My gallery of pre iPhone/Android Japanese cell phones and gadgets

[cnev3]

Gallery:

http://s1221.photobucket.com/user/cptncheesecake/library/Japan

Slideshow:

http://s1221.photobucket.com/user/cptncheesecake/slideshow/Japan

I visited Japan in 2007, and took a lot of pics. I made a gallery for the pics I took of cell phones, gadgets, and other items. Most of them were taken in Akihabara (Electronics District) and Harajuku.

This was 2 months before the release of the first iPhone, and 6 months before the release of the first Android phone, T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream).

The most high tech phones then were basically PDA's with cell phone capability. I brought a T-Mobile MDA running Windows Mobile 5. This platform wasn't popular in Japan. Feature phones were still big sellers (albeit with better hardware than US/EU flip phones at the time). The hot trend was TV streaming phones using 1seg technology. They had ugly telescoping external antennas and poor battery life. SoftBank dominated the market then. They were everywhere.

If you would have told me then that in 4 years, two American developed cell phone OS platforms would be popular in Japan and the rest of Asia, I wouldn't have believed it. They have always been fiercely domestic with their cell phone and electronics preferences.

 

[paulbennett95]

Thank god for the iPhone or we'd still probably have such hideous looking phones today

I don't know how I lived with those funky looking phones, yay for better design choices.

 

[Mochi Hana]

Nice gallery. I myself have a Japanese cell phone. I think these days NTT DoCoMo is the dominant cell phone provider over there. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Assault]

Thank god for the iPhone or we'd still probably have such hideous looking phones today

I don't know how I lived with those funky looking phones, yay for better design choices.

You should be thanking Sony for the iPhone. Jobs loved Sony design. Here is a CAD mockup of a Sony design that Apple had made up for "inspiration" in March 2006. Jobs asked the question, "What would Sony do?"

 

[DeathChill]

You should be thanking Sony for the iPhone. Jobs loved Sony design. Here is a CAD mockup of a Sony design that Apple had made up for "inspiration" in March 2006. Jobs asked the question, "What would Sony do?"

I am confused. How should we thank Sony when it was Apple designers who made a mock-up of what a "Sony iPhone" would look like?

 

[Assault]

I am confused. How should we thank Sony when it was Apple designers who made a mock-up of what a "Sony iPhone" would look like?

That design came from a Sony designer, not Apple! Apple created their own CAD so they could manipulate the image.

 

[DeathChill]

That design came from a Sony designer, not Apple! Apple created their own CAD so they could manipulate the image.

No... Apple made a Sony-inspired version of their own iPhone design. Sony had literally zero to do with it.

 

[Internaut]

You can thank Sony and Ericsson. I understand Jobs was utmost impressed with the P800. Unfortunately for Sony and Ericsson, the P800's successors were hideous, featuring a mess of a UI, apparently designed by committee.

Oddly, I'm inclined to blame that on the Japanese. They've never really understood usability in quite the same way as world + dog.

 

[paulbennett95]

You should be thanking Sony for the iPhone. Jobs loved Sony design. Here is a CAD mockup of a Sony design that Apple had made up for "inspiration" in March 2006. Jobs asked the question, "What would Sony do?"

I remember Sony's phones, didn't know they were that early, and they weren't touchscreen though, amiright?


I always liked the look of the PlayStations though, much more techy looking than Nintendo.

 

[Internaut]

Great gallery BTW. I was last in Tokyo in 2003 (more or less exactly ten years ago) and remember being quite jealous of the commuters with their heads buried in advanced feature phones. At the time, I had a Panasonic 3G phone on the new Three network in the UK, but they were unable to switch on roaming in time (and besides, it was so new, Three weren't all that sure if DoCoMo had upgraded its 3G FOMA network to support international standards).

The revenue model that enabled this to happen was actually very similar to Apple's app model. Chargeable applications and services within a walled garden (superior to WAP). You could set up a chargeable service/game, and if you make money then it was straight revenue share with DoCoMo, just like Apple's 30%. I trust Apple haven't patented that .

 

[Haywoodloon]

Cell phone jammer is an interesting and helpful device when we don’t want to be bothered by the cell phone noise. I just bought myself a cell phone jammer the other day, it is working great and BTW, it’s legal here in my country.

 

[Oohara]

Cell phone jammer is an interesting and helpful device when we don’t want to be bothered by the cell phone noise. I just bought myself a cell phone jammer the other day, it is working great and BTW, it’s legal here in my country.

Which country is that, if I may ask? I'm moving there today :O

 

[Technarchy]

That design came from a Sony designer, not Apple! Apple created their own CAD so they could manipulate the image.

Um, no.

That is an internal Apple design of what Apple thought a Sony smartphone might look. Sony had nothing to do with that concept at all.