iPhone’s Japanese Competitors

Posted in Industry, Technology & Software by Jon, January 9th, 2007

Happy New Year to all! And Happy Apple Fanboy Macworld San Franxmas Day!
Apple Fanboy Macworld San Franxmas Day is the name I have given to today – the day that follows the annual Macworld San Francisco conference, where Steve “Claus” Jobs bestows upon the world more wonderful toys for us to splash our hard-earned money on. At this year’s event, Steve and Co. dropped a bombshell…one that the entire blogosphere has been alit with gossip about for some years now. The brand new Apple iPhone.

The iPhone’s details are laid out for all to see on the Apple site. It’s a nuclear bomb to the mobile comms industry and has shown once again that Apple has a knack for defining existing markets. The iPhone is essentially nothing new – it is a hybrid phone, media player and computer – but it has been made with typical Apple flair, has some innovative new features (especially in terms of interface) and, crucially, looks and acts like an iPod. Instead of aiming for the alpha-geek early adopters of hybrid phones, Apple is aiming at the iPod crowd. Because of iPhone and its mainstream appeal, in 5 years time every consumer will think it’s completely normal to have full access to Google Maps on their phone and be able to watch widescreen movies on it (whether the phone is an iPhone or not), in exactly the same way we all think it’s completely normal to carry around 20GB of music now (thanks to the original, genre-defining iPod). And you just watch this thing sell. This thing will print money.

But what of Japan? Surely Japan, with its robot toilets and cars that run on the power of thought, already has some decent iPhone competitors?

Interestingly enough, not really. Japan has enjoyed internet and media-playing capabilities on regular consumer-level phones for a number of years now and the market for “real” hybrid phones has been quite small. Perhaps it has something to do with aesthetics – the trade-off in size for a phone running something like Windows Mobile Edition for the perceived gain (so, I can browse the web…but I can do that already, can’t I?) must seem quite significant, especially for a market that is used to playful looking phones such as the ones below:

However, there do exist some recent newcomers to the Japanese phone market which can be considered to be iPhone competitors at this point. Lets take a quick look at them.

Softbank X01HT
The X01HT (with its very Apple-esque website) is the first smart-phone product from the newly re-branded Softbank (previously Vodafone Japan). It features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, runs on Windows Mobile, memory expansion via microSD and Bluetooth connectivity. Of course I’m a biased Apple Fanboy, but when I look at this picture after seeing the iPhone, all I can think about is “hmm…look at all those buttons…”.

Willcom WS004SH
This Willcom offering is another Windows Mobile phone, and offers similar functionality to the above model. Input is achieved via a slide-out keyboard – an input method that I feel Apple have effectively deprecated with the iPhone…

Willcom WS007SH
Another, newer, offering from Willcom. This model is slightly smaller than most smart phones available (but still feels a little “brick-like”) and has all the trimmings you would expect from a phone powered by a variant of Windows – internet browsing, media playing. However, there is no Wi-Fi which means it won’t be possible to, say, download a Skype client and use it as a VOIP phone for free calls; something which I see being a possibility with the iPhone, although it’s too early to tell yet.

And that’s it!
Yes, that’s right. 3 current-gen Japanese phones worthy of being placed in the same genre as the iPhone, for now. What does this mean? I think for the industry as a whole (not just in Japan) the release of the iPhone is a huge kick in the arse. It’s going to send a shockwave through the mobile comms industry as the sales start to add up, forcing the likes of Nokia and Motorola to play a relentless game of catch-up – just like Sony tried to do when they dropped the ball on portable media players, giving way to the original iPod.

That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom for the Japanese companies, however. For one, the market hasn’t shown that Japanese consumers are ready for such a phone yet. For another, the iPhone doesn’t even hit Japan until 2008! That gives Docomo, Softbank, AU and Willcom plenty of time to get their strategy sorted out…

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