A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Actually, in February 2009, in a story titled “Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone”, Wired had this to say:
What’s wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it’s not Japanese.
Then this happened…
iPhone 3GS Launch in Japan (June 2009) — Photo by Danny Choo (dannychoo.com)
Then the iPhone 4 happened. Then the iPhone 4S happened.
Which brings us to the present day…
In March 2012, The Verge, in a story titled “Apple the number one mobile phone vendor in Japan for Q4 2011”, reports a much improved market for the iPhone in Japan:
Research firm IDC Japan has revealed that the company had the largest share of all mobile phone shipments in the final quarter of 2011, accounting for 26.6 percent of the entire mobile market.
How’d they do it? To borrow from one of Apple’s old slogans, they “iterate different”. Here’s to the crazy ones.