Quote:
Originally Posted by dragonbone
I don't believe that the iPad will be more expensive here? Why should it?
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This is a little bit naive. How long have you been living in Japan? I assume quite a while. If so then you will already know that Japanese customers get completely ripped off compared to our American friends. Ever compare the price of a Sony TV in Japan and the US? The US TV is so much cheaper that it's ridiculous!! And the bloody things are made in Japan!! Also US apps are 99 cents compared to Japan's 115 yen even though the yen is stronger than the dollar. When I got my iTouch I got my parents to bring it over with them from Canada. It was about $230 plus tax so maybe $270 for the 8GB. The same 8GB from Bic Camera was going for 28,700 yen and the dollar was probably only worth about 80 yen at the time! Anyways I just think that you may be in for a rude shock if you think you're going to get the iPad for the same price as what the US has it for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
Tim Cook said in the last earnings call that the iPhone was HUGE in Japan now-400% growth?
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As someone else said, this is relative. The iPhone has experienced strong growth here. There was a time when I declared the iPhone to be a failure in Japan using the anectdotal evidence that I had never actually seen one out in the wild in the hands of anybody other than a foreigner. I can't say that anymore. They're still not common but there's a good chance that I'll see someone using one while I'm on the train-maybe even two people. But this is in a country where 3/4 of the people on the train have their cellphones out and are doing some thing on the train. So 2 out of 200 people isn't really that much. Still 400% is 400%. If they keep it up then they will definitely end up with a stronger market share (but no where even close to the sheer domination that you see in the US-we're talking about a market with 3 main carriers who each sell about 20 different varieties of cell phones).