Apple’s iPhone 3G left Japanese users underwhelmed, which may bode ill for Android’s prospects, said Kenji Nishimura, a Tokyo-based analyst at Deutsche Bank AG.
Softbank, which released the iPhone in Japan to a media blitz last July, in February offered the 8 gigabyte model free for customers signing a two-year contract and slashed the 16-gigabyte model’s price 67 percent to attract buyers.
“The iPhone was innovative in the US market because it met a pent-up demand for mobile Internet, while in Japan sending e-mails and surfing the Web on a handset are nothing new,” Nishimura said. “The iPhone’s hardware and content are interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.”
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