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Over 90 percent of Japanese don't want new iPhone, says study

18 June 2008 13:11 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 12 comments

According to a new iSHARE study, the 3G iPhone should have a hard time getting footing in Japan, the country where technology is light years ahead of the rest of the world.

91 percent of Japanese adults polled said they have no plans to buy the phone, at least not in the near future. The other 9 percent all planned to buy the device and many are SoftBank users, the carrier brining the iPhone at launch.

The same survey was done in July of 2007 and at that time almost 10 percent of those polled said they would buy the phone if their carrier made it available so it appears demand is somewhat down.

iSHARE did not have exact reasons for the low demand but did note that SoftBank is third in subscriber base and only 23 percent of those polled were current SoftBank users. NTT DoCoMo is the clear leader at almost 40 percent, but they do not hold an iPhone distribution contract.

77 percent also noted that they prefer a removable battery, something Apple refuses to do with their media devices. The largest hurdle will most likely be that the iPhone does not bring anything the Japanese have not seen already. 3G is standard on Japanese networks for both calls and data services and most new phones have Japan-only 1Seg digital TV and high resolutions such as 800x480. The iPhone will have neither when it launches.

Permalink to this article | Topics: Gadgets Phones

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Discuss this article!
susieqbbb (Member) 18 June 2008 13:17
Goes to show you that the iphone isn't the jesus phone after all it does everything but tv wow my touch screen verizon phone does it all gps and tv. [ + quote]
vurbal (Staff Member) 18 June 2008 15:03
From what I've read about the Japanese mobile phone market this isn't the least bit surprising. Apparently the number of kewl features your phone has is something of a status symbol, and simple just doesn't compete. It's all about being conspicuous, not useful. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 18 June 2008 15:15
fck conspicuous, I want a nice large cell phone I CAN SEE.......... [ + quote]
Vr0cK (Newbie) 18 June 2008 16:24
iphone to japan is like so outdated. what's apple thinking? [ + quote]
clethal (Newbie) 18 June 2008 16:51
*Originally posted by Vr0cK:* iphone to japan is like so outdated. what's apple thinking? Apple is thinking about the United States not Japan, iphone is an option for them if they wanted or not. [ + quote]
chaos_zzz (Junior Member) 18 June 2008 18:08
maybe 5 years ago [ + quote]
jutsu (Junior Member) 18 June 2008 22:22
the rest of the world is years behind japan -___- the rest of the world see iPhone as cool, japan see it as outdated device -____- [ + quote]
rainofire (Newbie) 19 June 2008 1:58
The Iphone is obsolete in the eyes of japan. [ + quote]
DoomLight (Newbie) 19 June 2008 12:39
i wonder how they polled enough people to figure 90% of them dont want it. i just dont believe in polls that just do 10% of even 5% and figure oh hey... 90% of a population based on like 5 people dont want this item. sounds suspicous! i dont even like the iphone. i just dont believe in these numbers. [ + quote]
mrhapy666 (Newbie) 19 June 2008 14:53
here's a link that explains why this is BS http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/91-of-japanese.html [ + quote]
zdiggler (Newbie) 19 June 2008 21:37
I have a few reason not to buy a iPhone 1. I don't need it. 2. No tethering 3. No A2DP Verizon's LG phone are working pretty good for me. Unlimited SMS and hacked the phone so I can tether only using miniutes not paying for dataplan! [ + quote]
ericg8 (Newbie) 20 June 2008 3:43
9% of the Japanese intend to buy the phone before it is even available? Sounds like a homerun to me! Show me any other product with that kind of market penetration right off the bat. Sure, others have the features, but Apple products are easy to use. That is #1 in my book. [ + quote]