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Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

iPhones becoming available from DoCoMo is huge. They are the carrier with the best signal quality, hands down. You get reception in the middle of remote mountains with DoCoMo. It's akin to when Verizon started offering the iPhone, but multiplied by 5x.

Also

>One unique factor in Japan is the relatively small presence of Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE +2.10% , the world's largest smartphone maker. Samsung ranks fourth in Japan behind Apple, Sony and Sharp Corp., in part because of a Japanese consumer bias that works against many Korean brands.

This can't be understated imo. I have friends in Japan who flat out refuse to buy Samsung/LG monitors and other products.

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> This can't be understated

That's a bit overstated... :]

Japan's phone manufacturers concentrate on the Japanese domestic market, so there's a great deal more choice in high-quality phones in Japan than in most other countries.

Samsung is not "special" like Apple is, in that their products aren't higher-quality / more functional / better designed than the (mostly Japanese) competition, so there's no real reason why Samsung should be ahead of other companies. They may have some price advantage, but price is generally less important in Japan than it is in other countries, and is often rather obscured in phone contracts. Samsung coming in 4th is actually a vote of confidence.

To the degree there's a bias in Japan against non-Japanese products, I think it's in most cases less a case of xenophobia, and more simply a higher degree of trust in Japanese products. This isn't entirely illogical either, as Japan does have a very good record of building high-quality products. Japanese can be very, very, picky, about both quality and style. [This is one reason Apple does very well in Japan.]

Indeed, but I can't help it: Once upon a time Japan had a very good record of building low-quality products. Iphones are built in China.

Samsung Galaxy models are among the most sold android phones in Japan[1] and Samsung is second overall in terms of Android market share.

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2013/10/30/animoca-releases-...

Docomo is also widely used in Oceania and other pacific island nations

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