[rocky2]

If the Apple BT marketing director reads this, do you realize they are absolutely NO Bluetooth phones on the market in Japan at all? This is remarkable in the land of a million models (and that's only in pink with a Kitty-Chan chain)
and makes applications like iSync, Address Book, iCal, etc., much less than valuable than they might be.
What's the problem with BT in Japan--practically no has heard of it or uses it, despite the fact that Japanese makers are responsible for a huge number of mobiles, PDAs, etc., in the world?
I have been trying to buy a BT headset here and it is impossible. Finally after months of searching I found one distributor for the Jabra BT-200 but there are no Plantronicd models.
Lastly, the BT 1.2.1 update released last week does not install on Panther released last night. Will an upgrade be forthcoming soon?
A frustrated PAN believer.

[::maroma::]

Wow, that comes as a surprise to me! I always thought Japan was way ahead of the curve on the portable electronics market. Maybe they're so far ahead that they've already gotten past BT and are on to the next cool thing?

But yeah, that sucks. Can you order things online from the US or Canada or anywhere else that sells BT items?

[icruise]

Really? I sure thought there was one or two (I remember seeing a Sony phone a while back with the bluetooth logo on it).

[rocky2]

I have been to at least 20 stores in the last week or so, including the main offices of Vodafone, au, DoComo, etc., and there is not a single BT model here anymore. There were two models 2 years ago and both have been withdrawn.

[rocky2]

I was wrong--there is one BT phone in Japan: the Nokia 6650 is sold by Vodaphone here with both WCDMAONE and GMS support for use in Japan and overseas. Price 30,000 yen.

[Apfhex]

This is pretty surprising. I'd expect there to be more BT stuff in Japan.

I don't even own a mobile phone, but I still find Apple's iCal, Address Book, and iSync quite useful (I DO have an iPod though), iCal being the most useful for me. Calendar subscriptions are great.

Though, I also don't own a physical calendar.

[iainj_uk]

Hi All,

Although Japanese mobile market is about 18-24 months ahead of the rest of the world. Bluetooth is a european technology and has lots of companies involved in the standards which drag specifications out from months to years (Bluetooth was first designed in 1997).

There are a number of technologies available to them which allows connectivity between phone and other devices. Bluetooth is one but is viewed as insecure.

Contactless IC looks to be preferred options (in industry press few weeks ago, tie-up with Sony). This technology allows secure communications between devices.

Another point is that Japanese market is less voice based and more data driven.

If the Japanese markets decides to support Bluetooth expect phones 3 months after.

hope this helps.

[rocky2]

The actual drag on the BT market in Japan has been reticence on the part of the world's biggest telco (doCoMo) to support BT here. They could not see a market for it here until a few months ago when rumblings about more car accidents due to use of widespread use of handsets while driving started hitting the press. If the Japanese government legislates to make handsfree a legal necessity, we will have BT phones by the million models in a few weeks. (They are mostly made by Panasonic anyhow for the rest of the world.) A little bird told me that doCoMo has changed its mind about BT and is looking at a retrofit BT dongle that will hook onto the charger port of the many existing mobile phones. This is expected in the first 3 months of 2004.
Another rumor is to expect Apple iPods with built-in BT soon and BT headsets from Apple. This would make a lot of sense but I wish they would build voice over BT into OSX soon. The Jabra Freespeak BT200 pairs with Macs with both BT built-in or using the D-link dongle but the BT headset does not appear in the Preferences as an audio I/O device, making the paired BT headset useless for audio work.