vB Easy Archive - Will Japanese Handsets return to the U.S. ? Any coming to Cingular ?

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Will Japanese Handsets return to the U.S. ? Any coming to Cingular ?
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Posted by: Network 10

I remember when there were a lot of well-made quality handsets, produced by Japanese manufacturers, in the U.S., now South Korea has taken Japan's place. How long will Japan, who has the most sophisticated handsets on the planet, stay from the U.S. Isn't this an important market for them to be in ? I am curious as to why they stayed away from the U.S. for so long.

Maybe it was because of technology issues. I know that most of the advanced handsets of Japan were PDC. But now that the U.S. and Japan are converging on UMTS/HSDPA together, and the wireless technology is somewhat aligned, will we see the Wireless Gods of Japan return to the U.S. ?

Posted by: cingtd

And where do you think the majority of cell phones are manufactured right now?

Posted by: bodeh6

Sony Ericsson phones are Japanese and Swedish design.

I agree Right now phones in advanced features goes

Korea>Japan>Europe,Middle East, Asia>>>>>USA

Posted by: hitechy

Well, if you recall, AT&T Wireless had a lot of Japanese phones if that is what you're refering to. AT&T sold phones made by manufacturers such as NEC, Sharp, and Panasonic. This was because of the portion of AT&T Wireless NTT DoCoMo owned. Thats how AT&T had the relationships with Japanese manufacturers. Unless the manufacturers change their marketing strategies, I don't see any coming in the future. Who knows what will happen when Cingular is rebranded to at&t wireless. at&t will have a whole new marketing strategy to promote the new at&t, and will likely start to bring in more advanced handsets, so it is very possible we could see at&t partnering with Japanese manufacturers, but who knows.

Posted by: Network 10

I was also going to mention that as well. The fact that at&t is rebranding Cingular could be a perfect opportunity for the new at&t wireless to launch new data intensive services and new handsets.

Posted by: altNz

I honestly doubt we'll ever see any Japanese handset maker return to the US and more likely the ones who are still here will probably leave. I remember reading an article several years ago (yeah I understand this is old news, but it is still holds today) that the largest Japanese handset maker in terms of market share outside Japan was Kyocera at a measly 3.1% and that was because they had taken on Qualcomm's handset division. The fact that Panasonic recently shut down their GSM manufacturing base in the Philippines as well as Mitsubishi leaving the world market never to return is defiantely not a good sign. Furthermore I read recently that NEC is incurring huge losses at it's mobile unit, which isn't good considering they're Japan's largest handset maker by market share, approximately 25%. And Panasonic Japan's 2nd largest handset maker by market share, also approximately 25%, is considering getting rid of their handset division.

One interesting point of note in history is that if AT&T Wireless wasn't purchased by Cingular we might have seen some Japanese handset because the launch phones for UMTS was originally Nokia, Moto, and NEC. NEC pulled out at the last minute, but if AT&T stayed independant and with DoCoMo's investment, we might have possibly seen a NEC or even Panasonic UMTS phone. Maybe someone can shed some light on this, but it seemed Cingular favoured the more established brands: Nokia, Moto, & SE. I remember reading that Cingular refused to distribute Panasonic and NEC phones and that was one reason Panasonic decided to sell GSM phones directly to consumers (short lived) and why the NEC 535 never really saw the light of day.

Here's another interesting point in history, people probably remember back in the days when LG was an unknown company selling Sprint branded phones and Samsung was a small time company selling phones to Sprint as well. At this time all the Asian handset makers had a level playing field, sure as someone pointed out earlier Japan decided to build up their 2G system on a propriatary system called PDC, but the Koreans also were using an almost propriatary system compared to the world called CDMA. Now fast forward to today and Samsung, LG and their lesser known Korean peers Pantech, Hyundai, etc. have a respectable amount of the world market and a good deal of the US market. We have to remember that the Korean handset makers hold their own in the GSM market even though like Japan, for the Korean makers GSM is an outside technology. And their GSM lines has been slightly more advanced than their US CDMA lines most of the time, so it's hard to argue priopritary technology hindered their expansion overseas. Personally I think the Japanese handset makers missed an opportunity and to some degree didn't see the big picture. They basically saw the US and most of the world as too far behind for their phones and so they basically neglected the world market. While the Korean handset makers saw this as a great opportunity to advance handsets in the rest of the world. Just to be fair to the Korean population out there I will make this following statement before continuing, there was a time when copying the US was popular v. today when copying Japan is popular and copying <blank> will be popular in the future, so hence company names such as Pioneer and Kenwood exist: sounds like an American company right? That's the point, helped sell products back then. There's probably only so many ways to design a handset and they start to all look alike, but one thing that caught my eye initially was how many of the innovations coming from the Korean handset makers were initially Japanese designs. It might be true that they coincidently looked similar, but I'm basing my assumption on the timeline that the Japanese handset was released first. Take for instance the rotating display found on many handsets today, if you look back you'll find that Panasonic released the first one on DoCoMo's FOMA network. Several months later we see Samsung releasing a similar phone in Europe. It gets high marks for innovation, sells well and the European market is advanced one step. If you happen to look at the GSM Japanese handsets that were available at the time, they were kind of a joke compared to what the Korean handset makers were putting out. So the Korean handset makers were advancing the market and the Japanese handset makers were just making handsets geared to the present European market, yesterdays technology in Japan. You could blame the Korean handset makers for copying Japanese innovation and selling it as their own, but the real fault is the fact that Japanese handset makers didn't have enough foresight to see what was going to happen several years down the road. So by the time they realized what was going on like Vodafone bringing Sharps and Toshibas to Europe, it was too late as most consumers identified handsets coming from Samsung and LG. Sharp...Toshiba...they make handsets?!?! <Hope I didn't upset anyone too much for the previous paragraphy, especially the Korean people.>

One more point of interest is that while the Japanese handset makers have their home market and an article I read awhile back mentioned that supposedly Japanese people consider foreign handsets inferior, so it's almost a closed market, poor Nokia and Moto. Samsung, LG and Pantech have entered the market recently, so it will be interesting to see what will happen. Plus I'm sure the recent sale of Vodafone Japan to Softbank, creating Softbank Mobile won't help the situation. Even though foreign handsets might have caused the downfall of Vodafone Japan, I'm sure manufacturers such as Samsung can keep up with and bring new innovation to Japan such as RAZR like phones (Japanese handsets are huge, supposedly the larger the better, odd as they managed to miniturize everything else). Dropping the sterotype of inferiority while at the same time keeping handset costs low for Softbank, just the way they like it, and thus creating a new problem for the Japanese handset makers who have basically lost the world market and will soon lose their home market. So that's my argument for why I don't see Japanese handset makers returning to the US and why I think the hold outs, basically Sanyo as Kyocera sells rebranded Korean handsets for markets outside Japan LOL, will eventually leave as well.

Posted by: Ksolo12

Very intereting post!!!!!!!

Do you happen to have links to the articles that you mentioned? They sound like really good reads.

Posted by: Network 10

Just look at the D902i from NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi ! The Japanese do love their handsets on the bigger side, because this handset along with its predecessors have proven very popular. Just look at the screen!

Posted by: ADSisson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ksolo12

Very intereting post!!!!!!!

Do you happen to have links to the articles that you mentioned? They sound like really good reads.

I, too, would like to have the links. Cellular is a hobby of mine

Posted by: altNz

I unfortunately don't have all those exact articles bookmarked, but after using google with some keywords I found some similar articles:

Pana shuts down GSM factory in the Philippines:
http://onlypunjab.com/fullstory2k5-...wsID-77523.html
Mitsuibishi leaves world market:
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/58692
NEC losing money:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060511...earns_japan_nec
NEC, Pana, TI tie up:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06...onetieup_1.html
NEC was part of the initial UMTS launch:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=49793
Why foreign handset makers failed in Japan:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07...y/btjapan27.php
What's up with those large Japanese handset:
http://www.textually.org/textually/...6/01/011348.htm
Update Sharp largest handset maker by market share now:
http://news.techwhack.com/3518/sharp-japan/

It's probably possible to find the other articles, but without spending too much time this is what I could find.

Posted by: ALCingularUser

Quote:

Originally Posted by Network 10

Just look at the D902i from NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi ! The Japanese do love their handsets on the bigger side, because this handset along with its predecessors have proven very popular. Just look at the screen!

And here's a link:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/d902i/

The phone's features are great...but the color! You need sunglasses just to look at the thing!

Posted by: ASimpleFarmer

i prefer Made in Finland

Posted by: Lone Knight

Isn't Japan mostly using CDMA anyway?

Posted by: hitechy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lone Knight

Isn't Japan mostly using CDMA anyway?

Just au, NTT DoCoMo uses it's proprietary version of WCDMA called FOMA, and Vodafone Japan (now Softbank Mobile) uses normal UMTS 2100.

Posted by: samab

Even Japanese carriers are beginning to carry Korean handsets.

The Japanese market is too fracture --- something like 10 Japanese handset makers. They are too small to compete in the world market.

Posted by: hitechy

Also wanted to note, that DoCoMo just announced that all of it's handsets will be GSM capable within 2 years. This after Vodafone Japan announced it will work have global partnerships with other carriers, especially Vodafone for GSM roaming in other countries.

Two steps closer maybe.

Posted by: Network 10

The fact that NTT DoCoMo is mandating that all manufacturers place GSM in their handsets within two years was fascincating when I read that news. I think this is the first step of Japan taking on the world again with their mobiles.

Also Japan's UMTS/W-CDMA system has been modified to be compatibile with the rest of the world since its launch.

These two facts alone mean that the wireless technology of Japan & U.S. is now more aligned that ever before and this would be the perfect time for Japan to launch their handsets across the pacific.

Sharp and Toshiba with Vodafone are two perfect examples!

Posted by: Soopafly

Panasonic no longer makes cell phones. Doubtful we will see NEC phones ever again, the 515 and 525 were both flops as far as sales were concerned.

A SonyEricsson would be closest you'll get.

I'd rather go the Nokia route, but a SonyEricsson would be a great 2nd place, then maybe Motorola... maybe. I prefer to stay away from South Korea products... LGs, Samsungs, and KIAs.

Posted by: altNz

role reversal: check out the 705SH in the Sharp forum and tell me what it looks like LOL.

Posted by: DigiPilot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soopafly

Panasonic no longer makes cell phones.

That's too bad. One of the very best phones I ever had (actually still have it) was a TDMA Panasonic Duramax from the old ATT Wireless. The phone lived up to its name in terms of ruggedness, and had the clearest sound of all. The battery lasted forever too. In today's use-it-a-year-and-throw-it-away world, I can see why they're no longer making phones like the Duramax... it would've easily been good for delivering probably at least a half-decade or longer of useful service life if the ATT/Cingular merger would've never happened and TDMA was to have stuck around here a while longer.

Posted by: Soopafly

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigiPilot

Yeah, I've converted quite a few people with Duramaxs and they have ended up getting Motorola V551/V557s or Nokia 6010s. Really the two most durable phones we sell on GSM.