Just So You Know Why This Phone Sucks…

from the buyer-beware dept

Foreign mobile-phone manufacturers have had little success cracking Japan, as they’ve pushed models that are decidedly behind the times in the advanced market. Following this trend, Nokia said a few months ago that they would start selling what was basically a year-old handset through NTT DoCoMo, though just two days before the device was due to go on sale, the operator delayed its launch due to software problems. Now, apparently, when somebody buys one of the Nokia devices, they’re given a list of its software bugs. According to one salesperson, “Japanese phones don’t have bugs so we have to give out this list so that our customers are not surprised.” With things like this, it’s little wonder the Japanese are hesitant to buy foreign brands’ devices.


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Comments on “Just So You Know Why This Phone Sucks…”

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25 Comments
dani (user link) says:

Re: Re: Nokia

Nokia began as a paper making company…forestry, then later began making rubber products. From their expanding to various different products with no connection to one another.

Find this on their site under history:

“The roots of Nokia go back to the year 1865 with the establishment of a forest industry enterprise in South-Western Finland by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam. Elsewhere, the year 1898 witnessed the foundation of Finnish Rubber Works Ltd, and in 1912 Finnish Cable Works began operations.”

I never have any probs with my Sanyo

Mike (profile) says:

Re: Nokia

anyone should expect bugs from a company that began making paper, then decided the mobile business was a good idea

Um. I think the point has nothing to do with whether or not the phones are actually buggy, but the way the carrier is “notifying” users.

And, to be honest, I’m not sure what Nokia’s ancient history has to do with any of this.

ASHLEY says:

Re: Sharing?

It’s not that they don’t want to share. It’s that we as United States Idiots do not have the cell phone towers to support the mass cell phones they utilize. Did you know they were running barcode scanners off their cell phones over two years ago? So they were able to hop in a store, swipe their cell phone and wa-lah… I wish we were able to get some Japan phones here. The Akihabara district sells phones better than what we have here in the U.S. and they are used, but they are like $5.00

Autonomous Coward says:

Re: Sharing?

I took a networking class a couple semesters ago, and the teacher had made some comment about this. I don’t remember the details, because I’m not a big tech guy, but I think it has something to do with the frequency the phones work at? Something about th FCC giving some of the choice bandwidths to really stupid services, and then giving shit bandwidth to the US Cell Phone market.

I’m sure there are others here who can correct me, as I’m not one hundred percent certain on all of this.

Marge says:

Nokia OR DoCoMo OR Vodafone KK?

The links in this story refer to Vodafone KK – not DoCoMo.

Further, this is probably a decision of the telco rather than Nokia – as you correcly identify in the linked articles, but not in this follow up piece.

Nokia probably couldn’t give a rats – they have plenty of other, well performing and modern handset choices that compensate for VODAFONE’s choice to release this crippled thing at a low price point.

Xpyder says:

Actually, it is the entire infrstructure in Japan that is superior to the US mobile infrustructure. The only reason why Nokia does as well as they do in the US is because the US customers are so acostomed to legacy, crappy technology that they really don’t know the difference. Most people in the US have no idea what is happening in the rest of the world and are perfectly content to delude themselves into believing they are ahead of everyone else.

Anonymous Coward says:

decent US made phones

if you get a phone made by a decent US company such as Motorola, it should be ok, my Motorola phone aint exactly a RAZR, but its about a step just under it… would be nice if it was a RAZR

still I gotta admit that it would be even nicer if it was a decent Japanese made phone from a company like DoCoMo or NEC

btw: wasnt DoCoMo the ones first to come out with decent phone browsing capability? wasnt it called iMode or something of the sort?

Detractorminator says:

Nokia phones are fine

I have used Nokia for years in Colorado and have had no problems…and this is in a state with crappy cell tower coverage. Essentially it is the quality of the network more than the phone itself. Yes some phones suck but the quality of the handset takes a backseat to the quality of the network. If the network is faulty then the nicest phone is gonna sound like shit.

Scott says:

Cell Phone coverage

A year ago I moved from New York to Finland. In NY I commuted daily to the city about two hours. During the commute I would lose the cell signal at least three times within the 70 mile commute. In Finland, I have yet to lose a single signal. Even 100 feet under ground I an able to continuously talk on my cell phone. The Finnish place cell towers no farther that 60KM apart and the country is relatively flat.

In the states, service providers have to go to great lengths to get a tower errected in any part of the United States,no one wants a cell tower in their back yard and the greens do not want cell towers in national parks. If you want a decent infrastructure, you have to pay for it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Cell Phone coverage

Thats a very good point. Tower coverage is a very big part of people complaints on lost calls. I live in an erea in which there is only one cell phone carrier(US Cellular) and its service is so so at best. While I’m sure its true in other countries Americans tend to want everything of the highest quality without giving up anything in return. Like Scoot said, “If you want a decent infrastructure, you have to pay the price.”

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