iPhone Big in Japan
In a recent survey, the iPhone was voted the best smartphone in Japan. Because this was not a scientific survey, one has to take it less than faithfully; however, the fact that the iPhone won the survey by such a wide margin says quite a bit.
This despite all the naysaying about how and why the iPhone would fail. It was probably not even related to the iPhone getting emoji, or the add-on One-seg TV viewer, or having phone-strap capability by adding a rubber sleeve/cover. The fact is simply that the phone is way cool. I do not mean that flippantly; I have seen people in my school, for example, using a variety of cell phones and they never get mentioned; however, whenever I am using my iPhone, it always draws attention. Everyone knows about the phone and is curious about it. Not to mention that I’m starting to see it more and more (another tenant in my building, passers-by on the street) which is not too common with the plethora of cell phone models out there.
Probably the main reason why the iPhone has not completely dominated the market is because it is linked to SoftBank; had DoCoMo been the carrier, it would likely be far more popular.
Interesting. I am looking to get a new phone in 2010 after my current contract is finished. I am hoping that by then Apple will have upgraded the iphone with a better camera and memory card. But who knows what will be available in 2010? There might be some big changes for the iphone but perhaps even bigger changes with competitors. I am sure info like is pushing other makers like Sharp and Toshiba to make major improvements and changes.
BTW–passed a Softbank store the other day–lots of touch screen phones and some phones now have 8 megapixels!
matthew
Matthew: Yes, it’s likely that the next iPhone refresh will have a better camera and more memory, if only because both are now cheap and easy to implement, and so it would be stupid for them not to! I’ll be jealous…
However, if you meant “memory card” and not built-in flash memory, don’t count on it–Apple has never been big on memory cards, for some reason. No such readers in any of their computers or devices. I think it has to do with controlling the experience and not breaking pretty surfaces and lines. I don’t agree with that–I think the appearance would not suffer and prefer the ability to control my own devices and experience–but that’s the way Apple does things.
About the 8 megapixels–true, true, but remember, the iPhone is not good because it has a nice built-in camera. The appeal lies in its interface, ease-of-use, and ultimate expandability via the app store. And while 8 megapixels is nice, I’d much rather have the ability to do macro photos or take movies (and yes, I know, other phones have those features–and the iPhone really should too). Megapixels are a big thing for some people nowadays, but in fact, you don’t need more megapixels than the iPhone currently has unless you plan to take artistic or high-quality photos–which is usually not the case with cell phone photos. Megapixels are over-rated.