The article misses a very important point. Carriers have very thorough certification processes. Imagine each of these companies having to certify each device. They would go bankrupt! Well maybe not, but they would not make any money to make it worth while.
ATT has the toughest certification process - so much so that others won't even look at new phones unless ATT has agreed to certify them. ATT certification is like a green light to T-mobile and Voda.
They need to standardize on chipsets and software platforms. The other crap like funky keyboards and lcds are no biggie. Keyword here is scale. Jap phones don't scale for worldwide distribution right now.
There is no actual technical need for certification, though. Only the GSM modem needs to be certified for technical reasons, the rest is just so AT&T can get its advertising all over the phone.
But honestly, Japanese phones are not that amazing. They have pretty cases and nice incremental features, but they are not that different from US / European cell-phones. The "internet access" is not the real Internet in many cases. Japanese phones can also avoid ugly and big QWERTY keyboards because Japanese, in general, has shorter words than English (and therefore multi-press input works better).
You seem to indicate that Japan's carriers has less strict certification process than AT&T's.
My personal experience with NTT DoCoMo (one of the largest carriers in Japan) has been exactly the opposite. Certificaiton has been a very difficult and long process.
ATT has the toughest certification process - so much so that others won't even look at new phones unless ATT has agreed to certify them. ATT certification is like a green light to T-mobile and Voda.
They need to standardize on chipsets and software platforms. The other crap like funky keyboards and lcds are no biggie. Keyword here is scale. Jap phones don't scale for worldwide distribution right now.