Titles like this are not only terrible generalizations, but they are completely misinformed (the 2 not being mutually exclusive).
I live in Tokyo, and I can tell you, more than a few people have an iPhone. It's popular to the point that its ridiculous.
Now you may wonder why are the sales are so poor. A casual walk into a mobile shop will show you. It's variety. There are too many phones to choose from. While the iPhone still wins hands down in sleekness, there are a host of other decent phones (with greater capabilities) to choose from.
So there is no 'hate' involved, it just boils down to market saturation of comparable phones.
Apple took a piss in the sea...no surprises on the results.
Plus, any "Japanese hate American products because they're cultural elitists" meme needs to minimally pretend that the freaking iPod doesn't exist. iPod had something like a 60% share within months of being launched while competing against like likes of Sony on their home turf.
Samsung's problem is not that they are Korean, it is that they are Samsung.
I'm looking at the top selling MP3 players on Amazon.co.jp right now. There are products in the top 10 from Transcend (India?!), Creative(Singapore), Cowon (Korea), Apple (USA), and Toshiba(Japan).
I'm also in Japan and I found myself wondering how deep the author's experience went in Japan. I've never heard the iPhone described as unfashionable, for starters.
I agree about the sheer variety of phones. I think battery life is also a concern. Aside from that though, I think it will just take time. I haven't heard anyone say they hate it and quite a few people either have one or want one.
An American news article with terrible and inaccurate generalizations about Asian people? I'm shocked.
Apple products are immensely popular in all of Asia, because they're fucking awesome and appeal to Asians for the same reasons they appeal to Americans, for the most part. But there's no news story in that - Apple products are popular everywhere, so what.
Write a story about how Apple is being rejected using some half-cocked cultural stereotypes about Japanese people that ignorant head-nodders will use to reaffirm their own prejudices - that'll get clicks.
The person they seem to be quoting (Tero Kuittinen) is Finnish. He seems to be legit.
"Tero Kuittinen is managing director and senior analyst for Avian Securities, a brokerage firm specializing in technology companies. He has also served as senior product specialist for Nordic Partners, Inc. and in the telecom equity research groups of Sanford C. Bernstein (NYC) and Opstock (Helsinki), as well as a strategist for various Finnish mobile content start-ups. He currently resides in New York."
http://www.thestreet.com/author/638472/all.html
The question is: should we adapt technology according to national characteristics, Technology seems to make cultural borders disappear, but sometimes these borders are very strong.
I think the gist of what he's saying is that no matter where you go (caveat: cities or suburbs), you can find a cell phone with reception, electricity, television and so on. The products may be made by a local company, but they're clearly identifiable and not limited to one particular civilization.
> Technology seems to make cultural borders disappear, but sometimes these borders are very strong.
That's because the media insists on redrawing the borders to make foreigners (especially ones with slanty eyes) appear as different from you as humanly possible.
Titles like this are not only terrible generalizations, but they are completely misinformed (the 2 not being mutually exclusive).
I live in Tokyo, and I can tell you, more than a few people have an iPhone. It's popular to the point that its ridiculous. Now you may wonder why are the sales are so poor. A casual walk into a mobile shop will show you. It's variety. There are too many phones to choose from. While the iPhone still wins hands down in sleekness, there are a host of other decent phones (with greater capabilities) to choose from.
So there is no 'hate' involved, it just boils down to market saturation of comparable phones. Apple took a piss in the sea...no surprises on the results.