With the Apple iPhone Preorder day now come and gone
on Friday September 13th 2013, many eagerly await the next Friday
two (2) weeks from now. In the days ahead, many will begin to form long lines
in anticipation of getting their hands on the coveted Apple iPhone 5S in its
entire Gold, Space Grey or Silver splendor.
The Pre-order day was for the Apple iPhone 5C, which
surprisingly is also being sold in the United States as well as other Developed
World countries as listed in my blog article
entitled “Apple
has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple
iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”.
The Apple iPhone 5C is only available at the Apple
Stores, so the only way to get one is to reserve on at a location where they
are traditionally sold (Apple’ll tell you the closest pickup point for a Apple
iPhone 5S), as you cannot order one and get it delivered like the Apple iPhone
5C.
But take heart, dear Apple Fan! You can still get
the Apple iPhone 4S for US$1 (as US$0 isn’t really possible) on a 2 year
contract as stated in “Remember
the iPhone 4S? Apple makes it an 8GB freebie”,
published September 10, 2013 1:26 PM PDT by Roger Cheng, CNET News.
Granted, it’s an older smartphone, but at least it’s
upgradable to Apple iOS 7. And you still have the option to just trade it in
online at Gazelle or your local RadioShack or even an Apple Store and get the
Apple iPhone 5S in your fave colour – if you can endure the long lines!
Apple
iPhone Lines starting – Designed in America is very, very Special
This means like it or not, if you are an American,
and I’m glad I ain’t, you HAVE to join a super long line, which by all accounts
online, is already beginning to form once more. After all, the Apple iPhone 5S
is very, very, special in every way, despite the competition and the penchant
for bigger screens. Apple is one of the few companies that is wholly American
and designs its own smartphones, which are then made by Chinese Sub-contractors.
Like the Motorola Moto X as stated in my blog article
entitled “Google
and Motorola Mobility launch the customizable Motorola Moto X - Motorola Moto X
is The Wolverine of Customization that’s Made in America”, the Apple Mac
computer is made in the US of A. This is a trend that’s beginning to pick up
steam as American begins to return manufacturing to America in exchange for the
US Government granting them tax exemptions that make manufacturing high-end
Apple products in the US of A feasible.
Hence an explanation for the leaks and my blog
articles thus far predicting what’s poppin’ with super accuracy. This
allowed even a Jamaica like myself to know what Apple had cooking, down
to even the date of the Launch as evident from my earlier blog
article entitled “Apple
to launch the Apple iPhone 5S and a S$199 Contract-less Apple iPhone 5C on
Tuesday September 10 2013 - ATL and LIME Jamaica may not get Goldfinger that's
Made for China”.
Only the details of their products was missing,
which began trickling out on the day of the announcement of the date being
confirmed as Tuesday September 10th 2013 as reported in my blog
article entitled “Apple's
Invite confirms Apple iPhone event on Tuesday September 10 2013 - Expecting
News on the Apple iWatch, iRadio, Apple TV and Apple Video Game Console”.
NTT
DoCoMo on the Rocks – Apple iPhone 5S stands for “Savior”
The Chinese and the Japanese like the Apple iPhone
as well. China Mobile, China’s largest Telecom Provider and indeed the largest
in the world in terms of Customers, has inked a
deal with apple to sell the Apple iPhone 5S and the Apple iPhone 5C as
stated in “Apple
Secures License For iPhone To Run On China Mobile’s Network Standard”,
published September 11 2013 by Catherine Shu, TechCrunch.
For them, it’s a love affair with American products, which are better
made than even the Chinese products, which many despise in favour of higher
priced and higher quality Made in America products. This trend is more
resplendent among Middle Class and wealthy Chinese, who like knowing they have
the latest foreign gadgets and despite their own products, which many in the
city areas know are manufactured in factories under inhumane conditions.
Thus to have a product that’s’ designed by Americans but made to high
quality standards as per specification by the Chinese is a testament to the
quality of the design and workmanship of the Chinese-American Partnership that
goes into the making of every Apple product as stated in
my
blog article entitled “Apple
iPhone and Hardware Quality - The Count of Monte Cristo Hard Knock Life.
Japan on the other hand is another Story. Like
China, Japan’s major Telecom Provider, NTT DoCoMo is late to the Apple iPhone
Game. Like China Mobile, they’d allowed the competition, in their case SoftBank
and KDDI, to begin selling the Apple iPhone as stated in “iPhone
and DoCoMo is a big deal in Japan”,
published September 7, 2013 12:26 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.
SoftBank and KDDI were new kids on the block back in
2003. If you’ve read my blog article
entitled “KDDI's
Broadband WiMax and Wi-Fi Municipal Network - Ruckus's Japanese Flight of the
Navigator”, you’ld have realized that KDDI has had WiMaX (Wireless
Interoperability for Microwave Access) since 2011. Their network has the
ability to seamlessly handover from Wi-Fi Networks to WiMaX thanks to
technology developed by Ruckus Wireless.
Back then, according to the Nikkei Times, the
Telecoms landscape was quite different:
1. 56.3%
of the market belonged to NTT DoCoMo
2. 21.9%
of the market belonged to KDDI
3. 20.8
of the market belonged to "Others"
Then the Apple iPhone happened in 2007. SoftBank was
the first to join the bandwagon in 2008, with KDDI joining the party in 2011.
Both have been carrying the Apple iPhone exclusively since in a bid to unseat
the incumbent and then dominant Telecom Provider NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo kept it Asian, carrying advanced Feature
phones from Samsung, Sony and NEC. To the Japanese executives in NTT DoCoMo,
the Verizon of Japan didn’t see the point of signing the Apple iPhone, trusting
in the enduring popularity of Japanese brands.
But these Japanese brands have been coming under
pressure due to having more expensive manufacturing and not keeping up with the
moderns trending towards Android Operating systems. Companies like Sharp,
Panasonic and Sony suffered due to this complacency, losing marketshare in the
consumer electronics worlds to Chinese and Korean Brands such as Haier, Samsung
and LG.
The Japanese companies an overt focus on big ticker
electronics gadgets and little or no innovation in designing new electronic
gadgets, including Tablets and smartphone, the root cause of their demise as
stated in “The
era of Japanese consumer electronics giants is dead”,
published November 9, 2012 2:25 PM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.
So while SoftBank and KDDI went with American Apple,
NTT DoCoMo stuck with the sinking ships of companies that were just making
Resistive touch screen devices without the benefit of the Google Android
operating system. The results were dramatic. By March 2013, the numbers told
the tale of the tape:
1. 42%
of the market belonged to NTT DoCoMo
2. 28.6%
of the market belonged to KDDI
3. 29.4%
of the market belonged to Softbank
Based on my calculator on my computer, that means
KDDI and Softbank have 58% of the market! All thanks to the Apple iPhone, which
made many Japanese, leave NTT DoCoMo just to get a bit of the forbidden Fruit
from the West, the Apple iPhone.
Supporting Samsung Galaxy Smartphone’s that came
along in 2010 and beyond hasn't helped NTT DoCoMo. Japanese faith in cheaper
Samsung products waned as the metallic finish of the high-quality, the well
designed Apple App Store and clearly more expensive Apple iPhone made many fall
in love with the product form the Cupertino Kids. NTT DoCoMo users abandoned
the sinking ship!
Japan
and China love the Apple iPhone – Lines already forming in Tokyo
Apple coming to NTT DoCoMo means that they may have
to make a large order of smartphones, a move which will mean little marketshare
for Japanese smartphone makers now late to the Game and out of favour with a
NTT DoCoMo desperate to get back marketshare as stated in “Japan
makers reel as Docomo begins big shift to iPhone”,
published September 12, 2013 12:02 AM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.
According to Nikkei Times, that’s about 40%, a
significant chunk of the smartphone market. NTT DoCoMo deals in 23.5 million mobile phones, with 40%
of that number being roughly 9.4 million devices. The Apple iPhone 5S and 5C
could easily crowd out the other smartphone manufacturers in a country that is
also going crazy over Apple products from phones to the iPad, which NTT DoCoMo
may be selling this year.
The
Japanese especially must be on a high. After being rewarded with the honour of
hosting the 2020 Olympic games by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) as
stated in the article “Sayonara
To Madrid And Istanbul As Tokyo Wins Bid For 2020 Summer Olympics”,
published 9/07/2013 @ 8:06PM by Patrick Rishe, Forbes despite concerns over radioactivity,
they apparently have been blessed with the Apple iPhone as well.
Japan and
China will both get their bite of the Apple on Friday September 20th
2013!
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