Iridesco Watercooler

Can’t Win Them All and That’s Just Fine

Wired.com recently published an article entitled Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone.  The article explores the reasons behind the low adoption rate of iPhones in Japan, whereas the iPhone has found success in many other countries. One primary issue is that  the iPhone simply doesn’t have the feature-set the Japanese market expects:

Besides cultural opposition, Japanese citizens possess high, complex standards when it comes to cellphones. The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn’t cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner, according to Kuittinen.

The article makes a good case with its 20/20 hindsight analysis for what it’s worth.  What’s more interesting to me is that another way this article could have been written is “How Apple Ignored the Japanese Market and Created a Product Loved by Millions Worldwide.” 

If Apple tried to satisfy the advanced requirements of the Japanese market, the iPhone would not be available today, and when if/when it came out, it’d also likely have a harder time being adopted by most people around the globe.

Similarly, in our world of web application development, we focus on developing for the markets we know.  We don’t spend time worrying that our online time tracking software is not perfect for lawyers, for example.  If we get the experience right for the markets we are in, that’s already a big first step in where we want to be.