Japanese iPhone Craze Attracts Global App Developers

Yuri Kageyama, reporting for the AP:

Foreign developers of applications for phones didn’t give the Japanese market a second thought because of its insularity. But that is changing as the iPhone, for which tens of thousands of applications have been created, dominates Japanese smartphone sales.

Everywhere one turns, on commuter trains and urban cafes, people are tapping away at their iPhone screens in a relatively rare Japanese embrace of technology that isn’t homegrown.

Remember when Brian X. Chen claimed the Japanese “hated the iPhone”? That’s a classic bowl of claim chowder.

★ Monday, 29 November 2010