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“Apple's iPhone is a hit everywhere in the world — except for Japan.
It turns out that Apple's video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market.”


Fox News, 2015
Did you not read the article you posted?

That article is about the original iPhone and iPhone 3G and it was published in 2009.

The article ended with:

Fox News said:
"I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."

Sounds like Apple successfully adjusted to the Japanese market.

Wait, are you trying to imply 6 year old information related to 6 year old market conditions might somehow be relevant to Japanese consumer habits 6 years later? Cuz if so, I mean... heh, okay I guess.

"We're number 1 in the world... THE WORLD!!11!! - Nokia, 2005.
Am I doin' that right? :D
Actually, it was from March 2009, so Nokia was probably still number back one then, or at least close.
 
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Amazing how everything has gone full circle going from Japanese dominance in electronics to Apple ruling in Japan in a short space of time when 10 years ago everyone was using a NEC, Sony, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Sharp , Panasonic etc keitai phone.

I remember when Steve Jobs praised Japanese electronics when he a compared Sony Vaio Tz Laptop to the 'new' macbook air and Xperia phones to the 'new' iphone.
I dont think he could imagine in 2021 that Apple computers, tablets and Phones would have near market dominance in the Japanese market.


Some pointless trivia about the Japanese market. Samsung deliberately remove or minimize visible samsung branding for products sold in Japan to hide its south korean origins https://www.galaxymobile.jp/

This was mainly due to the massive backlash and boycott when samsung management made the insane decision to remove all 'Japanese culture' references starting from touchwiz 6.0 , so they censored, removed or replaced Japanese emojis which was a dumb move because it breaks the standardized legacy unicode specification.

some examples:

🎌 Japanese crossed flags Replaced with South Korean crossed flags

🗼 Tokyo tower replaced by generic

🗾 map of Japan was removed, if someone sent you this emoji it would be a blank box

🎎 Japanese dolls replaced with korean dolls wearing traditional Hanbok

there is more but don't want to wall of text this post..


Samsung reversed this eventually but the animosity remains hence the galaxymobile sans samsung branding for Japanese market stands to this day.
Look at your user name man… way to show your hand! on buddy, we don’t need this stuff here.

Lived in Japan for 20 years, family is Japanese. But i don’t think we need to post “they started it” type stuff on macrumours…

Galaxy is not branded here because Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands in general.

I have never heard of those modifications you mentioned, and that was not really widely reported here at the time. Certainly nothing that would shift full buying demographic.

Walk into any big box electronic store and they will tell you Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands.

Go to the TV section and you’ll see one or two LG models, no Samsung, and 95% Japanese brands.

Drive on the road and you won’t see a single Korean car.

If that’s what consumers want, that’s fine, and it’s also expected to protect the domestic industries somewhat. But let’s not start with “they started it” type comments.
 
my iPhone 12 Pro Max SUCKS.
Speaker crackles. poor sound. 5G not that fast. My iPhone 8 Plus was faster with 5G evolution. audio cuts in and out. Samsung has a much better screen.

The Samsung S20 Ultra and S21 are a better phone. Hands down. Probably the last iPhone I buy.
And that is relevant to this overwhelming success story in some way ?
 
Its funny to notice, Japanese loves Apple devices, like Macrumors has titled , its a total domination: half of market
In the other hands, they boycott Xbox consoles and most of american products, Japan is known for being self nationalist/patriotic
Why Apple succeed?
China is the counter example: Apple need to share market with chinese competitors
Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo
I think it’s because they have the luxury / cool image here.

Also iPhone drive the move to smartphones in around 2011. Smartphone and iPhone were synonymous for a while. Galaxy came late to the Japan market and never got much share, so the first main challenger to the iPhone was essentially absent.

Japanese brands also came fairly late with quite weak offerings. The main thing they allowed was the big 3 telecos to load up on bloatware. iPhone was initially only available on SoftBank for this reason, and were important in building their customer base. Many people moved providers just to get an iPhone.
 
Hmm,
Here's the conventional understanding for the removal

  • Samsung's struggle in Japan relative to other markets due to strong preference for domestic brands
  • "the underlying pretense that Japan, as a collective, is unwilling to accept the fact that Korea has surpassed it in terms of mobile technology"

Hence, Samsung Officially announced (and was globally reported) its logo removal strategy in Japan. So, even if there were any such alleged backlash prior to the removal, I don't see making an official announcement being any helpful.

To the contrary, you make it seem like Samsung first removed the emoticons, then received backlash, and in response removed their logo to deceive the Japanese.

So far from what I've searched, the reason for the removal of some of the emoji's, at best, is unknown (https://blog.emojipedia.org/samsung-puts-japan-back-on-the-map/).

And at the very least is not related to the removal of the Samsung logo as the dates do not add up to support your claim. Based on the link you provided (https://emojipedia.org/), they were removed after the removal of Samsung's logo in 2015.

  • Tokyo tower never had a dedicated look and has been using a generic tower until the change in 2018.
  • The map of Japan was removed in 2016 after the removal of the Samsung logo.
  • The Japanese doll has never been replaced with hanbok wearing dolls.
    https://emojipedia.org/

Further, it is known that other emoticons were also removed, not including the handful of Japan specific ones. Yes, there's only a handful - not so much that requiries a "wall of text" as you claimed.

Now, the crossed Japanese flag that was replaced by the crossed Korean flag in 2015 (couldn't find which was removed first as both are reported to have been removed/replaced in 2015 - early April is all I found regarding the Samsung logo). This perhaps is the only controversial move, only assuming the flag was removed before the Samsung logo.

  • However Samsung's smartphone market share in Japan was always struggling in Japan (partly due to brand nationalism), which is the more logical reason behind removing its brand.
  • Samsung, a Korean company, with already low market share in Japan deciding to replace the crossed Japanese flag emoticon on all their phones (catering towards larger non-Japanese market share) with the missing crossed Korean flag isn't all that unimaginable. Note, there's only one crossed flag (Japanese crossed flag) in the full Unicode Emoji list. So, why the big backlash, if there were any, over a single emoji that only Japan got to enjoy. Perhaps the more understandable backlash would have come from Korea where the market share was much larger, for the lone crossed flag emoji being a Japanese one.

So, I just don't see the drama (mainly blaming Samsung) associating the emoticons and Samsung's logo.

I get the Samsung hate here, and perhaps in Japan (the emoticons were removed for some time after all). Not preferring one brand over another based on preference and subjective opinions is one thing, but unfounded dislike of a brand is just disingenuous.
Just check the posters username to understand why they are posting what they did.
 
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“Apple's iPhone is a hit everywhere in the world — except for Japan.
It turns out that Apple's video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market.”


Fox News, 2015
When does Fox News ever told something that is remotely true…:rolleyes:
 
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I get the Samsung hate here, and perhaps in Japan (the emoticons were removed for some time after all). Not preferring one brand over another based on preference and subjective opinions is one thing, but unfounded dislike of a brand is just disingenuous.

Galaxy is not branded here because Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands in general.

I have never heard of those modifications you mentioned, and that was not really widely reported here at the time. Certainly nothing that would shift full buying demographic.

Walk into any big box electronic store and they will tell you Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands.

Go to the TV section and you’ll see one or two LG models, no Samsung, and 95% Japanese brands.

Also in Japan and this is my experience too. The Japanese prefer domestic and western high end products over Korean and Chinese goods. When I went to buy a washing machine the staff just straight out told me not to buy a Chinese brand and instead take you to all the Japanese models. Amazon.jp is full of reviews for cheaper Chinese goods that are either "it's good for a Chinese product", "decent cost performance", or "<insert complaints> next time I will buy domestic".

The iPhone has been strong here since at least 2017. You just need a trip to Akihabara to see how much an iPhone is valued above Android devices!
 
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Apple's carrier partner, Softbank, utilized Arashi for their ads. Arashi is (was, as they went to hiatus now) the number one boy-band in Japan. Their compilation album hit the world-sales record internationally.


It's really not a surprise.
 
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I think that most people in the world from every countries would like to have an iPhone, the problem actually is that not everybody has enough money to afford it. The proportion of iPhone vs Android is much bigger in wealthy countries than is in third world countries.

It’s all down to an economic issue, as simple as that.
I think there is some truth to that - given the on average higher prices of iPhones, there is probably a substantial group who would want an iPhone but who uses Android. But I also think it is an oversimplification to regard this as a direct correlation. There are many exceptions to the rule. E.g. Germany is quite affluent, yet Android dominates.

Then there are network effects or the lack thereof. E.g. in countries without an iPhone majority there is no social pressure to use iMessage. This makes the value proposition of the iPhone less compelling in such places.

Combine this with the significant price variations between countries - iPhones cost around 40% more in some European nations vs Japan or the US, which means people in expensive-iPhone-countries not only have to be able to afford the extra cost, they also have to be convinced that they are not being exploited/ripped off compared to cheap-iPhone-countries.
 
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Look at your user name man… way to show your hand! on buddy, we don’t need this stuff here.

Lived in Japan for 20 years, family is Japanese. But i don’t think we need to post “they started it” type stuff on macrumours…

Galaxy is not branded here because Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands in general.

I have never heard of those modifications you mentioned, and that was not really widely reported here at the time. Certainly nothing that would shift full buying demographic.

Walk into any big box electronic store and they will tell you Japanese consumers don’t like Korean brands.

Go to the TV section and you’ll see one or two LG models, no Samsung, and 95% Japanese brands.

Drive on the road and you won’t see a single Korean car.

If that’s what consumers want, that’s fine, and it’s also expected to protect the domestic industries somewhat. But let’s not start with “they started it” type comments.
But what about Chinese then? If Korean is bad, what is then China? Foxconn is the free China while Xiaomi is communist China, do they see any difference?
 
Wasn't it because of free or heavily subsidized like Softbank's iPhone for Everybody?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/02/softbank-offering-free-iphone-for-everybody/
Even if they give free iPhone, iOS shares more than half of market, its considerable and brutal as figures
For comparison, iOS doesnt go above 20/25% at average in Europe (excluding UK which is similar to USA market)
Basically, Apple dominates in anglophone countries (usa, canada, australia, uk, new zealand...)
Japan is only exception
Maybe Apple devices are seen as luxury/premium/social statut for whoever owns it
 
I remember when Steve Jobs praised Japanese electronics when he a compared Sony Vaio Tz Laptop to the 'new' macbook air and Xperia phones to the 'new' iphone.

I don't believe Steve Jobs was in the right state of mind when he made that comment. The Vaio Tz laptop looks like a generic bulky laptop. Hardly looks like a macbook air unless you're on psychedelics.
Xperia and iphone? lol... Not even close.


Hmm,
Here's the conventional understanding for the removal

  • Samsung's struggle in Japan relative to other markets due to strong preference for domestic brands
  • "the underlying pretense that Japan, as a collective, is unwilling to accept the fact that Korea has surpassed it in terms of mobile technology"

Hence, Samsung Officially announced (and was globally reported) its logo removal strategy in Japan. So, even if there were any such alleged backlash prior to the removal, I don't see making an official announcement being any helpful.

To the contrary, you make it seem like Samsung first removed the emoticons, then received backlash, and in response removed their logo to deceive the Japanese.

So far from what I've searched, the reason for the removal of some of the emoji's, at best, is unknown (https://blog.emojipedia.org/samsung-puts-japan-back-on-the-map/).

And at the very least is not related to the removal of the Samsung logo as the dates do not add up to support your claim. Based on the link you provided (https://emojipedia.org/), they were removed after the removal of Samsung's logo in 2015.

  • Tokyo tower never had a dedicated look and has been using a generic tower until the change in 2018.
  • The map of Japan was removed in 2016 after the removal of the Samsung logo.
  • The Japanese doll has never been replaced with hanbok wearing dolls.
    https://emojipedia.org/

Further, it is known that other emoticons were also removed, not including the handful of Japan specific ones. Yes, there's only a handful - not so much that requiries a "wall of text" as you claimed.

Now, the crossed Japanese flag that was replaced by the crossed Korean flag in 2015 (couldn't find which was removed first as both are reported to have been removed/replaced in 2015 - early April is all I found regarding the Samsung logo). This perhaps is the only controversial move, only assuming the flag was removed before the Samsung logo.

  • However Samsung's smartphone market share in Japan was always struggling in Japan (partly due to brand nationalism), which is the more logical reason behind removing its brand.
  • Samsung, a Korean company, with already low market share in Japan deciding to replace the crossed Japanese flag emoticon on all their phones (catering towards larger non-Japanese market share) with the missing crossed Korean flag isn't all that unimaginable. Note, there's only one crossed flag (Japanese crossed flag) in the full Unicode Emoji list. So, why the big backlash, if there were any, over a single emoji that only Japan got to enjoy. Perhaps the more understandable backlash would have come from Korea where the market share was much larger, for the lone crossed flag emoji being a Japanese one.

So, I just don't see the drama (mainly blaming Samsung) associating the emoticons and Samsung's logo.

I get the Samsung hate here, and perhaps in Japan (the emoticons were removed for some time after all). Not preferring one brand over another based on preference and subjective opinions is one thing, but unfounded dislike of a brand is just disingenuous.

Takeshima sounds like a right-wing, 2ch Japanese person. They're about as credible as the QANON crowd from 4chan. I actually took the time to look through his posts after reading your post, and his post contains a lot of false and slanderous information about Samsung.
He claims that the high DRAM, NAND and SSD pricing in recent years is due to a collusive duopoly between Samsung and SK Hynix, which is one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard. Has this person been asleep during all of 2015-2020, when GPUs and RAMs were going out of stock all over the world due to the bitcoin bubble and then the lockdowns in 2020? Was NVIDIA and AMD also colluding, because I had a friend buy a mediocre GTX 1050 ti in 2018 for $300+ when its launch price was $150ish. Every single computer part went up in price, not just RAM and SSD.

Samsung and other memory manufacturers correctly realized that the bitcoin rise in 2016-2018 was an unsustainable bubble and declined to expand capacity, since that would have left them with a ton of excess and unused capacity after the demand fell off the cliff. Had they gone through with expansions, they would be left with high fixed costs to set up the factory with potentially no ramp-up phase, because the demand wouldn't be there. This was not solely a Samsung decision. Every memory manufacturer came to the same conclusion and independently declined to expand capacity too much.

His argument also fails the common sense test. The memory fab business also has far more players than the logic fab business, where there is only really 2 companies: TSMC and Samsung at a distant second. The memory fab industry, at that time, had Samsung, Micron, Elpida, Toshiba, SK Hynix, Intel and a few more. Samsung and SK Hynix are in no position to use duopolistic pricing, as their competitors could undercut them and steal marketshare. Samsung's superior manufacturing lead in memory fabrication wouldn't have saved them from aggressive competitor pricing, as people are less picky about RAM + SSD performance than they are about CPU + GPU performance.
Now if you are talking about TSMC monopoly pricing at the sub-10nm logic node, then you would make more sense, but saying Samsung and SK Hynix can use duopolistic pricing in an ultra-competitive industry with many competitors is just non-sense.
The only time there was collusion was years before the the crypto bubble, where Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Elpida (Japan), Toshiba (Japan) and others all agreed to price fix. Samsung was also the one that confessed to the collusion to regulators and got many manufacturers fined heavily. The point is, you would need a large-scale collusion among ALL major memory manufacturers to price-fix in this industry. Just 2 manufacturers agreeing to price fix wouldn't have done anything.

Anyway, history shows that Samsung and other memory manufacturers made the right move, as after the bitcoin bubble collapsed in 2018, memory prices declined to historically low levels until the COVID lockdowns, indicating that there was no collusion and price spikes during those years was a natural result of high demand rather than market manipulation.

To anyone reading this, I would avoid listening to Takeshima. A lot of these Japanese right-wingers make their posts sound credible by posting false information and hoping that no one would look into them. Honestly, they're getting pretty aggravating, as they derail conversations into a pro-Japan, anti-Korea slant. At least 4chan keeps their racism and garbage contained in /pol/. These Japanese right-wing netizens try to make the Japan-Korea feud everywhere, even in completely irrelevant places like this thread. Just look at how he brought in Samsung into this discussion.

I noticed a lot of Japanese netizens have a particular problem with Samsung, mainly because Samsung dominated many of the industries Japan used to dominate such as semiconductor manufacturing, display manufacturing, etc. I think it has to do with superiority complex - Japanese people refuse to believe that Koreans (Samsung) could have defeated them fairly, so they concoct fantastical tales about Samsung's corruption to explain why they lost. Samsung may be corrupt (Bribes, price-fixing, etc), but that isn't why they lead high-level manufacturing. Their technology is just that much better than their competitors, which is why Apple uses Samsung OLED and not J-Display/SHARP OLED. BOE stole Samsung's display tech and is still having problems with yields. The only other manufacturer that seems capable is LG, another Korean company.

Another delusional J-netizen claimed that the Korean government controlled the world's media, and that's why K-pop was taking off, nevermind the fact that Japan's former Prime Minister funded and spearheaded the "Cool Japan" program. Their "blame Koreans/Samsung for our plight" sounds a lot like the alt-right people blaming Jews for running the bank and media.

Then you have the Japanophiles on a certain prominent, racist site who claim that Koreans and Jews are working together to enslave the entire world.
The mental gymnastics some people go through to explain their failures is honestly pretty laughable.

I also think this arrogance may cause them to lose in other industries such as the automobile market. I noticed that Takeshima also has an unusual hatred of Tesla and Elon Musk, accusing them of building low quality cars. The Toyota CEO also seems to have a dismissive attitude towards Tesla. There is a reason Tesla has the highest customer satisfaction rate, is rated #1 in safety by the NHTSA and commands 80% of the BEV market in the US and a commanding market-share in other markets. Rather than thinking that Japan is the best at everything, they should learn why they fell behind in semiconductors and are about to lose the auto market.

Its funny to notice, Japanese loves Apple devices, like Macrumors has titled , its a total domination: half of market
In the other hands, they boycott Xbox consoles and most of american products, Japan is known for being self nationalist/patriotic
Why Apple succeed?
China is the counter example: Apple need to share market with chinese competitors
Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo

Tesla also isn't doing well in Japan but is doing amazing in China and Korea. 40% EV revenue in China and around 70-80% BEV marketshare in Korea. I'm unsure if Tesla will be able to take a stronghold in Japan, as the auto industry is very large in Japan and is Japan's #1 export. It will take a long time for them to concede that Americans make better cars than Toyota. It will also do a lot of damage to their economy.

Xbox's situation is understandable, as Microsoft shot themselves in the foot last gen with the eSRAM disaster and restrictive DRM policies. SONY made a gamble that Samsung could double GDDR5 density on time and it paid off. Had Samsung not pulled through, the PS4 could've been a 4GB RAM machine and the market may have ignored the XBONE's DRM policies for its superior power.
Xbox may never regain the marketshare they had during the 360 generation unless SONY seriously screws up.
 
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