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> majority of them are flip phones There are 2 reasons for this: 1. Flip phones are more compact, which is valued by the Japanese. 2. Unlike English, the tra
by w1ntermute 14y ago
> majority of them are flip phones
There are 2 reasons for this:
1. Flip phones are more compact, which is valued by the Japanese.
2. Unlike English, the traditional keypad is perfect for inputting Japanese text. In fact, touchscreen smartphone Japanese keyboards essentially mimic this setup[0].
0: http://i.imgur.com/XFTMc.png http://i.imgur.com/XFTMc.png
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoYeah. The Japanese have always been fond of their flip phones, and in fact they were well ahead of us on smartphones. Long before the iPhone and such, they had very powerful flip phones there made by Sharp and such.
- donw 14y agoExcept even with those phones (now called 'garakei'), the software was still awful, and the ecosystem was still locked shut -- getting an app onto the phone took a lot of sweat, and a lot of connections.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoA bit like the old iPod Classic and its Games on iTunes, then?
- w1ntermute 14y agoOr the original iPhone, for that matter.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoNo, it didn't have 3rd-party apps aside from web apps on the home screen.
- hrktb 14y agoWell, not really. Getting an app on a docomo phone for example was extremely easy, as in create the app and put it online. You had to be a verifiable company to touch the encrypted bits (user ID, encrypted NFC etc) or to make payments (which are then carrier handled payments), but that about all. The other carriers needed paperwork even for free apps, but not so much more. About the software, it was barebone compared to iPhone apps, but you could run an app for three days without crashing or dropping a single call. The scrutinity towards quality was equivalent to home appliances' level. The iPhone brought the expectations of reliability close to Windows PCs.