Vodafone stumbles in Japan
Great story in the NY Times this morning about how the once mighty Vodafone has been stumbling in Japan. They've been losing customers like crazy because of service problems with their 2G network (lots of users have complained about not receiving messages, something which can leave you a social outcast in Japan's hyperconnected culture) combined with a botched rollout of their 3G network, but the biggest misstep of all came late last year when they tried to sell the same phones in Japan that they also sell in 12 other countries. Vodafone thought they'd save some money by buying in bulk, but they discovered that a phone that'd be hot to trot in Europe would be (rightly) perceived as being totally trailing edge in Japan; the result was a lot of pissed off subscribers who were wondering why they should buy phones that are less advanced than those offered by other carriers. The Times notes that they're trying to turn things around — they've just brought back Hiroshi Ota, aka the man who helped dream up the first cameraphone — but in the meantime they've let archrivals KDDI and DoCoMo get a serious leg up on them.
