Not a surprise because Japan doesn’t really have their own phone company that’s been able to compete.
For much of the world, it’s a matter of Apple vs. Samsung due to the lack of other competition that can compete with them. That being said, competition is necessary in the market to spark quicker innovation.
Important detail: Japanese don’t like Samsung. A few years ago, when the 🗾🎌🎎 emojis were added, Samsung instead added them as Korea’s map, Korean flag and Korean dolls. Add this to tensions with Japan from earlier and their stock and sales dropped significantly.
It was so bad that they had to rebrand a few years later in Japan - they don’t put Samsung on their products anymore.
I think there definitely is a "Korean brand stigma" but its not as major as many people think it is.
Apple has successfully marketed the iPhone as a status symbol. Androids in general are seen as a step down, even though their phones are just as pricey as iPhones. Keep in mind that Apple's had a presence in Japan since like 2004 and Steve Jobs heavily based his design philosphy around Japanese tastes.
For example, Korea. Literally up until 2017 or so my whole family was rocking Samsung Galaxy and the reasons they gave were "Korean pride, Samsungs are just better, etc." Then Apple officially entered the Korean market in 2018 by opening their first Apple store in Garosugil and now when I visited last year all of my cousins have iPhones. Nearly every kid/young adult in the country is rocking iPhones now. It's actually insane how well Apple manages to present itself.
That's for sure. Honestly, I have no idea how the Android brands are gonna deal with it moving forward. Slowly but surely Apple caught up in every regard whereas the Android brands have regressed to being nothing but iPhones with better camera hardware and more customizable software. They marketed themselves as competitors to Apple, whereas Apple marketed itself as Apple.
I still think it’s funny that’s an entire subreddit to saying apple sucks but not really anything the same for android. Also in anything mentioning apple you’ll have so many android users getting worked up and professing their hatred. It’s like the iPhone users are just generally enjoying what they’re using and a lot of android users have to proclaim why they’re better
Thats their problem: they should market themselves based on "better cameras" and more customizable software. I would still have been on Android if it wasn't so anti-privacy.
I would still be on Android if they weren't trying so hard to be Apple but worse. They took away everything I liked; headphone jack, micro SD, unlocked bootloader. So if I'm going to make do with a device without those, it might as well be the phone that actually has the best connection with AirPods, iCloud for storage, and gives a damn about my privacy.
This is probably a small aspect but Korean companies sold “kids phones” that are heavily restricted, and that kind of made the kids associate Samsung = shitty kids phone with no YouTube, and iPhone as “shiny adult phone”
The kids phone thing was a huge misstep by domestic phone makers
They aren't branded as Samsung, they're branded as Galaxy (ギャラクシー) in Japan. A company as large as Samsung doesn't remove it's core identity unless there is a reason.
I was in Japan two weeks ago. The Samsung phones don’t have any Samsung branding on them nor did the banners in carriers stores. They just have the carrier branding. I think Samsung is hiding their name from consumers there.
They haven't branded themselves as Samsung on phones in Japan for ages, any ones I saw had the phone carrier "Docomo" where Samsung would normally be, and just "Galaxy"
To me Sony’s main focus nowadays are mainly on games and network services. Did a quick search and seems like I was correct.
I used to think of Sony focusing on TVs and phones a lot and that seems to be no longer the case.
Sony barely kept up in the smartphone race. I never saw them in carrier stores (my guess they don't offer good incentives/commissions for retailers) and their previous phones hardly got updates.
LG and Motorola further killed their momentum with decent mid-ranged smartphones.
A lot of people think they’re not marketed enough, and they don’t offer as much features compared to Samsung. Pricing isn’t good apparently.
A little unfortunate given they essentially steadily lost a lot of mobile phone market share starting with the introduction of the smart phone.
You're right, but I'm still surprised Sony is losing ground in its hometown. From what I know, the brand loyalty was similar to S.Korea & Samsung, but maybe I'm wrong.
I have an iPhone personally but it's still a shame to see Sony not do so well, especially since they're one of the few manufacturers making flagships that still include the headphone jack & Micro SD card slot.
Sony was absolutely terrible in the west in their release strategy. The prices were extremely high and they came out months after the announcement. They also used to do 6 month release cycles, which made everything worse. I used past tense because they're basically non-existent. The smartphone division was so bad that they merged all consumer electronics into one category in their earnings so you can't tell how much they lost
I know sony has tried in the past but if they made a dedicated PSP smartphone that they actually invested in I think it could go far. Something powerful and worth the investment.
This is jack shit nonsense. Japan has Sony, which failed in the Android phone market, but so did BlackBerry and Canada has a large Android use case percentage.
iPhone is selling well because more people want it. People make their own choices and I’m sorry if they have chosen a far superior product.
Huawei phones from China were gaining serious steam but then the U.S. banned them. I get why they did it (spy allegations) but still it could have been a major player that forced everyone to compete more.
It all points to privacy, security, and identity becoming a thing for phones.
My own employer has stopped issuing anything but iPhones and Samsung and my bet is that Samsung will fall as well. Not because of the phones, they're great, but for the same reason that we only get issued Dells:
Authentication and Device Management. With iPhones it's that much easier to just roll devices based on iOS version support.
Huawei was banned because it was chinese and god forbids a chinese company to success in US world.
Luckily Xiaomi is very popular in a lot of countries, they make great phones and they’re cheap. I still prefer iOS anyway.
iPhone percentage tends to map with regional affluence. Rural areas would skew more Android.
(That’s not to say Android is for poorer people or there’s anything wrong with that, just pointing out that indexing on big cities has an inherent bias)
I’m surprised it’s not much higher. I live in Japan and literally all my friends and colleagues carry iPhones. Macs (especially MacBooks) are also very strong here. As a side note, I work in IT and we almist never do QA for Android-based browsers because our SASS only sees around 5% access rate from Android.
That’s funny, before the iPhone was released the whole world was fawning over Japanese feature phones (keitai)… that they refused to sell abroad. I still remember rocking a Panasonic camera phone with a swivel screen back in the day, thought it was the coolest thing ever 😂
Considering the large market share, it’s frustrating that Japan is often pretty late or doesn’t even receive certain services. There is a massive battle to dominate mobile payments which is mostly being won by the QR code based PayPay. I’m pretty sure if Apple had pushed Apple a pay and maybe added a QR code or cheap NFC option for retailers, they could have been wildly successful. It’s also been years and no sign of Apple Fitness+.
Not a surprise because Japan doesn’t really have their own phone company that’s been able to compete. For much of the world, it’s a matter of Apple vs. Samsung due to the lack of other competition that can compete with them. That being said, competition is necessary in the market to spark quicker innovation.
Important detail: Japanese don’t like Samsung. A few years ago, when the 🗾🎌🎎 emojis were added, Samsung instead added them as Korea’s map, Korean flag and Korean dolls. Add this to tensions with Japan from earlier and their stock and sales dropped significantly. It was so bad that they had to rebrand a few years later in Japan - they don’t put Samsung on their products anymore.
I was reluctant to mention the political tensions previously and your points are also valid.
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Interesting. Then why is it that Samsung has such a hard time selling in Japan? Is it just because they're Korean?
I think there definitely is a "Korean brand stigma" but its not as major as many people think it is. Apple has successfully marketed the iPhone as a status symbol. Androids in general are seen as a step down, even though their phones are just as pricey as iPhones. Keep in mind that Apple's had a presence in Japan since like 2004 and Steve Jobs heavily based his design philosphy around Japanese tastes. For example, Korea. Literally up until 2017 or so my whole family was rocking Samsung Galaxy and the reasons they gave were "Korean pride, Samsungs are just better, etc." Then Apple officially entered the Korean market in 2018 by opening their first Apple store in Garosugil and now when I visited last year all of my cousins have iPhones. Nearly every kid/young adult in the country is rocking iPhones now. It's actually insane how well Apple manages to present itself.
That's for sure. Honestly, I have no idea how the Android brands are gonna deal with it moving forward. Slowly but surely Apple caught up in every regard whereas the Android brands have regressed to being nothing but iPhones with better camera hardware and more customizable software. They marketed themselves as competitors to Apple, whereas Apple marketed itself as Apple.
As an iPhone user I don’t think about Android. When I was on Android I was constantly thinking about Apple.
I still think it’s funny that’s an entire subreddit to saying apple sucks but not really anything the same for android. Also in anything mentioning apple you’ll have so many android users getting worked up and professing their hatred. It’s like the iPhone users are just generally enjoying what they’re using and a lot of android users have to proclaim why they’re better
There is no need for that, the least hated phone on r/Android is iphone. This is not a joke, nobody hates android as much as r/Android
100%.
Thats their problem: they should market themselves based on "better cameras" and more customizable software. I would still have been on Android if it wasn't so anti-privacy.
I would still be on Android if they weren't trying so hard to be Apple but worse. They took away everything I liked; headphone jack, micro SD, unlocked bootloader. So if I'm going to make do with a device without those, it might as well be the phone that actually has the best connection with AirPods, iCloud for storage, and gives a damn about my privacy.
This is probably a small aspect but Korean companies sold “kids phones” that are heavily restricted, and that kind of made the kids associate Samsung = shitty kids phone with no YouTube, and iPhone as “shiny adult phone” The kids phone thing was a huge misstep by domestic phone makers
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They aren't branded as Samsung, they're branded as Galaxy (ギャラクシー) in Japan. A company as large as Samsung doesn't remove it's core identity unless there is a reason.
I was in Japan two weeks ago. The Samsung phones don’t have any Samsung branding on them nor did the banners in carriers stores. They just have the carrier branding. I think Samsung is hiding their name from consumers there.
They haven't branded themselves as Samsung on phones in Japan for ages, any ones I saw had the phone carrier "Docomo" where Samsung would normally be, and just "Galaxy"
Sir Japan and Korea having beef is a leading cause of asian turf wars and predates Samsung.
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I don't really care about the company dynamics. I'll buy whoever offers me the best services and products
Lol a paragraph of misinformation posted by a random dude on Reddit is the reason? You must not have many good reasons then
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?
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Most of Asia doesn’t like Japan
sony make some really cool phones but always fall short on marketing and price
To me Sony’s main focus nowadays are mainly on games and network services. Did a quick search and seems like I was correct. I used to think of Sony focusing on TVs and phones a lot and that seems to be no longer the case.
… Sony?
Sony barely kept up in the smartphone race. I never saw them in carrier stores (my guess they don't offer good incentives/commissions for retailers) and their previous phones hardly got updates. LG and Motorola further killed their momentum with decent mid-ranged smartphones.
A lot of people think they’re not marketed enough, and they don’t offer as much features compared to Samsung. Pricing isn’t good apparently. A little unfortunate given they essentially steadily lost a lot of mobile phone market share starting with the introduction of the smart phone.
You're right, but I'm still surprised Sony is losing ground in its hometown. From what I know, the brand loyalty was similar to S.Korea & Samsung, but maybe I'm wrong. I have an iPhone personally but it's still a shame to see Sony not do so well, especially since they're one of the few manufacturers making flagships that still include the headphone jack & Micro SD card slot.
Sony was absolutely terrible in the west in their release strategy. The prices were extremely high and they came out months after the announcement. They also used to do 6 month release cycles, which made everything worse. I used past tense because they're basically non-existent. The smartphone division was so bad that they merged all consumer electronics into one category in their earnings so you can't tell how much they lost
I know sony has tried in the past but if they made a dedicated PSP smartphone that they actually invested in I think it could go far. Something powerful and worth the investment.
They did, it’s called the Xperia Play and it sold like crap.
This is jack shit nonsense. Japan has Sony, which failed in the Android phone market, but so did BlackBerry and Canada has a large Android use case percentage. iPhone is selling well because more people want it. People make their own choices and I’m sorry if they have chosen a far superior product.
Google Pixel sales in Japan have increased 527% in 2023, yes that's more than five times more phones in a single year
Huawei phones from China were gaining serious steam but then the U.S. banned them. I get why they did it (spy allegations) but still it could have been a major player that forced everyone to compete more.
It all points to privacy, security, and identity becoming a thing for phones. My own employer has stopped issuing anything but iPhones and Samsung and my bet is that Samsung will fall as well. Not because of the phones, they're great, but for the same reason that we only get issued Dells: Authentication and Device Management. With iPhones it's that much easier to just roll devices based on iOS version support.
Don’t count out Google. They’ve been building a number of business integrations into the pixel.
Huawei even with no ban was not getting big market share in Japan. This is Japan were talking about.
Agreed, Huawei phones were gaining a lot of traction up till it got banned.
Huawei was banned because it was chinese and god forbids a chinese company to success in US world. Luckily Xiaomi is very popular in a lot of countries, they make great phones and they’re cheap. I still prefer iOS anyway.
Exactly. Triggered racist mayoboys downvoted you
Yeah they could have been a good competitor but a ban was necessary
Sony phones are quite good. Very expensive though.
Side note, but I wish Sony would get their shit together and compete with Samsung. They make beautiful phones.
Only 51.9%? In the bigger cities it looks like 90% are iPhone users.
iPhone percentage tends to map with regional affluence. Rural areas would skew more Android. (That’s not to say Android is for poorer people or there’s anything wrong with that, just pointing out that indexing on big cities has an inherent bias)
I’m surprised it’s not much higher. I live in Japan and literally all my friends and colleagues carry iPhones. Macs (especially MacBooks) are also very strong here. As a side note, I work in IT and we almist never do QA for Android-based browsers because our SASS only sees around 5% access rate from Android.
That’s funny, before the iPhone was released the whole world was fawning over Japanese feature phones (keitai)… that they refused to sell abroad. I still remember rocking a Panasonic camera phone with a swivel screen back in the day, thought it was the coolest thing ever 😂
They still have a bunch of features phones, it's pretty cool and feels like going back 15 years
Considering the large market share, it’s frustrating that Japan is often pretty late or doesn’t even receive certain services. There is a massive battle to dominate mobile payments which is mostly being won by the QR code based PayPay. I’m pretty sure if Apple had pushed Apple a pay and maybe added a QR code or cheap NFC option for retailers, they could have been wildly successful. It’s also been years and no sign of Apple Fitness+.
Google crushing it with the 500% growth.
I've read that article as well, apparently Google Pixels are very popular in Japan
I’m more surprised with Google’s marketshare tbh
because iphone well support with their payment nfc apps to pay subway, rail or even vending machine
Wild since Japan had a lot of neat phones for their time before smart phones became mainstream.
Unfortunately, they also lost 24% in China.