Japanese cell phones are highly complicated and they have a lot of features, we all know this. The problem is that it is estimated that people actually only use a maximum of 10 percent of the functions of mobile phones in Japan, according to Nobi Hayashi. He actually gave an example in the Panasonic P905i, which comes with 3-inh TV, GPS, 3G, motion controlled Wii Style games and the hard truth is that all these are not that perfect as motion controls are slow and the TV cuts out. We have a lot of complicated menus that do hide the cool functions in deep sub-menus. With this in mind the iPhone should be quite good as it is easy to use and has enough features.

Talking strictly about the iPhone Hayashi said: “It may sell modestly as a smart phone or as an upgraded iPod, but it’s not quite cutting it as a competitor in our mobile-based culture.” This basically means that the iPhone would need more features in order to be suitable in the Japanese smart phone market. A recent poll also showed that half of the people in the poll would want to buy an iPhone but only a fifth actually knew what it was. The only thing that is good at the moment for the iPhone in the Japanese market is the Apple brand, which is well known and might sell alone a lot of the units that will be sold. An increase in features would be good and might pull off a huge surprise in the country but still, the current line of features of the iPhone is considered not enough for the Japanese mobile market, even if the leaders have too many features. Quite strange, no?