Now, I know almost all phone companies are evil incarnate, but
Softbank really does double it up with pure incompetency. Not only do
they have a monopoly on iPhone sales in Japan at a time when it is
overwhelmingly the most popular smartphone (I strongly suspect that
this is something that has saved the company over the past 2 years as
much as its rather silly marketing based on racial stereotypes), but
it remains terrified that the bottom will drop out of its shakey
existence and has wildly underestimated demand for the iPhone 4. I
don’t care personally. Being tied into Softbank’s unavoidable 2-year
contract on my iPhone 2, there’s no chance I’ll be getting a new one
for 6 months at least. Not only that, it charges 4 times the price of
iPad 3G access compared to the UK. Unbelievably poor management. Perhaps what is even more amazing, Docomo or KDDI hasn’t turned to
Apple and offered them a deal to also get the iPhone — something that
has of course happened in other markets. But this simply smacks of
Softbank having some agreement on a long term monopoly, plus the fact
that Japanese manufacturers will be threatening the other two
providers not to take on the iPhone anyway.
Softbank really does double it up with pure incompetency. Not only do
they have a monopoly on iPhone sales in Japan at a time when it is
overwhelmingly the most popular smartphone (I strongly suspect that
this is something that has saved the company over the past 2 years as
much as its rather silly marketing based on racial stereotypes), but
it remains terrified that the bottom will drop out of its shakey
existence and has wildly underestimated demand for the iPhone 4. I
don’t care personally. Being tied into Softbank’s unavoidable 2-year
contract on my iPhone 2, there’s no chance I’ll be getting a new one
for 6 months at least. Not only that, it charges 4 times the price of
iPad 3G access compared to the UK. Unbelievably poor management. Perhaps what is even more amazing, Docomo or KDDI hasn’t turned to
Apple and offered them a deal to also get the iPhone — something that
has of course happened in other markets. But this simply smacks of
Softbank having some agreement on a long term monopoly, plus the fact
that Japanese manufacturers will be threatening the other two
providers not to take on the iPhone anyway.
