Features like the biometric reader and the TV tuner exist because the "inmates are running the asylum." The general phone buying public doesn't care about any o

Features like the biometric reader and the TV tuner exist because the "inmates are running the asylum." The general phone buying public doesn't care about any of those things. Japanese phones were 10 years ahead of the game 10 years ago. Like you even state, your crappy RAZR does most of the things people actually care about, and it is 5 years old. None of the recent "innovations" have sparked much interest amongst consumers. As everywhere, the thing people care about most is text messaging. Handset sales were a 20% decline last year in Japan. Takeshi Natsuno, the inventor of Japan’s i-mode mobile web service and former Senior Vice President NTT DoCoMo, said in an interview, “I believe the iPhone is closer to the mobile phone of the future, compared with the latest Japanese mobile phones.” Natsuno also said uses the iPhone 3G himself. Signed, a guy who used to work at a japanese telco research lab outside of Tokyo.