For context, the Japanese market is as favorable to Apple as America is. Japan has a lot of very specific features that phones need to support[0] and Apple is u

For context, the Japanese market is as favorable to Apple as America is. Japan has a lot of very specific features that phones need to support[0] and Apple is usually ahead of Google on implementing them. This is in contrast to the EU where Android dominates because they used to be the only 'cheap' option. [0] Most notably, Felica, the protocol used by all the contactless payment cards Japan's transit systems use. If you've ever been to Japan, you probably have a PASMO or Suica card[1] knocking around somewhere in your drawer. Japanese flipphones have supported that protocol since right when it came out. Apple added it at the same time they added Apple Pay and NFC support in the states. Also, emoji used to be a Japan-only thing that required an NTT or AU SIM until westerners started noticing the funny faces and started writing copy-paste apps to get around the missing keyboard. [1] Suica game but it's transit cards instead of watermelons