iPhone Hysteria

[Kuang_Grade]

A $200/33% price drop ten weeks after launch?....yeeouch, that's going to be around a million pissed off early adopters. I wonder about how ATT feels now that the ipod touch will probably suck off at least 1/3 of the iphone's potential customer base, although the new lower price will certainly open the market a bit given that iphone's value proposition is now effectively buy an ipod, get the phone for only a small bit more.

[Charles]

[kamome]

[Charles]

I just discovered that the latest update to the iPhone (v 1.1.1) has a Japanese input method. It is not obvious the IME exists, as it only appears in one particular circumstance, when you are filling out an input field in a Japanese-encoded web page. It's a shame it isn't available in other apps like Mail or Notes, but at least it does exist and surely it will be more widely supported as the iPhone software evolves.
Here's a picture of my iPhone with the IME in action:

[halfnip]

I just discovered that the latest update to the iPhone (v 1.1.1) has a Japanese input method. It is not obvious the IME exists, as it only appears in one particular circumstance, when you are filling out an input field in a Japanese-encoded web page. It's a shame it isn't available in other apps like Mail or Notes, but at least it does exist and surely it will be more widely supported as the iPhone software evolves.
Here's a picture of my iPhone with the IME in action:

Where are you guys getting your hacked iPhones? I find it ridiculous that someone would pay Y75,000 for one on Yahoo Auction.

http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n54043509

[Charles]

Where are you guys getting your hacked iPhones? I find it ridiculous that someone would pay Y75,000 for one on Yahoo Auction.

http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n54043509

Mine's not hacked, it's a regular, unmodified iPhone, as you can tell from the AT&T label. Notice my pathetic two bars of reception (out of 5) in the upper left corner.

[Greji]

Mine's not hacked, it's a regular, unmodified iPhone, as you can tell from the AT&T label. Notice my pathetic two bars of reception (out of 5) in the upper left corner.

You better move to California Charles and maybe you can get in on the action!

[SIZE="4"]Apple hit with iPhone monopoly lawsuit[/SIZE]
A civil suit filed in California accuses Apple of creating an unlawful iPhone monopoly, criticizing the computer giant for a software update that disables any iPhones altered allow the use phone carriers other than AT&T.

Attorney Damian Fernandez filed the suit October 5 on behalf of a California man and is seeking "class action" status to expand the litigation to cover all US iPhone buyers........

Read the rest of it here at one of your favorite publications Chas....

[Charles]

You better move to California Charles and maybe you can get in on the action!

[SIZE="4"]Apple hit with iPhone monopoly lawsuit[/SIZE]

Yeah that would look great in my HR file, I'm in the middle of a job application with Apple right now.

As Fake Steve Jobs said about these lawsuits, "siooma."

[Greji]

Yeah that would look great in my HR file, I'm in the middle of a job application with Apple right now.

Good show! Keep us posted on that!

[Mike Oxlong]

The iPhone is a piece of...

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

[IkemenTommy]

Sachio Semmoto, the founder and high ranking exec of Japanese wireless carrier eAccess (whose company coincidentally lost the iPhone distribution battle in Japan), recently slammed the Apple iPhone at Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

What a sore loser.

[GomiGirl]

Softbank Press Release June 4 2008

Short and Sweet and hot off the presses.

Announcing “iPhone™”
June 4, 2008
SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple® to bring the iPhone™ to Japan later this year.

[IkemenTommy]

But Docomo has the 100,000 yen Prada phone.. yay!


Maybe it's time for me to switch carriers to SoftGinko

[gomichild]

*runs around screaming in excitement*

[Taro Toporific]

*runs around screaming in excitement*

*runs around screaming at the mega-fucked touchscreen keyboard that I spent two hours standing at the US Apple store and still couldn't learn to love*

[CrankyBastard]

Oh yeah, I gotta get me one of those.
What is it?

[Mulboyne]

I wonder whether this gives Docomo an incentive to trash talk the iphone. They have siad "zannen" about the announcement but are already playing up the Prada LG phone for anyone who wants a touch panel.

[Captain Japan]

I wonder whether this gives Docomo an incentive to trash talk the iphone. They have siad "zannen" about the announcement but are already playing up the Prada LG phone for anyone who wants a touch panel.

In this article that doesn't seem to be the case...at least for now.
Softbank to sell iPhones in Japan this year
Mainichi

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it now has a deal with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone later this year -- the first such agreement in Japan for the hit cell phone.

Softbank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said no further details, such as pricing and dates, were available, and he said it's not clear if the deal is exclusive.

An addition of the iPhone to Softbank's lineup in this intensely competitive mobile market is almost sure to be a plus for the company. Gadget-loving Japan is already a big market for Apple's other popular product, the iPod portable music player.

Tokyo-based Softbank has 18.77 million subscribers in Japan, and is still lagging in third place behind mobile service providers NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. In recent years, it has been aggressively expanding by offering cheaper services and running catchy TV ads featuring actress Cameron Diaz.

The signing with Softbank is the latest for the Cupertino, California-based company that is seeking to expand iPhone sales overseas by inking deals with wireless carriers in Europe, South America and other places.

Initially Apple had insisted on exclusivity to sell in a certain country but it has begun to break from that pattern in recent deals.

Japan boasts some of the world's most sophisticated cell phones, which can be used for watching digital TV broadcasts, taking digital photos, doing restaurant searches, e-mail, electronic payments, reading digital novels and music downloads.

And so some of the razzle-dazzle of the iPhone -- an iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing device-- may be lost on Japanese.

But the gadget, with its trademark touch-screen phone, controlled by the user's fingers on the screen, still promises an import glamour as well as an extra "cool" factor that's likely to attract many fans here.

NTT DoCoMo spokesman Shinjiro Minami said the company was unhappy that Softbank had beaten it to an iPhone deal as DoCoMo had also been considering such a deal.

"The user interface is very attractive and it's a product that's likely to draw Apple fans in Japan," he said, adding that it was unclear if DoCoMo plans to continue to pursue an iPhone deal...more...

[IkemenTommy]

Fuck all this iPhone craze. Just give me a Blackberry!

[GomiGirl]

Fuck all this iPhone craze. Just give me a Blackberry!

Why? Blackberries are a stupid email client and that is it. It is no where near a sophisticated mobile device. The OS is lame and there are little if any apps you can add to make it anything more than an iMap client to your mail.

Life on the road is more than mail and your mobile device should do more things that that.

[GomiGirl]

I wonder whether this gives Docomo an incentive to trash talk the iphone. They have siad "zannen" about the announcement but are already playing up the Prada LG phone for anyone who wants a touch panel.

DoCoMo Failed to nab iPhone

No trash talk, but this article is interesting.

DoCoMo has admitted to TechRadar it tried and failed to strike a deal with Apple to sell the 3G iPhone in Japan.

Speaking after Softbank announced it would carry the device there later this year - the first confirmed 3G iPhone - spokesperson Shuichiro Ichikoshi said: "The iPhone is attractive and appeals to certain Apple fans, so we have made efforts to introduce it but, as you know, Softbank has announced its deal today.

"Anyway, DoCoMo already sells touchscreen phones, such as the Prada phone and the SH906i, which came out yesterday.”]Pressed on whether that's a definitive 'no' to a DoCoMo iPhone, Ichokoshi admitted defeat: "No - we will not be introducing the iPhone ... for now."[/B]

Japan is regarded as the hotbed of technological innovation, so to not have the device so far has been something of a mystery.

But now the country is getting the handset, DoCoMo must be cursing its failure, though it seems the handset might not be tied to one operator as it is in the UK and US, judging from the final statement from Ichikoshi.
By J Mark Lytle / Gareth Beavis

[Mulboyne]

Washington Post: Apple's iPhone in Japan: Where's DoCoMo?

So what happened to Apple's iPhone talks in Japan? It was thought that Apple would go with NTT DoCoMo, the country's largest carrier with its 53.5 million subscribers. Instead they struck a deal with its smallest, but perhaps most aggressive operator, Softbank, which counts 18.8 million customers. But a Businessweek feature looking at Apple's options in Japan notes that the Softbank deal is most likely not an exclusive one. There was no mention in Softbank's terse iPhone announcement, though this is usually the sort of news that operators like to crow about. Most likely, Apple is using the Softbank deal to put pressure on DoCoMo, which in the past has openly balked at the revenue sharing deal - said to be as high as a 30 percent cut of airtime revenues - that operators must submit to in order to carry the iPhone.

But perhaps it's a risk DoCoMo may be willing to take. If it cuts this deal with Apple, there's a fear that other handset makers will request similar ones (though isn't this a fear for Softbank as well?) Plus, there's the notion that the iPhone just might not be a mega hit in a market where mobile phones are already packed with some of the most sophisticated features in the world, such as the ability to record TV shows for later use, bar code readers, commuter passes as well as high speed access to the mobile web.

Still, since Softbank's announcement, DoCoMo has reportedly been "unhappy" that its smaller rival beat it to the deal, according to AP. Reuters reports that DoCoMo spokesman Shuichiro Ichikoshi said the company "has not heard back from Apple after talks to sell iPhones."

Meanwhile, one analyst believes that if Softbank is the only carrier, the iPhone will 200,000 to 300,000, 500,000 "tops." Tokyo-based UBS managing director and telecoms analyst Makio Inui said, "It's not going to move the needle in this market." Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son apparently has his own doubts about the phone as well, and is said to be "skeptical" about its ability to bring in the Japanese subscribers. Number two carrier KDDI, meanwhile, said it was not interested in offering the iPhone as its customers tend to skew younger, and as such already have music phones.

[CrankyBastard]

Surely the fact that it is garnering publicity shows that there is a market for it here. My son has an ipod touch but says that wifi is hopeless in Japan, making it almost impossible to enjoy the net on the road.
Will it be any better with the iphone?
I'm in the market for a new mobile.

[maraboutslim]

Surely the fact that it is garnering publicity shows that there is a market for it here. My son has an ipod touch but says that wifi is hopeless in Japan, making it almost impossible to enjoy the net on the road.
Will it be any better with the iphone?
I'm in the market for a new mobile.

FWIW, I found it quite easy to find a wifi connection last time I was in Tokyo and Yokohama and that was several years ago. I'd assume now there is even more access.

[CrankyBastard]

[Charles]

The iPhone 3G will be launched in Japan on July 11th.

Note that "Launched" does not necessarily mean "available for sale." I listened to a live bootleg audio feed of the Stevenote, he said it would be a phased rollout over a few weeks, so it's not clear when actual models will reach consumers' hands. Also he declared the price was fixed at $199 worldwide.

I'm sticking with my 1st Generation iPhone, since there's no AT&T 3G service in my area. I can get the 2.0 software anyway, the only thing I'll miss is the GPS.

[GomiGirl]

GomiBrother is at WWDC and he is feeding me information slowly on this. As we were the Newton distributor here in Japan, we have loads of apps to crank out again. This is really cool.

So if there are any iPhone developers here in Japan, I have been putting a team together and am still looking for more.

[CrankyBastard]

GomiBrother is at WWDC and he is feeding me information slowly on this. As we were the Newton distributor here in Japan, we have loads of apps to crank out again. This is really cool.

So if there are any iPhone developers here in Japan, I have been putting a team together and am still looking for more.

Go, Go GomiGirl. You were on Newt app devs!!!!
I still have one, hasn't worked in seven or eight years but..........it was a great lil machine, way ahead of it's time.
Looking forward to the iPhone and interesting apps.