A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

27Jul/097

A Quick Note on iPhone in Japan (or iPhone vs. Softbank)

Spending 20 minutes looking at iPhone through the lens of Google searches in Japan can tell us a lot. If you've never used Google Insight for Search, get your tail on over and give a zing. This is what I've found from a little noodling around about iPhone:

1. When comparing iPhone to Softbank, since 2008 iPhone has had consistently more searches than Softbank. iPhone first took off in June 2008. Since the end of July 2009, iPhone has twice as many searches as Softbank. No brainer it's the new 3GS. From a search point of view Softbank right now appears to be winning with its iPhone play.

2. When comparing Softbank and au, au has considerably more searches than Softbank.
However, when comparing au to iPhone, the iPhone beats au both in July 08 and July 09.

3. When checking what cities iPhone is most searched for, not surprising Tokyo is. But what about the other ranked cities:
1. Tokyo
2. Gunma
3. Kagoshima
4. Saga
5. Okinawa
Okinawa may be understandable with all the US military but how can Gunma, Kagoshima and Saga be explained? I didn't know where Saga was to be honest, but it turns out that #3 and #4 are in Kyushu.

4. Sometimes it can be useful to compare similar technogically advanced countries like Japan to South Korea. What we find is that iPhone has more than twice the searches as South Korea. This may have something to do with the level of usage of Google in each country.

What we see overall here is that sometimes the product or service is much stronger in people's minds than the company providing it. You could even say that Softbank isn't even the real provider of iPhone but that Apple is. But a quick check would even show you that Apple was overtaken by iPhone from 2008. So I think we should it to Softbank for latching onto another's brand to ride it to the top. But is this really happening? Is Softbank's brand being levied up by the iPhone? That may take more than Google Insights for Search to suggest. It may be the case but it also my be the case that another company's brand could put it at risk depending on factors out of its control. Only time will tell

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About Lance Shields

I am a creative strategist, web marketer, social media expert and MBA candidate. I specialize in brand building and marketing communications while fully leveraging social applications and consumer generated media.

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swint 6 months ago 1 point
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Interesting analysis. I wonder whether search trends are the best proxy in this case. The parallel spikes would indicate certain trends. But, this market may have other was of accessing Softbank (hence, no need for a search for info) and their knowledge of Softbank may already be high, so for additional/specific info, they search iPhone. Nonetheless, I would say that the iPhone and Apple brands are benefiting Softbank--for now. As you suggest: only time will tell.

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Lance Shields 6 months ago 1 point
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Good points swint! Yes, you may be right that only using search to spot trends may be faulty for a a lot of reasons. That's also true that people may have enough info elsewhere on Softbank. But they can certainly get info on iPhone at the same place (ie. go to a Softbank shop). I think my point is that people search for things when they are new and they want to know more about them. And in this case, they are more interested in iPhone than the Softbank, the company providing the service. What this seems to say is that in this case the product brand speaks to people more than the company brand. Actually, almost the exact same trend can be seen when I compared iPhone to Apple in Japan: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=iPhone...

Thanks for your thoughts, swint!

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Paul 5 months ago 1 point
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Interesting article Lance.
I don't really see that many Japanese using iPhones when
I am moving about on the train though.

Some of the comments I have heard from Japanese are that
the iPhone is "heavy", "doesnt play Japanese TV", "no Suica"
and so on.

It's two big strengths though:
1. Unparallelled as a mobile browsing platform.
2. Huge access to iphone apps (important in the gaming culture of Japan).

How many of your Japanese friends own one currently?

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JuriaYoshikawa 5 months ago 1 point
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True Paul. But Apple would make it a lot easier for themselves if they made Safari compatible with iMode. Seems like a no-brainer, doesn't. The Japanese people I know who have iPhone love them and really enjoy all the apps they can try out. But many of them actually can afford to keep their regular mobiles to surf the keitai web. Expensive and hard to switch.

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