CyberMedia Blog

honeyee.mag is one of the most exclusive lifestyle magazines in Japan. Hiroshi Fujiwara, the founder of this magazine, gathers around some of the most creative people of metropolis Tokyo and reports about the latest trends in fashion, lifestyle and design. Recently a special edition of his magazine was published focusing on iPhone usage in Japan (‘About the iPhone at Hanimagu’ – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About iPhone – But Were Afraid to Ask). Many famous creatives like the musician Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso), creative director Koichiro Tanaka (e.g. Uniqlo iPhone app producer) and many others designers, photographers, creative directors etc. where interviewed and an iPhone user survey was conducted. The following data is only mirco data but it gives some interesting insights in the interests and user behavior of Japanese iPhone users.

1. Fast buyers – Japanese wanna have it first!

When the iPhone was first introduced to Japan in July 2008, long lines waited for days in front of the Softbank shop in Omotesando. As reported in the “iPhone Sales in Japan” article on March 3rd, sales and interest in iPhone as a mobile phone decreased drastically after the first month. The survey from honeyee.mag confirms that situation clearly: 84% of iPhone users bought their iPhone in the first month after its release; only 16% purchased it in the following 7month.

2. Burdens: Carrier or Email change required

“Mobile Number Portability” was introduced in October 2006 and allows to keep the same number when changing mobile carriers. In case of the iPhone only 33% used that possibility. Different to other mobile phones the iPhone didn’t support address book and data synchronization with Japanese phones. Also a new iPhone-only email address, that was different to normal Japanese email addresses had to be taken. Many problems occurred, messages couldn’t get send or received, were broken or blocked by other carriers. Knowing of the different nature of the phone you can say that those who purchased the iPhone were mostly Apple fans or gadget geeks, who bought it also they had ongoing contracts with other carriers.

3. In Japan the iPhone is ‘only’ a second phone

Japan is the most advanced mobile society in the world and Japanese handsets are still world leading. Due to the fast development of new phones and the fast changing rate of handsets, usability, content and service improved very much over the years. The iPhone was a big revolution in the West and enhanced mobile communication on 3G networks worldwide. But in Japan the iPhone was technically no revolution at all. At the time of its introduction about 90 million of 103million mobile phone users in Japan already surfed on 3G networks for years, had high-end handsets for several generations and were used to many features the iPhone doesn’t have (QR-code reader, “osaifu keita” [mobile payment], free mobile TV [1seg] etc.). Especially the carrier menu and rich Japanese content, Japanese were used to have for many years, are missing. “It’s a nice gadget to brows PC websites and play games but it can’t be compared to a Japanese phone”, was a common statement. Therefore Japanese use the iPhone as a second device, more like a PDA than a mobile phone. For Japanese the iPhone is “hard to use as a mobile phone”. Only 55% of iPhone users in Japan use it as a main phone.

4. Japanese like special colors

Another point the survey reveals is that 72% of Japanese iPhone users possess a “black iPhone”. That is not surprising because only the 16gb model is available in white and the price for the 16gb version was very high (80.520yen = 823$). Considering that, you can say that Japanese tend to buy a special colored white phone when they purchase a 16gb version. Japanese like to have a variety of designs and colors to choose from. In Japan all carriers introduce 3 times a year 10 to 20 new phones in a huge variety of colors. So Japanese are spoilt to chooses an individual color and design for each phone they purchase. Never the less there are also a lot of Apple fans (Macintosh, iPod etc.) in Japan. Many Japanese like the simple design of the iPhone but would like to have more color and design variations like the aluminium body of the new Macbook or the color ranges of the iPod nano series.

5. iPhone = ‘Expensive gadget’

The above mentioned high purchasing cost of the iPhone (till the “iPhone for everybody” campaign) and the expensive flat rate plans for PC site browsing, compared to other Japanese phones, gave the Japanese an image of the iPhones as an expensive gadget. Additionally 45% of iPhone users think that the monthly charges are high. Those who felt that the prices are high also pointed out, that especially the 3G package prices increase extremely when they travel abroad. 33% of the questioned people use the iPhone abroad. Also the Japanese iPhone contracts by Softbank have special price plans for international usage, some users have additional contracts in other countries. Those who don’t have additional contracts and didn’t inform themselves about the costs, report that they were shocked about the extrem high prices for data transfer. When abroad, map applications like Google Maps are one of the most used features.

6. iPhone users are Mac users

81% of iPhone users in Japan are using Macintosh computers. Of course the conducted survey specialized on creative people who are more likely to use Macintosh computers for work or at home. But if you are used to the Mac OS it’s very easy to adapt to the interface of the iPhone and you are more likely to have interest in the Mac OS-based iPhone. For the average Japanese mobile phone user, who mostly don’t even have a computer at home it’s difficult to use the computer-depending iPhone. Contrary most people in the “hanikamu” community (creatives featured or working in fields touched by the honeyee.mag) are usually very busy creative people. The usage of MobileMe, that very useful service to sync different devices over the air, is very high in this work field. Although the charges for MobileMe are seen as too expensive, 62% are active users and will keep on using this service also if the price doesn’t change.

7. Case protection is low

Worldwide most of smart phone users protect their phone with a case. For Japanese mobile phones have already a unique design and color and should be build sold. Phone stripes (“keitai straipu”), photo stickers (“purikura”) and attachable glitter (“kirakira shiru”) are used to personalize the device. The idea of putting a phone in a case is very new in Japan. About 40% of Japanese don’t like the idea of hiding the beautiful design of the iPhone. That’s a very high ratio compared to other countries.

8. QWERTY-Keyboard stays unused

For foreigners in Japan it’s a pain in the ass to write English on a Japanese phone or to search net web. There is nothing like a T9 text input method and also the latest touch screen phones don’t have a software qwerty-keyboard. In Japan 62% of the creatives prefer the Japanese “ten key pad” instead of the full keyboard (Probably the ratio at normal users is much higher). Japanese are used to the “ten key pad” from previous phones and the buttons of the full keyboard are seen as too small. It normally takes some time to get used to the touch keyboards of the iPhone, but Japanese who try it out only once, experience many key misses and are frustrated very quickly. For that reason the rumor spread quickly that the iPhone is hard to use for Japanese.

9. iPhone = iPod with internet and phone functions

The appeal of the iPhone is that it’s “an iPod that can also be used as a phone”. It is very usefull to download songs directly over wifi or puchase them in the mobile iTunes on the go! 84% of Japanese iPhone users use the iPhone to listen to music on a regular base. But some complain that the screen freezes sometimes when listening to music while browsing the net on safari.

10. ‘BlackBerry No!’ – ‘G1 Yes!’

When you talk about smart phones a year ago you primarily talked about the BlackBerry first. The high interest in the iPhone in Japan should implement also a high interest in the latest Black Berry Storm, just released abroad, which is now also equipped with a touch screen. But actually 62% of Japanese iPhone users conducted in the survey don’t show any interest in the BlackBerry. Contrary to the relative low interest in the Black Berry there is a high awareness in the Android based G1 from T-mobile, that just came out in America. 62% are interested in the new Google Phone G1. The G1 seems to be a better value due its additional hard keyboard, touch screen functionality – no multitouch function like the iPhone – and the support of MobileMe. But concerning about the design the iPhone is much more attractive to Japanese users than the G1.

11. 100% Satisfaction

The Japanese users are totally satisfied with their iPhone. As an entertainment tool for music, video and games, as a business tool for company mails and data transfer, the iPhone is a gadget with the perfect balance between work and play for Japanese. Also the many available applications, rich content and different ways to play around, Japanese creatives love the way of usage of the iPhone. It hasn’t been long since the iPhone was introduced to the Japanese market. Now everybody is keen on seeing the next developments of the iPhone. Quit all of iPhone users are happy with it and want to keep on using the same kind of device. 95% of iPhone users will defintely buy the new edition of the iphone as soon as it comes out. Also the current iPhone is enough for most of the users, they wish to have a bigger memory, a copy and paste function and a higher resolution camera in a new iPhone.