re: 900i series review
Hi slacker- interesting comments, interesting for me to hear how an American (?) thinks about Japan's mobile phones.
I could comment quite a lot on your discussions. Here are only a few comments/corrections to what you write.
> 3) The phones have no external antennae. Coming from phones in Europe
> which had none, the fact that nearly all phones here have one really
> bugs me. They are just so awkward. Congrats to DoCoMo and the
> manufacturers for trying to get rid of them.
That's a BIG misunderstanding!!! All mobile phones MUST have an antenna. The point is only that some have an external antenna + internal antenna, while others (which most people including you prefer) only have an internal antenna. This has nothing to do with 2G or 3G. The P505iS (2G) has only internal antenna, while the T2101V (3G) has an external antenna.
> the english iMode main screen is not flash-enabled
Note that the english language imode market in Japan is neglibly small, and probably commercially irrelevant. So DoCoMo probably puts very little effort into the english iMode menu. Don't forget that almost no (about 3%) Japanese people speak English, and even those who do speak English find it much easier to use Japanese.
I should also stress, that you get a totally distorted image of what i-mode is, if you only look at the english i-mode menu. To understand i-mode you need to spend a lot of time exclusively with official and non-official imode content in Japanese language.
> Most phones are free or nearly free. The top of the range phones
> normally are sold for around 20,000 or less.
That's wrong. Top range models in Japan come on the market in the YEN 30,000 - 40,000 bracket, and then when they become older the prices drop. Only phones which are out of date, i.e. about 1-2 years old are free or nearly free, OR there are specific promotions by the carriers. Note that the prices are a tool by the carriers to steer customers to particular phones.
Prices do drop faster in Japan than in Europe or USA, because the renewal cycle is much faster in Japan.
Hope you don't mind my frank words, but the market in Japan is different than you describe.
quick_thinking |
