Now that the Apple iPhone is out the tension news and post are gone, only to be replaced by the love / hate post. Thankfully, those are coming to a low roar.

One thing that I did come across a lot was talk about how Japan’s people aren’t impressed with the iPhone, even though they are getting their reviews off the net and their well respected media reviewers. Still, I can see how they seem to not anticipate its arrival as much as America did.

I guess one of the huge factors was the use of 3G network services. America has a strong 2G network with 3G starting to come to blossom. I believe 3G infrastructure building began in 2005. Japan on the other hand has a very, very strong 3G network; started in 2001, and is already leading the way with their new cutting edge 4G network. 2G is fine for Americans because it caters to what they mainly do on cell phones; talk, play video games, listen to a few songs and surf a few pages. Here in Japan though so much more is done with cell phones. Little to almost no dependency is required of a computer for anything. Software updates, transfer of data, etc… its all done on the phone. TV, remote control, credit cards, GPS tracking. These are a few of the things that the people of Japan use their phones for. And when I say use, I don’t mean once a week or once a day. I mean, all day. If you ever go to Japan, you’ll notice no one is really looking at you, but rather at the sky talking on their phone, or looking down at the screen. More with less is how they tend to work around in Japan when it comes to phones. Although their advancement in the cellular phone infrastructure may be due to their small area of land coverage ( which it really isn’t, but just an excuse American cellular companies make ) their bleeding edge technology when it comes to devices that they use everyday of their lives can’t be denied.

On the other hand, people do forget that the reason people are actually buying the iPhone is because it does what people like, and how they like it. Of course they will sell in Japan due to the stylish factor and because its Apple. An Apple fan I met at a internet café here said a pretty nice line about it…”You can’t reinvent the phone on old technology. Its like having a new 128bit CPU but it only works on 56k modems. Maybe when they upgrade to the “new” but old technology, 3G.”