Even without the phone it would still be quite useful. Music, video, and 'free' internet access via wireless (i found plenty of hotspots last time i was in tokyo). For it's size, it's a pretty decent internet tool. i checked my email and a few of my favorite websites from the apple store the other day...was tempted to just buy one of the damn things (i'm already an AT&T wireless customer here in san francisco).

I think that the iPhone's only important function in Japan is as a status symbol. That businessman quite likely already owns a phone with music, video, and internet access capabilities.

WiFi kinda blows here though.

Sheeeit, even I have a phone with music, video and internet access capabilities and it's completely retarted. I hate it. I got so angry at my last phone's utter lack of usefulness and garbled english I literally killed it with one blow from my fist when it asked me to 'Confirm the DELIV state' (that means my text message failed) for the last time.

I know probably 8-10 IT/software engineering/etc. types in Tokyo with iPhones. There's a Mixi group for the iPhone. The interface is a marvel- absolutely stunning and intuitive in ways that you had never even thought. That said, if it is sold in Japan, it will be without GPS, oneseg, osaifu keitai, etc. On the one hand, it seems like a niche product in Japan because it won't support these newer standards. But on the other hand there's a lot of iPod owners in Japan who'd buy it, I'm sure.

Just to clarify - if you don't "hack" it, can you use the iPhone as a normal iPod without signing up with AT&T?

Here's one account of using an iphone in Japan:

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/an_american_iphone_in_japan/

He could be an Apple employee or a phone provider monkey just taking the product out into the field!

you have to sometime explain what it is with this inoGAshira thing.

(recently three of us were surprised to see a jar of shichimi called nanami in europe. after doubting our common sense followed by some research it turned out that the the stuff for export and only that is actually called nanami.)

Officially KA, pronounced GA.

Could just be a Japanese guy on long-term 出張 to America who is back in Japan for a little while. I mean, I take my AU phone with me when I visit the US, because it allows me to play games and take pictures. If anyone in America saw me using it to take a picture during my Christmas vacation, they'd say the same thing: "Talk about conspicuous consumption! Randomblogger was willing to pay all that for a fancy new phone from Japan that does not work as a phone in his native country."

I'm not saying it's super likely, by any means, just that it is a possibility, speaking first-hand.

You cannot use it as an iPod without signing up with AT&T (unless "hack") but you can cancel the 2-year contract to make your iPhone work as an iPod without paying a penny to AT&T. In fact, if you cancel it within 2 weeks after activation, they don't charge the cancellation fee.

Marxy, I am trying to get in touch with you, send me an email if you can: fa@fpm-mgl.org

Look, this is all I have to say and I didn't even say it! A fair and balanced critique:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

What the hell is wrong about conspicuous consumption anyway.It happens to be the national pastime around here for a while.
It could be a somekind of crime to do that in North Korea,but people here have their money to spend.Buying a useless phone sounds alright to me,as long as it's not coming out from my own wallet.

And how do you know this dude is a "Japanese"?
When I see a picture of Debito Ardou,I instantly think he is a gaijin and hearing his rhetoric and think of him ;again instantly, as an American.
Both,which are wrong.
So you simply thought only Japanese men would have to weaponize themselves with gadget like iPhone to attract women while a Kiwi would simply walk to them and say"let's give our ferret a run"?That hurts,marxy!

I was always wondering what exactly the meaning of having a Louis Vuitton in this country.It's not even "conspicuous"anymore,for LV
had been issued as standarized equipment for any females over 16 years old in this country.
At least an iPhone would catch your eyes in I-line,of which any conspicuous consumptions are primary intended.

> having a Louis Vuitton

i sincerely believe it's among other things a more or less conscious, stratigic scheme to inflate the brand to the point of bursting ... and win in the long run.
a mountain of new LV bags piled up in some dero shop say in the basement of nakano broadway, looking like so many cheap imitations, makes a strong point to the case.

i once saw a j-girl in nyc with a chanel logo tattoo, and i thought, how brave of her not to have done LV!

Theoretically, couldn't you pair an unlocked iphone with a bluetooth-capable phone and connect to the net?

Since I can count the number of times I've seen PDA-type phones in this country on one hand, I've been wondering of late if the iPhone's shiny factor will be able to overcome what appears to me to be an aversion to these geekier and bulkier devices, at least outside of the otaku community. Of course it will, but taking into consideration the average lifespan of any given model of phone here, one also wonders how long it will last.

I guess the real question is: will it have an anchor point for the comet-like tails of corporate iconography Japanese phones tend to sprout? The current iteration apparently does not. The full-face touch screen also reduces the potential plastic jewel attachment real estate drastically.

Just found this page searching for 'iphone strap.' Although the name of the site raises me hackles, it raises some valid points: http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/07/18/apples-iphone-japan-will-love-it-japan-will-buy-it/

hidarinoji , reading that article made me think, again, that comparative to the west in japan the fetish is never for the object itself, the object is rather the (barely) visible tip of complex conceptual and social networks of asociations. apple's very 'thick as a brick' concreteness of it's gadget to beat all gadgets might indeed be working to its own detriment here. light and wispy stuff works better.

I guess that's why the iPod failed in Japan.

how did i know you're going to say that ?

the ipod , especially the small one , the one i see most often (you have access to the stats) is indeed light and wispy.

there was a bit of a discussion about mobile phones a while ago at jean snow's where he was, in a certain sense quite correctly, criticizing some examples of the new generation japanese mobile phones as badly designed and ugly evidently the benchmark being the iPhone and i was saying that i find the jap. phones, better and very genuinely japanese-ey designed (not in the isamu noguchi, muji - check out my wabisabi - kind of way but as a practical, desassemble it when you're done thing) while the iPhone is made to be a pocket version world trade centre or something. fascist indeed.

anyway i better stop sharing my insights with because 99+% of the time you just use the opportunity to pick up a fight while the faint possibility that you might actually take something scares me because i'm suspicious you'll end up using it in your evil marketing.

"Evil" marketing, huh?

Come on,guys.
Alin's small is beautiful,especially in Japan theory might actually valid in this argument.
Can iPhone be operated with only one hand?

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