One of my Japanese friends told me that the iPhone was unlikely to sell well in Japan. So, I researched whether this would be true or not on the Japanese site.
First of all, I couldn’t find the hard fact regarding bad sales performance of iPhones. On the other hand, I couldn’t find any relevant facts that SoftBank Mobile, the iPhone carrier in Japan, has enjoyed large sales.
Instead, there are many consumers’ complaints about it: no demountable battery, can’t use picture language in email* which almost all Japanese girls and young women(sometimes boys and young men) love to use, can’t take moving pictures, the battery runs out at an early date, bad usability especially in Japanese character entry and so on.
*In Japan they don’t usually use text messages.
One of my friends also said that in Japan when they get on a train (or a tube) and write email with their mobile handsets, they usually use one hand and hold on to a strap with another hand, so iPhone is tricky to write an email. Furthermore, young girls (or women) tend to use their nails when they write emails with their mobile phones. In that case it is difficult for them to write emails with iPhone.
I’m not sure about the fact but I guess if iPhone shows a good sales performance, SoftBank Mobile will announce the number officially, but unfortunately they haven’t done it so far.
Finally, some of you might know that on 27 February SoftBank Mobile has introduced a new pricing plan that gives iPhone (8GB) away for free with a new two-year contract. (It will be available until 31 May.)
I’m not sure either exactly what this plan means. (but it has a kind of bad sales air about it!)
