makes me think that the whole point of announcing this thing so early was to garner praise and criticism so they could go back and refine version 1.0 and immediately start version 1.5/2.0
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I can totally see the next version of the iPhone having 3G, GPS, a better camera and larger capacity. I find it hard to imagine it won't support flash and java, especially if it really does have the hardware specs that have been thrown arround.
I think this is why they are having to wait till 2008 to release it in Japan. In its current form it would not stand up to the current market. The iPod is hugely popular but its sales in Japan have actually slowed due to the market for handsets that can download music. Japanese don't like using credit cards online (lots of really bad scams have happened) so the iTunes store is not doing as well as they would have liked. They introduced the iTunes cards and sell them at convenience stores. Even there, they are not selling many. The iTunes library in Japan lacks Sony labels as Sony has their own dowload-to-phone service and they want to control that sector. Many of my friends still rent CDs and copy the music to their iPods as the really popular groups (Sony and associate company labels) are not available.
The GPS feature would be a huge hit in Japan. We have it in many phones now and they have been used by parents to track their children on their way home from school (really scary things have happened so parents demanded this feature).
The phone has to be 3G, hard not to be in a country that pushed for all markets to go that direction. I live in the middle of no-where and I have 3G.
One other issue is the language. Japanese has 11 columns of kana with 5 kana in most columns (two have 3 and one has one). You don't need spaces, you don't need capitals. So a standard phone pad actually is very accurate in getting what you want written. Many Japanese (young and old) are not very good at using a qwerty keyboard so typing with such would not be very popular with the masses. Also the iPhone in its Japanese version would have to have bilingual support. It has not been shown if this exists now, but most phones in Japan can run in Japanese or in English (switchable). I figure this will be easy as Mac OS is the best for multilingual work. The big issue is how to input text that is to the liking of the Japanese.
Another feature is TV. Until Apple gets some deals to sell Japanese TV programs and movies on iTunes, they are going to have to put in a TV tuner. Not too uncommon not to see people watching TV off their keitai (cells) on trains and in restaurants.
Finally a HUGE item would be an IC chip. If I go down to the local Circle K, I don't need my wallet. I just swipe my phone over a little reader and the bill is attached to my monthly statement. On Tokyo, Osaka and now Nagoya area trains people use IC phones as their train passes. You can also use IC enabled phones to check-in and board domestic ANA flights...truely ticketless.
As you can see Apple will have a lot to do in the next year to make a phone that will be useful for even the "target market". The interface and ease of use will be nice. But the overall basic functions will be very important to making sales in Japan. The iPod created a large halo effect in the US...didn't do so much in Japan. The iPhone has the potential of creating a halo effect in Japan that Apple needs.
