Over the past decade, Apple has ended up dominating
Japan. Capturing 65% of their smartphone market,
a number that Apple hasn’t reached in any other country, including the US. And that may seem a little odd considering
Japan’s reputation for being the technological powerhouse of the world. Igniting the MP3 player era with the Walkman,
and inventing the pocket calculator, DVD player, DSLR camera, laptop, blu-ray player, and more. Plus, Japanese people are known to try to
buy products from their own country rather than those from overseas. So how did Apple, an American company on the
other side of the world, manage to dominate Japan; a country filled with tech products
of their own? Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to
explain in this video. Today’s topic came in third in the last
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activity feed. Alright so there are quite a few reasons why
Apple has done so well in Japan. Most of which are because of good business
decisions they’ve made. But perhaps the biggest reason has nothing
to do with Apple, and everything to do with Samsung. You see, Apple has been battling Samsung in
the worldwide smartphone market for years. Today, the two companies are neck and neck,
with Samsung at 28% and Apple at 27%. But when you look at Japan, Samsung has captured
just 6% of the market. While Apple is far and away the most popular
brand at 65%. And Samsung’s poor showing in Japan is a
result of a censorship campaign back in 2010. When they released their custom Android interface
called TouchWiz 6.0, Samsung, a Korean company, decided to remove all references to Japanese
culture. This was especially prevalent in the Emoji
Samsung designed. As you may know, companies like Apple, Google,
Facebook, and Twitter, are free to design their own emoji for their own platforms. That’s why they look slightly different
depending on the smartphone or app you’re using. But the guidelines these companies follow
when designing emoji, are outlined by an organization called the Unicode Consortium. That way, the meaning of each emoji stays
consistent across all platforms. But with TouchWiz 6.0, Samsung took the unprecedented
step of breaking from this standard. For example, the TouchWiz Tokyo Tower emoji
wasn’t illustrated as the standard red and white tower, but a generic gray tower instead. The Crossed Flags emoji, which are illustrated
as Japanese flags on every other platform, instead featured South Korean flags. The Japanese Dolls emoji was changed to Korean
dolls, and the Map of Japan emoji wasn’t even supported by TouchWiz. That meant the emoji appeared as a blank square
if a friend sent it to you. No company had done anything like this before. And it became a popular news story in Japan,
where tensions with Korea have been high since World War II. The censorship by Samsung completely destroyed
their reputation in Japan. Where customers try to support domestic products
as often as possible, and are unlikely to support any company at odds with the country. That’s why Samsung simply accepted the fact
that their brand was unpopular in Japan, and stopped using their logo in the country entirely. Opting instead to simply go by the name, “Galaxy.” Their billboards, signs, and commercials never
feature the Samsung logo. Their huge retail location in Tokyo is called
the Galaxy store. Their website domain is galaxymobile.jp. And when you buy a Samsung product in Japan,
they don’t even put their logo on the box. But despite their best efforts to rebrand,
most Japanese customers have continued to boycott Samsung. Now this is where Apple comes in. Steve Jobs happened to have a soft spot for
Japan even before the iPhone was invented. Sony, a Japanese company, happened to be the
consumer electronics brand he respected most. In fact, Jobs tried persuading them to allow
their popular VAIO notebook to run the Mac operating system. Which is pretty high praise, considering Jobs
had spent the last three years shutting down the Mac clone market. But the VAIO team opposed the idea since the
product was optimized for Windows and already selling well. Jobs also loved traditional Japanese architecture. Taking each of his children on a trip to Kyoto
to share his admiration. And as it happens, his iconic black turtleneck
was designed by Japanese fashion icon Issey Miyake. And as I mentioned in my last video, the first
international Apple Store was built in Tokyo, back in 2003. So there was no shortage of friendliness between
Apple and Japan. And when the iPhone debuted there in 2008,
Apple entered the market with a strategy. They partnered with SoftBank, one of the country’s
three major mobile carriers, to offer the iPhone exclusively. Now, at the time, SoftBank was the smallest
of Japan’s carriers. And that worked out well for Apple, since
they ran the most aggressive mobile phone promotion in the country’s history to attract
more users. Offering an iPhone for free with a two year
contract. This not only helped SoftBank’s growth,
but Apple’s as well. Since their phone was one of the cheapest
on the Japanese market. Something we in America rarely experience
since iPhones never go on sale. And I’ll actually explain why that is in
an upcoming video so be sure you’re subscribed for that. But Apple’s strategy was important for two
reasons: First, was that many analysts didn’t expect the iPhone to appeal to Japanese customers. Mainly because smartphones in Japan were focused
on including as many buttons as possible. Since that meant more features and functionality,
which the iPhone lacked. Second, the Japanese mobile phone market was
extremely isolated. With Japanese companies designing phones to
be sold exclusively in Japan. This led to the term Galapagos syndrome. Where companies like Sony, Panasonic, and
Sharp would dominate the phone market in Japan, but fail in other countries. Based on this isolationism, it was extremely
difficult for foreign electronics companies like Apple to make inroads and become an established
brand. But that turned out not to be the case at
all. In fact, Japanese customers response to the
iPhone was overwhelmingly positive. And I think it’s for the same reason people
all over the world loved iPhone. It allowed you to do so many things, so easily. And although Japan had and continues to have
a high presence of feature phones, it’s become a niche market. Since the iPhone offers perhaps the most important
feature of all for Japanese customers, and that is convenience. Not to mention the aesthetic that Japanese
companies often strive for has been part of Apple’s culture since the beginning. Simplicity, ease of use, and attention to
detail are things many people in Japan value. And they’ll pay a higher price for a product
that delivers on those qualities. But now you might be thinking, what about
Japanese companies like Sony and Sharp? Why aren’t customers buying their phones
instead? And the answer is that they were simply too
slow to adapt. When the iPhone hit the Japanese market, domestic
phone companies expected it to flop, and continued to release feature phones that had proven
to be successful in the past. Once the iPhone became a clear market leader,
Sony, Panasonic and Sharp all tried to compete. Releasing their own multi-touch devices, although
none could exceed the high quality and low price of the iPhone especially while SoftBank
was running such aggressive promotions that domestic phone companies couldn’t take advantage
of. So that is how Apple dominated Japan, be sure
to subscribe to find out why iPhones never go on sale, and I’ll see you in the next
video.
