I spoke to Softbank workerd who said customers have after buying an iPhone returned to try and get there money back. They regret buying the thing. Unfortunately they are locked into a 2 year deal and cant get out of it.

Buyer beware, check it out with people who have bought one, dont buy and then regret the day you did

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122143317323034023.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Dude Mook, I think you just crossed the line right there

…. but on a more serious note, for the most part, I do agree that firmware design and user interfaces leave much to be desired on Japanese products. There are countless tales of programmers regularly facing insane schedule “Death Marches” for programming cell phone software, and most readily admit the coding is crap. And I also agree that the fonts and such maybe not the best it could be. But then again, in terms of aesthetics, I may have grown fond of the utilitarian non-antialiased ugliness prevalent in Japanese consumer electrocnics… (yes, I’m the jerk that changed all the Windows interfaces to the Classic theme and confused everyone else in the office).

I think the “Not from a Japanese company” is rather low, but that may be because people have already accepted the iPod, and it may be that people share my impression that despite the hype, the iPhone is just an iPod with a fancy touch screen that you happen to be able to talk to your friends on.

I’m actually surprised by the number of “Not from a Japanese company 4.9% 5.1% 4.6%”. I suspected it would be higher. But then again, in my time living here, I’ve learned that most Japanese rarely tell you what they are really thinking. While food products are highly distrusted when from China, I’ve observed a greater prejudice toward Korean electronics like Samsung.

Can you find out what the average number of sales for a summer Friday might be, so you can extrapolate that to estimate iPhone shipments?

Without more info about survey method, etc, I’d be slightly wary about these figures for 50% of all sales, though.

http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20080714D14JFA22.htm

Some interesting numbers. 40% of handset sales at electronic retailers in Japan were accounted for by iPhone sales on the day of release. But 50% of total sales of all handsets that day were at Softbank shops.

Japan Handset Makers Seek To Survive iPhone Shock

http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20080714D12HH661.htm

Gist: Japan’s handset makers, unable to compete overseas against Nokia et al, are in for rough times. Mitsubishi and Sanyo are already out - now the question is just who’s next?

I’m looking for more info regarding a Japanese article that said that on the White Plan email is not free.

That was the impression I got from the pricing plans on their website.

I’m looking for more info regarding a Japanese article that said that on the White Plan email is not free. If that’s true, and given that it polls the server regularly, some people are in for a shock next month, I think.

Saw the new ad on the telly and it’s useless, BTW. Oh, and that j-cast translation is hideous!

Ken, word is that Apple and Softbank are not saying how many were shipped to Japan. They are keeping the number under wraps for now.

Speculation is that they are looking for articles just like this to appear:
http://en.j-cast.com/2008/07/11023424.html

The code on most Japanese made digital cameras and video cameras with touchscreens are pure crap as well because they are all developed with the same Japanese engineering mind which has little to do usability…If Japanese written firmware was so superior, why haven’t they been able to create better code and interfaces for their consumer electronic devices and phones? All you see are some ugly looking and convoluted pieces of code that don’t do the hardware features justice.

The same thought was flashing through my (clueless… Heh) brain (although I am not so sure I would be as quick to categorize the ‘Japanese engineering mind’) when I pushed ’submit comment’, because the interface on most Japanese consumer electronics (and I’m thinking of Sony’s MD players and accompanying software in particular) are indeed terrible.