To add to that, Japan still has that horrible structure where phone makers sell to carriers, which then sell the phone to customers. For instance newer Samsung

To add to that, Japan still has that horrible structure where phone makers sell to carriers, which then sell the phone to customers. For instance newer Samsung phones can't be bought outside of a single carrier (docomo/ahamo etc.). Subsidies are also stil the wild wild west, with the regulators teppidly trying to do something about it but with no real change in sight. Buying from a carriers will reduce the real phone price up to a quarter depending on how you do it, and the carrier will have buy backs to sweeten the deal further, so you'll be eating what the carrier feeds you. And that's all compound with the same phone supporting different network bands depending on where they're sold, and resale value plumetting because of that (even if you carrier unlock the phone, it won't support all of other carriers' network bands) The iPhone winning so big is in no small part thanks to Apple not getting in bed with the carriers.