Carniphage, you appear to be European, but your philosophy toward Japan parallels that of the US. Indeed, it makes sense as it is a typical "Westerner's ideology" on not modifying products for the Japanese market. So let's give deeper thought to what you are saying:
1) Japan really isn't that big/significant a market
2) We'd probably fail if we tried and lose money too
3) Our changes might drive up prices
4) Trying is a waste of time because it's a hard market to crack
5) The Japanese only prefer "local produced" gadgets
These are all the reasons why most companies outside Japan, run by those with Western ideology, fail to sell much of anything here. And sadly, the problem is further compounded by those same Westerners later laying blame on Japan and the Japanese for why they don't sell much!
If a company has a global product, that sells well to the rest of the world, it might not be wise to change the product just to meet the requirements of one market. If you invest in making that change, you need to get a return on your investment.
What is that Japanese saying? "The nail that sticks out should be hammered in?"
C.
What is that Japanese saying? "The nail that sticks out should be hammered in?"
C.
I thought the saying was:
"If you've never even been to Japan, what can you really offer that is useful to this thread?"
Its not like my old phone.
It does not teleport.
It does not play tv shows over the air (on line yes, but not over the air).
It does not pay my bills, oh wait, it does over the internet.
It does not access the Zune music store.
It does not play flash.
bla
bla
bla.
The iPhone. The best iPod ever, does the real internet, and oh yea, its a fully integrated cell phone. Period. NO tricorder included.......... yet. :-)
One last thing, I love that the iPhone has a full OS running it. It means that the future for MY phone as well as new iPhones is great. Those other phones that you need to buy a new one everytime that they add a new feature...... well....... pay pay pay. :-)
Just a thought.
en
The US HDTV initiative might have killed any possibility to have TV on US cell phone without getting it streamed through the cell network.
Analog data may have its problems, but it is analog. It doesn't take much to receive the analog signal over the air. For digital, at least it is not possible right now, and it is a huge waste to decode 1080P (huge CPU and power requirement) and then down sample to the cell phone screen.
It has NOTHING to do with techical stuff.
It has EVERYTHING to do with business models --- both Japan and South Korea haven't been able to find a viable business model yet for tv on mobile phones.
http://www.techdigest.tv/2007/10/koreajapan_week_9.html
http://www.telecomasia.net/article.p..._article=10234
One last thing, I love that the iPhone has a full OS running it. It means that the future for MY phone as well as new iPhones is great. Those other phones that you need to buy a new one everytime that they add a new feature...... well....... pay pay pay. :-)
Just a thought.
en
I agree.
The folks who dislike this iPhone usually pick a hardware feature they want to see.
What they miss is the massive lead Apple has with the software.
Any credible electronics vendor can add hardware features to a phone. There are trade offs. (Size / power consumption / cost) but it's not rocket science.
But the real problem with other manufacturers is software. They struggle to develop system software to support those features. They struggle to present a consistent and logical interface.
Third parties trying to make software face a battle with inconsistent platforms, confused APIs or wasteful interpreted languages.
Apple is literally years ahead in these areas. The mobile version of Cocoa is completely unique.
And it is this software advantage that will take Apple into Japan, and into markets traditionally dominated by Nokia and RIM.
But it will not happen overnight.
C.
I thought the saying was:
"If you've never even been to Japan, what can you really offer that is useful to this thread?"
I think we all agree that the Japanese market is unique from the rest of the world. That is evidenced in Nokia selling the most foreign made phones in Japan. Only 500,000.
Where the debate comes is in the perception that Japanese mobile technology is more advanced. We who don't live in Japan are essentially saying we don't find that technology necessarily practical or ultimately more useful.
I think we all agree that the Japanese market is unique from the rest of the world. That is evidenced in Nokia selling the most foreign made phones in Japan. Only 500,000.
Where the debate comes is in the perception that Japanese mobile technology is more advanced. We who don't live in Japan are essentially saying we don't find that technology necessarily practical or ultimately more useful.
I agree with you on this.
Mobile cell phone tv --- is a financial dud.
Japanese people are buying new cell phones every 3+ years now. Americans replaced their cell phones more often, so we are not that far behind in real life.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d1c9536-8...0779fd18c.html
Nobody actually uses digital wallets in Japanese cell phones.
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/06/1...ts-sit-unused/
Less than 10% of Japanese actually know all the functions in the phone. And the RFID contactless payment system in the phone is the hardest thing for the Japanese to learn to use (40% in the survey).
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/08/1...-low-in-japan/
I agree with you on this.
Mobile cell phone tv --- is a financial dud.
Japanese people are buying new cell phones every 3+ years now. Americans replaced their cell phones more often, so we are not that far behind in real life.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d1c9536-8...0779fd18c.html
Nobody actually uses digital wallets in Japanese cell phones.
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/06/1...ts-sit-unused/
Less than 10% of Japanese actually know all the functions in the phone. And the RFID contactless payment system in the phone is the hardest thing for the Japanese to learn to use (40% in the survey).
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/08/1...-low-in-japan/
All that is very interesting, but if it's really RFID, I don't understand why the payment system is supposedly hard to use, it seems it should be easier than any other feature. Just wave it within a few cm from the face of a reader, confirm the amount and that should be it. I wonder if there's some connotation with the word they used for "difficult" that doesn't translate well. Maybe there's some aspect about the fact that it involves spending money they can't touch when they are a society that strongly prefers cash.
people are buying new cell phones every 3+ years now. Americans replaced their cell phones more often, so we are not that far behind in real life.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d1c9536-8...0779fd18c.html
The Financial Times article is interesting. Because the Japanese have a closed ecosystem. Manufacturer growth come from high phone turnover. If that turnover doesn't grow or stalls it hurts manufacturer sales. They will actually have to attempt to increase sales outside of Japan. Where they have to compete more directly with western mobile needs.
The Financial Times article is interesting. Because the Japanese have a closed ecosystem. Manufacturer growth come from high phone turnover. If that turnover doesn't grow or stalls it hurts manufacturer sales. They will actually have to attempt to increase sales outside of Japan. Where they have to compete more directly with western mobile needs.
The FT article said that sales in units drop 29.3% --- so it's a much bigger problem than just stalling sales.
All that is very interesting, but if it's really RFID, I don't understand why the payment system is supposedly hard to use, it seems it should be easier than any other feature. Just wave it within a few cm from the face of a reader, confirm the amount and that should be it. I wonder if there's some connotation with the word they used for "difficult" that doesn't translate well. Maybe there's some aspect about the fact that it involves spending money they can't touch when they are a society that strongly prefers cash.
Ask an average American about Paypal --- the first 20 questions they would ask is how to put money into the paypal account (which is not exactly how it works). And the average American use debit cards and credit cards all the time.
For a cash-based society like Japan, it is going to be very difficult for them to understand.