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Japan: iPhone a “total failure”

Posted May 25, 2008 8:30 AM by Cedric Bosch
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Okay, we admit this probably isn’t a nation-wide sentiment in Japan. That said, Sachio Semmoto, a high-ranking extremist executive at eAccess, a Japanese cell carrier, recently criticized the iPhone’s technology at a Reuters Technology Summit. His reasoning? Semmoto cited a single opinion- that the iPhone cannot outsell smartphones from RIM, Nokia, or HTC. In addition, he ripped on the single-carrier model that Apple has adopted. To wrap things up, Semmoto said “If I have a chance to talk to Steve, I’d like to tell him face to face: You made a wrong choice.”

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Comments

  1. A total failure eh?

    All those sales were just..What…? Jokes?

    Posted by Paul Douglas on May 25, 2008 9:08 AM

  2. He is probably pissed off because when apple went to go talk with the GSM carriers in Japan, they did not want to share the revenue (like rumors here in the states about apple going to verizon to begin with).  And then realized that he possibly lost a ton of money by not obtaining the iPhone.  So know he is trying to possibly downplay the iPhone so he does not lose subscribers or stock prices and play the blame game.

    Posted by Jaocb on May 25, 2008 9:23 AM

  3. Sour Grapes = Sachio Semmoto

    Posted by Patrick on May 25, 2008 9:57 AM

  4. For his sake, I hope that was mis-translated. If not, somebody tell that pinhead that nothing on this earth is more anticipated than the iPhone 3g.

    How do you say “douche bag” in Japanese?

    Posted by res08hao on May 25, 2008 1:35 PM

  5. oddly enough, ‘sachio’ is ancient Japanese for “a bag of douches”.
    and if I’m not mistaken, ‘semmoto’ is “one who claimeth to see the future and make outlandish statements based on one’s biased opinions rather than cold hard fact only to be ridiculed later.”

    ironic.

    Posted by robinson on May 25, 2008 4:57 PM

  6. One big difference in Japan is that the variety and features found in existing phones are pretty good compared to the US or UK. People here already have great phones if they want them. For example 2-3 megapixel cameras, very cheap email, tv tuner… the iphone has a great interface but some important features aren’t there.

    By the way there are NO GSM carriers in Japan they use different system AND 3G.

    Posted by Gareth on May 26, 2008 2:22 AM

  7. Along with the bag of douches translation, his name in hindu is sanskrit for “Man with small penis”. So maybe he needs to denegrate the iphone to make up for a lack of hardware downstairs. And just for his comments im not eating at his restaurant anymore, im giving up eating sushi and using chopsticks, and im throwing my teenage mutant ninja turtles in to furnace.

    Posted by Steve on May 27, 2008 12:25 PM

  8. To steve, 
    Clever of you to make the connection between one (1) Japanese executive and the entire cuisine, pop culture , eating utensils of a nation state/race.  Not to mention your ability to derive anotomical relationships between words and body parts.  I would also like to commend your excellent linguistic/translating abilities…  In truth Gareth is probably on the mark.  Iphone may sell if marketed well, but the actual features are years behind the standard Japanese phone.

    Posted by me on June 2, 2008 10:42 PM

  9. To the poster who signs “posted by me”, you obviously must be Sachio’s son to defend him like that, and that being the case you wound up on the short end of the stick in the gene pool as well. (hmm i derived an anatomical relationship between a word and a body part lol). BTW thank you for commending me on my linguistic ability, yes i speak 3 languages (because i am just too gosh darn smart). But you are an idiot, and penis envy wont help your cause, Sachio’s son, heh. One more piece of advice, there are plenty of women who dont care about size, so dont feel embarrassed….but you still have to overcome your gay tendencies to find that out. good luck stumpy lol.

    Posted by Steve on June 3, 2008 7:36 AM

  10. everyone here is eagerly awaiting the iPhone.

    this guy is a joke

    Posted by hawken king on June 4, 2008 11:16 PM

  11. The guy is a joke ? You mean you know more than a Japanese cell phone company executive about the japanese mobile phone market ? I doubt it. The big thing in Japan now is 1 seg TV. The iphone doesn’t have an integrated TV receiver. I don’t think its as straight forward as you think.

    Posted by gareth on June 4, 2008 11:22 PM

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