AfterDawn: News

iPhone finally headed to Japan

The Japanese mobile carrier Softbank has announced that it has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year.

There was no details on pricing, availability or whether the deal was exclusive for the country.



Softbank has about 19 million subscribers in Japan but still lags decently far behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in market share.

Although the Japanese are a huge market for the iPod line of media devices, the iPhone may not be so impressive to a country whose cell phones are years ahead technologically then ours.

Regardless, rival NTT DoCoMo spokesman Shinjiro Minami added that his company was unhappy at the turn of events as DoCoMo had been trying to ink a similar deal for months.

"The user interface is very attractive and it's a product that's likely to draw Apple fans in Japan," he added.

So far this year Apple has struck deals to sell the iPhone in over 20 new countries, including markets in Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Jun 2008 15:09

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• 5 comments

• Vr0cK

  Im not sure if itll do well in japan because the cell phones japan has is far more advance, such as using it to pay for items like a credit card etc. I remember watching a TV special before the first launch of iphone and they interviewed alot of japanese localist in japan asking for their thoughts on the iphone. mainly the response is that it looks nice but not very useful compared to the phones they have or just old technology to them. if it does sell then it's definately for its look and hyped name of iphone.

  4.6.2008 15:17 #1

• iluvendo

  Japan, at last!!!!
  That's the good news, the bad news is that they have stuff light years more advanced than we do.
  

  If it wasnt for bad luck, Id have no luck!
  "The flimsier the product,the higher the price"
  Ferengi 82nd rule of aquisition

  4.6.2008 15:25 #2

• dude845

  What happened to the iphone being a gsm phone type exclusive. Last I checked Japanese use a special frequency.. =p If they can do that, then why not make the iphone for CDMA phones in the parts of the world that can use it.

  4.6.2008 18:53 #3

• kyo28

  It's a waste of time and resources, if you ask me. The iphone is well adapted to the needs of western consumers, but it falls short to deliver for Japanese consumers.
  
  For example, virtually every cell phone here (in Japan) includes a special barcode scanner. Magazines print these barcodes on advertisements and articles. So by just scanning the barcode with your cellphone, you access the mobile website for that brand/article/company.
  
  This is just one example of how views of how a cellphone should function differ between the West and Japan.
  
  I'd be really surprised to see this take off.

  5.6.2008 04:59 #4

• mithras1

  lets play spot the grammar mistake

  5.6.2008 14:22 #5