http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/ Engadget Comments for DoCoMo bringing BlackBerry to Japan http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/Good example sentences and supports kanji input.]]>Mar 27th 2008 3:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
Probably the same way they're represented on every other keyboard...

The Japanese use regular English keyboards. There is usually a Japanese "mode" on these keyboards, but nobody uses it because it's actually harder - they just type with Roman letters and select the words they want from a list.

Anyway, I can't see how these will be a success in Japan, where they have way more advanced devices already.
]]>Jun 8th 2006 12:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/Jun 8th 2006 1:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
It'll be interesting to see if the push email is enough to sell these machines in a country where a lot of people use their cell phone email address as their primary email, but I'm sure Docomo and RIM have something cooked up.]]>Jun 8th 2006 1:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
I don't really know why they're pushing this phone (no pun intended) there. Aside from what was mentioned above, the Japanese cell phone market is dominated by flip-phones, with an occasional exception.]]>Jun 8th 2006 3:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
There is nothing really like BB connect in Japan, and even POP and IMAP clients are uncommon on Japanese cellphones. So virtually all Japanese mobile phone users are limited to their cell phone provider's keitai mail service. That may not sound limiting, but it can be in some situations. Times are a changing though. Willcom is including a POP/IMAP email client on most of their phones, not just the W-Zero3, and Vodafone is prepping their analog of the Black Berry Connect service. That Vodafone service will probably go live when they release the Nokia E60 and E61 this summer. Given the typically long commute times in Japan, it's more surprising to me that a phone like this hasn't been released here, as opposed to this being one of the first.

As for the form factor, there are plenty of candybar and slider phones on the market here to make that a non-issue. And you could be about as fast as most Japanese in sending an email on your cell phone, if (a) you've been practicing it since you were 6 years old, (b) had your T9 predictive text configured with a large dictionary of words and phrases, and (c) had a library of stock phrases that you could easily copy/paste from. ]]>Jun 8th 2006 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
I always knew we were far behind Japan in technology, but I couldn't believe how far until I came here. The Blackberry is archaic compared to phones, their use, and their prices here. It might find a novel market, but I don't expect a minivan to find many supporters from a culture obsessed with small and cute.]]>Jun 8th 2006 10:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/May 12th 2007 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
Japanese teenagers can type emails on their phone fast only because they, like every other countries' youth, type in shorthands and broken speech patterns (think "wat r u up 2?" type of speech), and if you do that in a business situation you sure won't impress many clients. Polite and honorific speech patterns in Japanese is long and tedious, heck I even hate typing up a Japanese email on a full-size keyboard on my PC, and I can't for the life of me imagine doing it on a mobile phone even with predictive input.

Most Japanese phones don't actually support global roaming, especially not DoCoMo phones. Only Vodafone (now Softbank) actually has a decent line-up of quadband GSM/WCDMA phones. DoCoMo's GSM-capable lineup can be counted in one hand, and frankly they are all cheaply made and horribly designed. ]]>Jun 9th 2006 12:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
Maybe the sole reason the Japanese want it, it's because America's favorite harlot, Miss. Paris Hilton made it even more popular during the infamous hack?]]>Jun 9th 2006 3:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/Jun 9th 2006 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
For business applications, however, typical Japanese models do not and cannot hold a candle to the Blackberry and similar counterparts found in Canada and the US. Japanese handheld models are toys in comparison, with extremely limited functionality. (Details: One cannot read simple word attachments in email, cannot access websites outside of the dedicated carrier's scope, cannot access you own schedule while speaking with another party, etc., all basic functions on Blackberry, I believe).

As a technology recruiter in Tokyo, I have many discussions with phone engineers who point out that many Japanese business people are waiting for the Blackberry device, or related spawn, with its large screen, enlarged key entry system, and software for viewing Office files have only been very recently introduced through the Opera browser on recent 2006 models.

Phones in Japan are advanced in terms of advanced megapixel cameras, and email (SMS) between phones, and purchasing items through assigned mobile-applications, but the Far East is Far Behind the distinctly American 'Blackberry phenomenon' and culture of extreme practicality and functionality associated with it. ]]>Oct 13th 2006 12:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/08/docomo-bringing-blackberry-to-japan/
I would like to know if Skype operates on Blackberry?

]]>Oct 14th 2006 11:53AM