Comments on: Why Japan blew its hardware and mobile edge

By: akmal

akmal — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:38:17 +0000

i think many smartphone can be equipped with the technology mantion above wether its japanese, korean or us brands smart/mobile phone. This special technology like sensors, fm receiver and transmitter,and others can be developed by US semi and sensor/mems companies not just japanese technology companies. Its just matter of need.

By: Thomas Krigsmakten

Thomas Krigsmakten — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:14:51 +0000

First of all, Japanese isn’t a race. Second, the Japanese (short form label for their corporate culture) AREN’T good at device software. They’re exceedingly good at some forms of games however. Corporate software (devices and enterprise solutions) in Japan is painfully underdeveloped.

An American Indian, are you Rich? :-)

By: eideard

eideard — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:07:06 +0000

Silly people think niches and products are the end-all. Sony is the best-worst example of turning the final say on R&D over to the beancounters.

Try to imagine Steve Jobs doing that!

By: Monbo

Monbo — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:27:12 +0000

You can get your phone unlocked on NTT docomo network for a small fee, and you can buy only a SIM card plans , e.g.bmobile (data only, data and voice)

By: Monbo

Monbo — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:22:28 +0000

You can get your phone unlocked on NTT docomo network for a small fee, and you can buy only a SIM card.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:29:25 +0000

Om, as a follow up interview or discussion to this post you’ve written, it would be very interesting if you were to have a conversation with Joi Ito. I can think of no one better than Joi to comment on this (as you probably know, he’s the new Director of the MIT Media Lab and I’m sure you’re aware of his CV and his Japanese root)!

By: Eddie

Eddie — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:23:09 +0000

Yeah, I’m with amitil, what does Big Data have to do with Apple’s future success or not? Is Paul referring to the recent iOS maps uproar (given that maps do in fact require enormous amounts of data and Google has done a superb job managing map data)? If so, then I can see the point (its not really in Apple’s DNA to get it when it comes to data — case in point, as Steve Jobs said a few years ago, Apple didn’t compete with Google in the search business). That’s one thing Apple historically under Jobs deserves a lot of credit for which is that Apple (under Jobs) knew their own limits / knew their depths and knew their core competencies.

By: andrew21

andrew21 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 05:37:51 +0000

sorry but….I have to say it. They actually didn’t want to (or need to) capture the rest of the world as the domestic Japanese was big enough (and protected enough) that they could make a great living just dominating at home. That may be changing now as the domestic market is shrinking and Japanese electronics manufacturers are seeing limited opportunities at home as global players are now more easily able to enter the Japanese market.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 05:01:23 +0000

I hate to break your bubble, but Japan is far from the most consumer friendly wireless market. It has the highest ARPU in the world, only comparable with US. It ties up people in two year contracts with short windows to change, and things like prepaid or flexible term contracts are virtually unheard of. Devices are always locked and you can’t get SIM-only plans. I’d rather say Japan is a conservative, lock-in and expensive telecom market. Try Sweden, Austria, Singapore, Hong Kong etc for a completely different experience.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 04:54:33 +0000

It’s not that simple. These cutting edge Japanese-only devices have been developed as a continuous response to millions and millions of Japanese customers leaving traditional devices for iPhones. The same paradigm that made iPhone successful elsewhere also works in Japan, and that hints that maximizing hardware features draws some customers, it is not on it’s own a measure of a device being desirable. In the end, all those hardware features are useless without good software and usability, and there is a lot of catching up to do there.