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Re: A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

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Re: A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

JuriaYoshikawa — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:10:23 -0000

True Paul. But Apple would make it a lot easier for themselves if they made Safari compatible with iMode. Seems like a no-brainer, doesn't. The Japanese people I know who have iPhone love them and really enjoy all the apps they can try out. But many of them actually can afford to keep their regular mobiles to surf the keitai web. Expensive and hard to switch.

Re: A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

Paul — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:59:50 -0000

Interesting article Lance.
I don't really see that many Japanese using iPhones when
I am moving about on the train though.

Some of the comments I have heard from Japanese are that
the iPhone is "heavy", "doesnt play Japanese TV", "no Suica"
and so on.

It's two big strengths though:
1. Unparallelled as a mobile browsing platform.
2. Huge access to iphone apps (important in the gaming culture of Japan).

How many of your Japanese friends own one currently?

Re: A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

Lance Shields — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:59:02 -0000

Good points swint! Yes, you may be right that only using search to spot trends may be faulty for a a lot of reasons. That's also true that people may have enough info elsewhere on Softbank. But they can certainly get info on iPhone at the same place (ie. go to a Softbank shop). I think my point is that people search for things when they are new and they want to know more about them. And in this case, they are more interested in iPhone than the Softbank, the company providing the service. What this seems to say is that in this case the product brand speaks to people more than the company brand. Actually, almost the exact same trend can be seen when I compared iPhone to Apple in Japan: http://www.google.com/insig...

Thanks for your thoughts, swint!

Re: A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

swint — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:44:20 -0000

Interesting analysis. I wonder whether search trends are the best proxy in this case. The parallel spikes would indicate certain trends. But, this market may have other was of accessing Softbank (hence, no need for a search for info) and their knowledge of Softbank may already be high, so for additional/specific info, they search iPhone. Nonetheless, I would say that the iPhone and Apple brands are benefiting Softbank--for now. As you suggest: only time will tell.