Goin' Mobile Japan

Trendwatch:iPhone 3G in Japan

Back in June when Apple announced that Softbank would be selling the iPhone 3G, everybody was wondering what had happened to DoCoMo. Apple was initially talking to DoCoMo, but many felt that the two companies could not come to terms on the revenue sharing agreement or the business model issue before the final preparation and shipment stage on July 11. Apple announced that iPhone 3G sales worldwide topped 1 million in just three days. According to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, Japan was 2nd in global sales with 70,000 units sold in that time period. This number could be recognized as a benchmark, although some experts say the Softbank and Apple alliance may be far from reaching the projected 1-million-unit sales mark by the end of this year. Due to a lack of features that Japanese mobile users have become accustomed to, such as 1-seg TV, FeliCa (mobile electronic money) and pictogram email features, adoption rates may suffer. It is probably safe to say that the innovative mobile phone needs to have more functionality, if Apple wants to seriously penetrate the experienced mobile market of Japan. The lack of functionality that is specific to the Japanese market may have been another reason why DoCoMo was hesitant in entering the deal with Apple.

http://www.medialets.com/blog/2008/08/04/the-first-1-million-iphones-where-did-they-go/
http://www.dailytech.co m/Analyst+3G+iPhone+Headed+Towards+Failure+in+Japan/article12878.htm

Although the initial momentum might have eased for iPhone 3G in Japan, there are some interesting activities going on in terms of application development. As you can see in this month's issue (New Service section), Japan's most popular SNS site, mixi, has developed an iPhone application (July 30) and GMO developed an SaaS-based Exchange Server service for the iPhone (August 6). Also, tabelog.com, one of the most popular gourmet blog sites in Japan, released an iPhone application.

Furthermore, the following applications were recently announced:

• Nifty modifies its social news site "@nifty topic it” for iPhone. (July 7)
• Celsys developed an electronic comic viewer for iPhone. (July 9)
• Impress Japan will deliver the iPhone viewer for 14 electronic manual book series of Windows Vista in late September. (July 10)
• Yahoo! Japan customized 40 video sites, planning 100 sites later, for iPhone. (July 11)
• Kanshin Kukan, a word-of-mouth site for entertainment, lifestyle and shopping complied with iPhone. (July 12)
• Navitime Japan provides a free iPhone GPS application to search public transpiration, gas stations, etc. on map. (July 11)
• Eki-tan, a train scheduling and transfer search site, complied with iPhone. (July 11)

At this moment, Japanese oriented applications are still limited in terms of numbers. There are many more non-Japanese applications posted in iTunes/App Store, some of which seems to be quite popular according to www.iphoneapplication.jp (Japanese site). If mobile software developers, who have extensive experience programming on imode/i-Appli, EZweb and Yahoo! Keitai, start developing iPhone, Apps with similar business models to their current mobile applications, we may see a boost in development on Apple's mobile users of iPhone Apps. Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, senior executive vice president of DoCoMo said at its shareholder meeting, which was held on June 20, that DoCoMo would watch carefully to see how the iPhone performs in Japan and is still seeking to carry iPhone product line. On July 10, the day before the iPhone launch, 1,500 people camped out in front of Softbank's flagship store in Harajuku, Tokyo. They are probably fans like those who have been helping to keep Apple's share of the computer market to 10% over the past 2 decades in Japan. These fans are also the early adopters who may be able to initiate another momentum for the development of innovative Japanese iPhone applications. So, we still need to see how it goes like Mr. Tsujimura.

http://k- tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/40520.html (Japanese site)

On a side note, if you are an iPhone 3G user in U.S. and you travel to Japan, your iPhone 3G may be activated with DoCoMo under AT&T international roaming arrangement as soon as you arrive at Narita Airport.