美国消费者用手机来看电视、进行GPS导航、下载音乐、制作视频、支付账单和查看邮件，但好几年前日本人就在这么做了。日本在iPhone诞生前8年就已经有了触摸屏手机——Pioneer J-PE01。然而，苹果（Apple）iPhone去年成为日本最畅销的手机并不是什么令人惊讶的事。极其著名的日本手机在外观和性能上领先外国手机10多年后，终于让位给了外国机型。

    以NEC为例。它曾是世界上最大的IT和通信公司之一，它的命运代表了其他7家日本手机制造商。这家公司已经连续两年出现亏损，股价在10年间下跌逾90%，于是出售了旗下手机销售部门，裁减了10,000个手机相关岗位。分析人士称，这家公司已经无力再与苹果和韩国三星（Samsung）竞争。

    原因何在？日本手机专家林信行认为，日本消费者抛弃本国手机制造商有三个主要原因。首先，他说必须要明白iPhone对日本女性产生了多么巨大和意想不到的吸引力。“iPhone从一开始就获得了女性的青睐。最初采用圆角设计和塑料外壳的iPhone 3G系列手机很快就变成了日本女性的时尚物品，她们喜欢那种多变的外壳和简洁的装饰。其次是日本女性的品牌忠诚度。”

    日本也有和iPhone同样靓丽的手机。风靡一时的Infobar直板手机因为靓丽的外观而赢得了国际设计大奖。尽管iPhone缺乏日本电信业高管认为必不可少的浮华装饰，但事实证明，iPhone引发的热潮势不可挡。

    市场调研公司IDC日本的数据显示，iPhone是2012年日本最畅销的手机及智能手机。这是个巨大的成就，而日本手机观察人士和业内领袖起初曾说iPhone会在日本一败涂地。IDC的资料显示，苹果现在占到日本市场15%的份额，领先于日本的夏普（Sharp）和富士通（Fujitsu），后二者的市场份额均为14%。日本顶尖的移动运营商NTT Docomo没有推出iPhone，而是主要推广三星Galaxy等其他的外国智能手机，以此来抗衡iPhone。

    但林信行表示，这些对打败苹果起不到什么作用。他说，日本手机行业的运营方式导致了低劣的产品。他说：“手机运营商生产了在日本出售的几乎每部手机。就连诺基亚（Nokia）和三星的手机也被手机运营商加以改造，以满足特定的需求。运营商添加了他们认为重要的功能，比如电子钱包、One-Seg TV接收器以及运营商的各种特别服务。”

    The Japanese were using their cellphones to watch TV, navigate with GPS, download music, make movies, pay bills, and check their emails years before American consumers were doing the same. Japan also had touchscreen phones eight years earlier than iPhone -- the Pioneer J-PE01. And yet it is no surprise that Apple's iPhone was the best-selling phone in Japan last year. After over a decade of trouncing any foreign handset looks and talent-wise, Japan's legendary ketai are been given the heave-ho in favor of foreign models.

    Take NEC, once one of the world's biggest IT and telecoms firms. Its fortunes have been typical of the other seven Japanese handset makers. After two years of losses and a stock value that has fallen over 90% in a decade, it is selling off its mobile phone sales unit and cutting 10,000 mobile related jobs. Analysts say the firm can't compete anymore with Apple (AAPL) and Korea's Samsung.

    What happened? Japanese mobile phone guru Nobuyuki Hayashi believes there are three main reasons Japan has fallen out of love with its own handset makers. First, he says, you have to understand what a colossal and unexpected hit the iPhone was with Japanese women. "The iPhone has been very strong among women from very early on. The original round plastic iPhone 3G series soon become a fashion item for Japanese women who also enjoyed the huge variation of cases and ease of decoration. Then there is the brand loyalty of Japanese women."

    Japan had phones just as good-looking as the iPhone. The once popular Infobar candy bar phone even won international design prizes. But the craze for the iPhone, despite lacking all the bells and whistles Japanese telecoms executives thought were indispensable (e-wallet, TV, etc) proved overwhelming.

    According to IDC Japan, the iPhone was the No. 1 best-seller for 2012 in both handsets and smartphones. Quite a feat for a phone that the country's ketai-watchers and industry leaders said would fail at the start. Apple now has 15% market share putting it ahead of Japan's Sharp and Fujitsu, which both enjoy 14% of the market according to IDC. Japan's top mobile provider, NTT Docomo (DCM), which does not carry the iPhone, hit back by promoting mostly foreign-made smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy.

    But this won't help the attempts to defeat Apple according to Mr. Hayashi who says that the way the phone industry operates here leads to an inferior product. "The phone operators produce almost each and every mobile phones sold in Japan. Even the phones by Nokia (NOK) or Samsung are modified to match the special requirement by the operators to include features that operators believe are important such as e-wallet, One-Seg TV receiver and wide range of special services by the operators," he says.

    “iPhone大概是日本市场上唯一没有经过改造的手机（也就是说和出厂时一样）。”

    林信行说，这种改造使手机（采用安卓系统）功能过多、过于复杂、过于耗电。

    第三，他认为，日本往外国手机里增添的软件以及本国产手机里的软件比不上苹果的软件或者未经改造的三星手机软件。他说：“史蒂夫•乔布斯曾经说过，日本制造商的最大错误在于，他们没有意识到软件技术已经变得多么重要。日本消费电子制造商的高管大多是硬件工程师，他们不了解软件的重要性，也不知道该如何运作软件业务。”

    但对于为日本和全球智能手机生产零部件的日本电子公司来说，还有一线希望。日本公司或许未能创造出大获成功的手机，但日本电子制造商生产了约50%的智能手机零部件，其中也包括苹果的iPhone。Mobiyko公司的日本手机市场顾问Lars Cosh-Ishii指出：“日本手机制造商的本国市场份额低于5年前的水平，这是事实，但同期他们向全球各地生产商提供了大量的零部件，（在很大程度上）抵消了手机销售额的下滑。”

    “不只是硬件。似乎没人提到日本公司在网络协议方面对无线行业的贡献。至关重要的3G专利使全球数十亿部手机可以与网络相连。”他的意思是，作为现代手机的发源地，日本仍然有可能创造出面面俱到、再次震惊世界的手机。（财富中文网）

    译者：千牛絮

    "iPhone still is about the only phone in Japan which is sold unmodified (i.e. just the way the manufacturer has it produced)."

    He adds that such tinkering makes the phones -- based on Android (GOOG) -- too feature-heavy, too complicated, and unstable battery drainers.

    Thirdly, he suggests that the software that Japanese add to foreign phones and that is found in domestic-bred devices is no match for Apple's or an unadulterated Samsung. "As Steve Jobs once said, Japanese manufacturers' biggest mistake is they didn't realize how important software technology has become. Most of the executives at Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers were hardware engineers, and they don't get the importance of software or how software business works." he says.

    There is, however, a silver lining for Japanese electronic companies making parts for Japan's and the globe's smartphones. Japan Inc. may have failed to produce a phone to set the world on fire, but Japanese electronics makers still produce roughly 50% of parts for all our smartphones and that includes Apple's iPhone. "Japan's phone makers have less market share here than five years ago, it's true, but the value of sales here is offset (by many times) compared to the volumes of components they provide to every single maker shipping globally over that same period of time," points out Japan mobile market consultant Lars Cosh-Ishii at Mobiyko.

    "And it's not just hardware. Nobody seems to mention the IP aspect of Japan Inc.'s contribution to wireless industry. Its critical patents for 3G enable billions of handsets around the world to connect to the network." His message is as the cradle of the modern mobile, Japanese innovation might still engender a phone that pushes all the right buttons and astounds the world once more.