Why has the iPhone been able to dominate the Japanese mobile phone market for a long time?

At present, many Chinese people are chasing after and paying attention to Apple. In fact, in neighboring Japan, the pursuit of Apple is even greater than that of Chinese people. According to relevant data, in the domestic mainland market, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders brought Apple $3 billion in revenue. In China, although the iPhone is popular, its sales volume is not as good as Samsung and Xiaomi. In the first half of this year, Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was 7.5%, ranking only 7th. In the domestic market, Apple's sales volume not only lags behind Samsung, but also lags behind domestic manufacturers China Coolpad and Xiaomi.

Although the iPhone ranks first or second in many countries around the world, Japan is a country with its own unique characteristics. It is relatively closed and self-contained in the fields of industrial electronic consumer products. It is almost difficult for foreign brands, especially those in the electronic consumer product market, to open up sales in Japan. You must know that when Nokia was at its peak, it was also defeated by Sony and Sharp in the Japanese market. In 2009, the iPhone was also badly predicted by the industry to enter the Japanese market, but a year later, the iPhone occupied 46% of the Japanese smartphone market. According to data, by August 2010, the 32G and 16G versions of the iPhone 4 accounted for 71.1% of the market share in Japan. Since then, the iPhone series of mobile phones has basically been a stable monopoly in Japan.

After the release of iPhone 6, this pattern has been further strengthened. According to media data, among the 9 best-selling smartphones in September this year, iPhone 6 accounted for 7 of them. Among the best-selling smartphones in Japan in October, the top 6 were all iPhone 6. For three consecutive months in September, October and November, iPhone 6 topped the list of smartphones in Japan. In the smartphone market in Japan, iPhone almost dominates the world. The question is, why can iPhone dominate the smartphone market in Japan for a long time?

SoftBank introduced the iPhone to achieve localization and broke through the closed framework system of i-mode

As mentioned earlier, Japan is a country with its own particularity. Before the iPhone hit Japan, Japan's mobile phone market was also a monolithic market, with no outside brands allowed to enter. Japanese mobile phones have long been in a self-sufficient state, forming a closed internal circulation system. But Japan's mobile Internet environment was ahead of the world at that time. Some scholars have pointed out that "Japan had a mobile Internet market before it had a broadband Internet market", which is almost the opposite of the development trend of the global Internet. At that time, Japan's mobile phone market was long under the control of Japan's largest operator NTT DOCOMO, and in 2001, NTT DOCOMO had already started operating the world's first 3G network.

As we all know, it was still the era of feature phones. At this time, NTT DOCOMO established a closed system called i-mode. Under this closed system, the entire mobile phone industry chain is dominated by operators, that is, NTT DOCOMO is responsible for 3G network operations, mobile phone customization and development, and is also a content distribution platform. This is almost highly consistent with Apple's closed system with iOS as the core. The customized feature phones led by NTT DOCOMO also match the needs of Japan's developed mobile Internet environment, and can almost complete most of the functions that smart phones can achieve.

When the iPhone became popular around the world, NTT DOCOMO originally planned to introduce the iPhone, but it could not accept Apple's relatively harsh conditions: Apple required a certain sales volume and the opening of NTT's patents, so NTT DOCOMO gave up the introduction. However, SoftBank, a smaller Japanese operator at the time, followed the trend and vigorously introduced the iPhone, and accepted Apple's share and terms. It even launched a campaign with no down payment, 0 yuan for the purchase of the phone, free replacement of the phone if the battery is damaged within one year, and developed external devices and apps that could match the habits of Japanese users at the time, and laid a large number of WiFi hotspots to solve the problem of SoftBank's own spectrum and network not having an advantage. These measures have relatively completely localized the iPhone in Japan, and corresponded to the developed mobile Internet environment in Japan at the time.

For SoftBank, the successful introduction of the iPhone attracted a large number of Japanese users to its network, which led to a surge in traffic demand. After the iPhone successfully attracted the first batch of users, it was equivalent to cutting a hole in the closed system of the mobile phone industry dominated by Japanese operators, breaking through the i-mode system framework, and attracting more and more young Japanese people who pursue high-tech and fashion and cool culture.

i-mode, led by NTT DOCOMO, fostered user habits and prepared the way for the iPhone

In addition, as mentioned earlier, i-mode led by NTT DOCOMO is almost highly consistent with the closed system based on iOS later developed by Apple. The iPhone uses the iPhone ios Appstore, which is a closed system with better user experience than NTT DOCOMO's i-mode. It can be seen that i-mode has cultivated the mobile Internet habits and needs of Japanese users, but the iPhone has a better touch screen and integrated software and hardware experience, and is an upgraded and evolved version of i-mode. For example, although the feature phones led by NTT DOCOMO in Japan have cultivated users' mobile Internet habits and experience earlier, the experience of Japanese feature phones in downloading apps, searching, shopping, sending emails, music, reading, social login and many other aspects is far from that of the iPhone. In addition, the development framework of i-mode's mobile applications is backward, which has accelerated the Japanese people who pursue trendy, cool and fashionable culture to embrace the iPhone.

With the globalization of iPhone, KDDI, the second largest operator in Japan, also began to introduce iPhone. In 2013, NTT DOCOMO, under the pressure of profit and sales, had to cooperate with iPhone. Since then, iPhone has basically dominated the Japanese smartphone market. After the release of iPhone 6, judging from the ranking of Japanese smartphone market, the dominance of iPhone in Japan has been further strengthened.

It can be seen that Japan's NTT DOCOMO's i-mode has cultivated user habits, but with the rapid development of mobile Internet, the i-mode model is too complicated and cumbersome compared to Apple's App Store. However, the iPhone has successfully taken over Japan's mainstream users through a more excellent and advanced model with the promotion of Softbank. Therefore, the user habits and user base cultivated by NTT DOCOMO's i-mode's closed hardware and software integrated mobile Internet operations for many years just happened to be the wedding dress for the iPhone.

Japan's mobile phone industry has long been a contract manufacturer for operators and lacks software ecosystem layout and user demand awareness

It can be seen that the Japanese mobile phone industry has become closed, and it has failed because of closedness. i-mode matches the market demand of Japan's developed mobile Internet, but under this system, Japanese mobile phones have long been reduced to OEM factories for operators, indulging in the polishing of the hardware workmanship of various components of mobile phones, resulting in high development costs for mobile phones. When the mobile Internet environment is developing by leaps and bounds, it has lost its perception of user needs and the overall market trend. For example, it lags behind in software ecosystem construction. We know that Sony's decline in mobile terminals almost coincides with the time when the iPhone entered Japan.

Sony has a strong hardware manufacturing gene, but it is almost blank in software ecosystem construction. In the industrial era, Sony was the pride of Japan, but with the global popularity of mobile Internet, the hardware experience of Sony mobile phones has gradually lost the perception of user experience. From Sony's three-proof mobile phones to the proud XperiaZ series, the flagships such as z, z1, z2, and z3 are all in a corner forgotten by the market. The decline of the Japanese mobile phone industry represented by Sony has made it impossible for the iPhone to find a strong opponent in Japan, which is the objective external condition for the iPhone to easily capture the Japanese smartphone market.

You know, Japan's NTT DOCOMO has never given up its efforts to compete with the iPhone. For example, after 2013, Japan's NTT DOCOMO successively launched large-screen smartphones such as Sony's "XPERIA Z" and Panasonic's "ELUGA X", but the iPhone's popularity in Japan has not diminished, and the mobile phones led by NTT DOCOMO have basically failed to compete with the iPhone. As mentioned earlier, although large-screen mobile phones such as Sony and Panasonic have excellent hardware workmanship, their software ecosystem construction is weak. You know, Japan is a country with a developed game industry, which makes software development and ecosystem construction based on mobile games particularly important. On the iPhone's App Store, in addition to attracting developers to develop various applications and upload and launch excellent control experience, the excellent experience in software operation and control experience also hits the pain points of Japanese users. The strong demand for iPhone6 ​​plus in Japan is related to the latest graphics API of Metal in iPhone6 ​​plus, which also improves the game performance of the new generation of iOS. At the same time, this aspect is also related to Japan's lifestyle and urban culture. Japan is a country with well-developed subway transportation, and Japanese users use their mobile phones in many scenarios during subway and bus time periods. Many users play games and watch videos during fragmented time periods such as taking the subway. Apple's iOS excellent control experience and the global application store APP Store, with its control and experience advantages in game applications, match the needs of Japanese users.

The iPhone's fashionable and technological style matches the refined Japanese culture

From a cultural perspective, we know that Japan pursues craftsmanship and exquisite appearance in many fields such as architecture, clothing, and electronics. The mainstream Japanese culture advocates exquisite craftsmanship. The fashion technology positioning and tonality of the iPhone series of mobile phones also fully meet the Japanese demand for fashionable, exquisite, beautiful, and cool product designs. However, the pursuit of fashion and coolness by mainstream national users is also related to the relatively high income of Japanese citizens. The level of domestic economic development has also determined that low-end smartphones such as China Cool Union and Xiaomi have long dominated the domestic market. Although Apple is popular in the Chinese market, it does not dominate the mainstream.

From another perspective, Sony's founder Akio Morita was once Jobs' idol, but now Apple has pushed Sony into a corner in Japan's smartphone market. It can be seen that the current Japanese mobile phone industry is also reflecting and making various efforts. Japan's pursuit of excellent hardware workmanship in the industrial age is certainly worthy of respect, but it has always been defeated by the trend of the times. With the decline of Japan's Sharp and Sony, the rise of emerging Japanese mobile phone manufacturers is not seen at present. In addition to the two major camps of iPhone and Android, Japanese mobile phone manufacturers also lack independent operating systems. This may mean that iPhone phones may dominate the entire Japanese smartphone market for a long time in the future. However, Japan, which suffers from the "Galapagos syndrome", is good at forming its own system outside the mainstream system of the world, and is good at learning advanced foreign technology concepts to break through difficulties. It is difficult to say whether Japan can break through the dominance of the iPhone in the future. At least there is no such trend and signs now. However, Japan's decline in the mobile phone industry is worth learning from for the entire domestic mobile phone industry.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.