

Survey: The iPhone is No. 1 in Japan - kungfudoi
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/07/04/survey-the-iphone-is-no-1-in-japan/

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natch
Is there any information anywhere on the "survey" methodology? I can't tell
whether they just asked store clerks for their opinions, or were actually
getting hard data somehow. Reading between the lines on this one doesn't cut
it.

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patio11
Yes, there is. The underlying survey is described here. With pictures. Short
version: this is automatically gathered data from all the stores in
participating chains.

<http://bcnranking.jp/info/index.html?ref=products>

(Edited to add: I misread which survey they were using originally. This
comment previously had the wrong link in it.)

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pwim
The iPhone may be the top selling "smart phone" in Japan, but it is far from
the top selling mobile phone. According to
[http://wirelesswatch.jp/2009/05/14/top-10-japanese-mobile-
ph...](http://wirelesswatch.jp/2009/05/14/top-10-japanese-mobile-phones/) the
iPhone is not even in the Top 10 of all phones sold in Japan.

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RK
_According to this survey, cellphone sales are plummeting in Japan but sales
of smartphones have grown 80% in the past year_

Are they considering cellphones and smartphones as separate categories
somehow? If not, I'm wondering if phone sales are just changing due to the
economic situation, or a change in behavior...

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pwim
In the past in Japan, the carriers subsidized the cost of new phones, so
people regularly upgraded their phones. However, recently regulations have
been introduced to prevent this, and thus consumers have had to bare the full
cost of new handsets. As such, there has been a drop in overall handset sales.

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rgrieselhuber
I'll provide anecdotal support. I've seen a huge increase in the number of
normal Japanese people (not expats, etc.) with iPhones in the last 6 months.

When it was first released here, it was pretty much only the foreigners but
something shifted.

More and more Japanese people that I speak with say they have a hard time even
considering anything else but an iPhone now and, to be sure, the Japanese
handsets look pretty boring in comparison. That is not an easy feat
considering the head start the Japanese mobile market had before the iPhone
arrived.

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bkj123
continuing with RK, natch, and patio11, I'd really like to know more about the
survey parameters. For instance...

1\. Does anyone know which stores were surveyed? 2\. Did it include stores
that do not carry iphones (Are there such stores in Japan)? 3\. how was
sampling conducted (e.g. only certain metro areas)? 4\. how did the responding
stores compare with the overall sample/population? For example, did a
disproportionate ratio of stores carrying iphone respond?

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trickjarrett
Didn't we have a news story a few months ago talking about how the iPhone was
not being adopted well in Japan?

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lanaer
You wouldn’t be thinking of “Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone”, would you?
That story happens to be linked in the second paragraph of this article.

