Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, iPhone
iPhone magazines big in Japan
The land of Hello Kitty is also the land of the iPhone.Here in the US, we only have 2 or 3 magazines that cover the Mac, and they usually throw in coverage about the iPhone. Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine is coming out with a special iPhone magazine called iPhone Life. But for our Japanese friends, many iPhone-specific magazines have been available for over a year.
In the photo at right, you can see 4 of the mags that were found recently in a Tokyo camera shop. One commenter to a Macenstein post reported seeing 6 different iPhone magazines in a small "Kwik-E-Mart" on one of the tinier Japanese islands.
Apparently the content of the magazines is quite similar, with articles about jailbreaking the 3G being popular. Would you buy an iPhone-specific magazine? Take our poll!
[via Amarinalameda and Macenstein]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason said 3:06PM on 8-20-2008
Hi.
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totoro said 3:25PM on 8-20-2008
One thing you do have to realize-Japan has multiple magazines for every possible topic and hobby, no matter how obscure. The printed word is definitely alive and well.
(That said, I think the iPhone will do much better in Japan than people think-especially if they can get some kind of Mobile Suica/Pasmo thing going. (Current Mobile Suica runs on Java, unfortunately)
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Jas said 3:56PM on 8-20-2008
Seeing as I'm increasingly tired of all the iPod/iPhone/MobileMe coverage on the Apple sites as it is, there is no option pejorative enough on your poll.
I know it's relatively stable and quiet in the world of the Macintosh, but enough already about the freakin' app store!
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Andy S. said 3:57PM on 8-20-2008
"Ma-ga-zine"? Oh, is that one of those things where someone basically prints out several pages of a topical blog -- but with larger ads -- and tries to convince people to *pay* for it?
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tak5 said 3:57PM on 8-20-2008
Most of the publication in the picture are "Mooks" (Japanese term for describing something that is in between "Magazine" and "Book") and are not regular publication, but rather one time special issue consisting of product description and how-toes. Others are just startup guides (people here love guide books and supplemental manuals). One of them (the one with cute girl on the cover) is actually published by Softbank Publishing, which obviously is relate to Softbank, the exclusive carrier here. We do have regular Mac publications (2 that has general coverage and few more that are specific to design related topics) which has iPhone coverage (duh), but there isn't a iPhone specific regular publication so far as I know.
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JohnPQ said 3:59PM on 8-20-2008
I sooooooooooo tired of iPhone news. Thinking about buying a magazine just made me throw up in my mouth.
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Michel said 6:55PM on 8-20-2008
What? And kill a tree? internet is good enough.
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Andrew said 9:24PM on 8-20-2008
While I like to hold and read print media, there's nothing that I can find in a magazine that I haven't been able to read online two weeks earlier.
So no magazines for me anymore.
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Sejuru said 12:07AM on 8-21-2008
Re: totoro
I think the Mobile Suica/Felica argument that keeps popping up is bogus. In my experience, hardly anyone in Tokyo uses that feature. The iPhone should do fine without it, mostly because the web browsing experience is light years ahead of any Japanese mobile phone.
And for those outside Tokyo, Japan tends to have this super high-tech image. You would not believe the pathetic level of computer literacy here, and the incredible inefficiencies (I think purposeful to keep superfluous employees on the payroll and off the streets) at name brand companies. Yeah, Japanese electronics makers are clever at coming up with new features, but the diffusion of technology here is poor, even in Tokyo. Actually, you wouldn't believe the number of new models that come out several times a year for everything that are domestic-only (i.e. not exported).
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ballistik said 1:16AM on 8-21-2008
Why don't you rename this blog IPUAW for iphone since that's all you guys ever post anymore... isn't there more to mac news than iPhones???
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gabriel said 6:16AM on 8-21-2008
Create iphone magazines
for sale
www.iphonemag.com
www.iphone3gmagazine.com
www.iphone3gmag.com
at sedo.com
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Phosphor said 1:44PM on 8-21-2008
Can't vote.
No choice for "Shut the hell up already about the iPhone."
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