That I cannot make a comment on. I was however informed that the phone that was dominant in the "youth" market was the Sharp (not sure of the model, or indeed if it is a smartphone), but Japanese nontheless.

The dominant business phones are the Emobile and the DoMoCo which is similar to the iphone in looks but uses Windows mobile.

When I was in Japan (work related) I was able to have a fiddle with both as most in the office had one or the other and again I was informed that they are popular for business use within the country.

From that experience I know that it is not a cakewalk for Apple in Japan and the Japanese have "homegrown" options to choose from.

Toshiba (Japanese) is also a big player in Japan and even released the TG01 in the UK. Apparently another "iphone killer".

Yet they seem to show apple (an american company) love. The ipod is dominant. Don't sony and every other japanese electronic company make a mp3 player of some sort?

Impossible, American products do not sell in Japan. Many people on this forum have argued this.

I dont know why people need to try to diminish the sales or prop them up. The fact of the matter is the iphone sold 1.69 million units in japan in the last FY.....compared to 2.4 million psp's and 3.9 million DS's. Each iphone in the states is comparable price and im sure the market for smartphones is far more narrow than mobile gaming in japan.

I think thats pretty solid for a product. Who gives a fuck about the nationalist argument, let it go, theres probably a japanese segment who operates like this just the same as there are tea party people who just yell a false mantra over and over too and people that have those bumper stickers about buying american or being out of jobs without the knowledge of a globally tied economy....its not indicative of the whole of the country or economy and its just a crutch to generalize arguments to fit our debates...IE: The 360 never had a fair shake or its sales are low because of these "nationalists". Let it go. Products worth buying get bought.

EDIT: Let me clarify my last comment. I dont mean the 360 isnt worth being bought...there are clearly different culteral tastes, and i dont pretend to speak for any other culture, but if it doesnt appeal it wont sell, it has nothing to do with the logo on the product, its not a problem with brand moreso with appeal to demographic.

A big reason why the Xbox 360 doesn't appeal in Japan is that it is a niche within a niche (HD gaming). Portables are all the rage in Japan and then you have the Wii craze going on. The HD gaming market is small as it is. If you look at the HD gaming market only, the Xbox 360's market share is a respectable 20% (4:1 for PS3). It has a decent following with HD gamers. But the PS3 following is growing at a very fast pace due to the whole Slim 299 thing while the 360's growth has fizzled out. Before the gap was 3:1, now it's 4:1 and growing.

I think the marketshare shrinkage is inevitable. The Xbox 360 pretty much hit the glass ceiling for hardcore HD gamers. All those gamers buying a PS3 Slim now are either more mainstream-oriented gamers (as opposed to the early adopting hardcores) looking to finally get into HD gaming or PS3 Phat owners looking to upgrade.

Well, Windows is the dominant OS in Japan...but I guess it's not "product"...

"it has nothing to do with the logo on the product"

Unless it has Halo on it...lol.

They've only just jumped onto the smartphone bandwagon, better late than never. But, actually, Sony only actually own half of the company, the other half is owned by Swedish Ericsson (surprise, surprise), and it's actually head-quartered in the UK. It's more a European company than a Japanese company.

I'll never get why people compare them with psp and ds.

thats alot of iphones o_0

A few different reasons.

1. They are examples of popular handheld devices in Japan.

2. Sales figures for other phone models in Japan are hard to come by, while I can get DS and PSP numbers right from this site.

3. All three devices are serious software platforms.