July 27, 2005
Some phones don't connect for Japanese, particularly
By many reports, the foreign handset makers fell flat in Japan, the most advanced cellphone market in the world, reports the IHT. What was cutting edge technology for Nokia, Motorola or Vodfaone, was last year's news in Japan.
"Nahoko Mitsuyama, principal analyst at Gartner Japan, a technology research company, estimated that retail sales of Nokia and Motorola phones represented less than 2 percent of the entire handset market, which is about 11 million units per quarter. That rate works out to fewer than 100,000 units for each company, she said.
Analysts cite a number of marketing missteps as well as broader strategic errors on the part of Vodafone and its handset partners. For one, analysts point out that the user interface was poorly adapted for the Japanese" and technology a year behind.
...Analysts said the situation was a classic case of a multinational company executing a global strategy without properly making local adjustments".
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