iPhone is doing better in Japan than Wired.com expected … much better! Nikkei.net has posted a report on Japanese tech market research company’s (BCN’s) survey of Japanese handset sales. This was not just a tiny sampling. 2,300 stores that sell mobile phones participated in the BCN survey. The results? In the smartphone category, the iPhone 3G 8GB easily came in at number one followed by the 16GB iPhone. The NTT CoCoMo Aquos SH-04A came in at number three. The iPhone 3GS launched just days ago (too late for the BCN survey) and with its enhanced camera and video capability, it’s a fair bet that iPhone 3GS will quickly move up the list of hot 
smartphones in Japan.
Smartphone best sellers in Japan:
- iPhone 3G 8GB
- iPhone 3G 16GB
- Aquos SH-04A
Shiho Hishida poses with her new Apple iPhone
The report said that while ordinary cellphone sales are plummeting, smartphone sales have grown by nearly 80 percent in a year.
Perhaps it’s time for Wired.com to re-write (again) their anti-iPhone hit piece (Why the Japanese Hate iPhone)? It seems that carrying an iPhone in Japan doesn’t make you “look pretty lame” as Wired erroneously concluded.
Lets take a look at this from another perspective. Apple, as a company, only has 1 model (as of the current time I am writing this) released in Japan, whilst Sharp has more than 1 model for sale (Definitely sure). More models would allow for greater diversity. A power user may want one which is significantly more powerful to take higher quality images, videos, storage, than say the average primary student, whose purpose is to keep in touch with his or her parents. Compare this to users who wish to purchase an Apple product, but is greeted to just that ONE model of which they have to get if they want a phone developed by Apple. I’m not saying that the iPhone is undesirable, but if there were a few choices for the masses, the iPhone would definitely not be topping the table in terms of unit sold. Rather, you might see the iPhone, the iPhone Mini, the iPhone Nano somewhere in the middle of the table, with each garnering a number of users.
So it is erroneous to compare the iPhone (which is the only model offered in Japan) to any one of Sharp’s phones (of which there are several models). Perhaps the editor should think from a more logical point of view and compare Apple’s and Sharp’s; there’s a more accurate comparison in terms of units sold. And we all know who is on top in Japan – definitely not the fruit phone.
@John Lee,
Wrong! The iPhone as some variants with capacity. It was #1 and #2 in the smartphone category. The survey was for smartphones and unless Sharp sells lot of smartphone variants, the total, I doubt will not add up. HTC (who do only smartphones) did have 4 in the top 10. Maybe, someone can tally that total.