isnt Windows a monster in Japan aswell ?

Windows....the OS for computers? Is there a domestic alternative? Mac is American too LOL

We're talking about phones, but even then i believe Macbooks have a decent share of hardware in South Korea, but probably nowhere nearly as large as Samsung. Lenovo, Dell, hp, etc all probably sell poorly there.

For Windows Phones, I think their market share is crap tastic in Japan.

Japan doesnt like Europe either ? :c

Because Nokia is European and Samsung Korean...

The conversation you entered was about South Korea, not Japan.

In Japan, Samsung probably doesn't do too well either. Dunno who has market share.

My point only was that Apple, despite not being a domestic brand for phones, is doing decent in South Korea/China. Not sure about Japan though, probably doeing decent too.

Still it's hard for a non domestic brand to do well in these very patriotic countries.

explain playstation 2 and nintendo wii high sales

I prefer the PS3.  But for the big AAA multiplayer games to play with your friends, you have to get it for the xbox360.  Setting up your party system is so much easier on xbox360.  Also for the PS3, the people in the party seems to get separated more often and it's a bigger hassle to link back together (because of the lack of cross-game chat/party).  If you like multiplayer for the competition and play with randoms that you met online (but not in real person), it doesn't really matter which system.  

PS2 established itself before the first Xbox was released. The 360 and the PS3 had almost nothing to offer to the casual crowd, right up to 2010, when the Wii was released.

A couple of reasons for that. First the price compared to PS3 really helped. It had better games at launch. Better online, Better controller, better graphics and it's American. Americans like to support American products during hard conomic times. Same reason the PS3 and Wii do better in Japan.

So if It's American brand name why did the Zune fail when the IPods flourished? Why does the IPhone outsell pretty much every cell phone n the US? Why do Japanese cars sell a lot better then GM products? So tired of people saying one of the main reasons the XBox sells so well in the US is because It's an American brand name. Also tired of the price excuse when the arcade/core units sell far less then the 250gig systems do. Yes the price was a big different YEARS ago when the PS3 had in the infamous 599 dollar price tag, but those years are long gone and the XBox is still selling MUCH better then PS3 in the US.

It sells better for a lot of reasons, but the ones that stick out to me the most are:

A) It has a better focus on the FPS and Western Market. Sales flourish in the US for those titles. The FPS market is still king, at least in the US.

B) Being the FPS machine, most people prefer the controller over the PS3/Wii controls outside of fighting games. Everyone that I've spoken to vastly prefers the controller for a FPS vs playing say Killzone on a PS3 controller. In sales I run into the rare person who said the Wiimote was the best FPS controller but they are few and far between.

C) XBox Live is a force to be reckoned with and a lot of people buy an XBox just to play with their friends over XBox Live. They don't seem to care that it costs $60 a year.

D) Being the shooter audience we are in the US, MS has done a good job with a small amount of select shooters IE Gears of War and Halo. Don't forget the timed maps for Call of Duty, which is the best selling title in the US. People will want those new maps first, and they can only get them on the xbox 360.

E) For people that already own a Wii and/or want a different from controllerless games the Kinect is there as a great alternative. They were able to grab some casuals in the US where as Sony's playstation move product line has not been able to garner the same attention.

If you don't agree with what I said that's fine. But this is from retail experience of working in electronics for the last 8+ years and these are the reasons I see everyday why people buy the 360 over the PS3. These are just the *main* reasons, and trust me it never has to do with the price.

The Wii holds a strong lead because they were able to get people to buy systems when they never owned a console in their life time. The Wii is impossible to replicate in terms of getting all the casuals to buy the system. Unless of course MS or Sony finds that right item to get non-gamers again into games.

EDIT: Sorry for the gram-error I was posting this before I went to sleep.

That is a really good question. I think the variation in sales figures simply show that the US/UK/ Continental Europe and Japan are simply expecting something different and you just can't satisfy everyone at the same time.

When I hear "XBOX 360 has the better online gaming experience" I think that online gaming is really important for many US gamers. Maybe you are just more into competition. I think that most Europeans simply enjoy singleplayer with a entertaining story or splitscreen games like Lego or Mario Kart. The competitive gamers are more likely to be found on the PC.

Integration of Facebook and Twitter... I personally know nobody who has a twitter account and most people are using facebook only casually. I know nobody who would put a game record on facebook. These features seem not to be very important and I often ask myself "why do developers take these features so serious? I have my PC/Laptop for the internet and I use my console mainly as a gaming device."

XBOX-Live... Microsoft charging for online gaming is simply not fair, since other platforms are offering the service for free. It may work in the US, but my friends owning a X360 simply refuse to pay. They say that Microsoft is taking advantage of a monopoly and they feel ripped off. I don't want to start an argument about this... but in Germany Xbox Live is surely hurting the reputation of Microsoft.

So, all in all I think that the common US/UK gamer simply has a different taste than a common European or Japanese gamer. What works in the US does not automatically work in Germany or Japan. The XBOX suceeded in bringing PC developers to the console market. So the userbase is simply split between console style-games and former PC-style games.