[Edward Kirk]

While for a time it was believed that it would overcome it's shortcomings in the Japansese market, one analyst is now says that sales may fall very short of the predicted 1 million mark. Despite having enough to go around, its lack of features and high price could cause it to sell just half a million units.

MM Research says that Apple has sold 200,000 iPhones in Japan in the first two months, but demand for the device has fallen steadily since then. Now analysts predict that the iPhone could peak at around 500,000 units this year, well under the 1 million predicted.

“The iPhone is a difficult phone to use for the Japanese market because there are so many features it doesn’t have,” says Eimei Yokota of MM Research. One in particular is the lack of "emoji", or emoticons used to spice up emails. Takuro Hiraoka with GfK Marketing Services Japan Ltd., says that the real issue is a lack of education on what to do with an iPhone. “Japanese users don’t know what to do with an iPhone,” he said. “Sales could grow if Apple provides specific examples of how it can be used.”

Currently Apple is battling more than 10 domestic handset manufacturers for a piece of Japan's mobile pie. It's a pretty big pie, too, amounting to 50 million phones sold a year. Nokia has less than 1% share there, while Sharp leads the way with 25%.

Softbank, the sole carrier for the iPhone 3G in Japan, is still claiming that sales are going as strong as ever. Eimei disagrees.

[via WSJ]

Thanks, Kuma!

[Kuma]

When I brake out my iphone.. everybody and I mean everybody is like "wow the iphone" they all want to check it out...

they check it out and say cool... very cool (they love the glass of beer app)... but ultimately the phone is not Japanese enough... it lacks those things, like emoji that the Japanese need/want.

And so they go back to their old standard handset.. curiosity sated.

The only way the iPhone will really take off here is a J-iPhone. and the chances of that happening are... well... not very likely.

[Fixxer]

Maybe it needs a scat app instead of a beer app?

[midnightbrewer]

Originally Posted by Kuma

they check it out and say cool... very cool (they love the glass of beer app)... but ultimately the phone is not Japanese enough... it lacks those things, like emoji that the Japanese need/want.

And so they go back to their old standard handset.. curiosity sated.

Same here. Thankg goodness I hung onto my Docomo handset! I'm starting to miss it already. Between the lackluster email support, the mediocre camera, and the inability to do emoji, I'm pretty much out in the cold with my circle of friends, which is anathema to your average Japanese person. (My girlfriend's not too happy about the email issues, either).

While the iPhone is a spectacular leap forward for technology-backwards America (insofar as cell phones go), it's still five years behind the times here on feature parity. This is Japan. If you can't play nice, they don't include you.