Why the iPhone is “unko” in Japan

The Japanese love their iPods, but give them an iPhone and they will most likely shun it.  Why is it that a phone that has generated much hype and success worldwide has failed to capture the hearts of a country that loves its sleek gadgets?

The iPhone is incapable of inputting and displaying emoji, which are little symbols and emoticons such as these:

Emoji is a staple in Japanese messaging and the lack of it on the iPhone has Japanese consumers exclaiming, "da-me!"  ("No way!)  To them, what good is the iPhone if they’re unable to input a pixelated strawberry shortcake as a means of asking a friend if they’d like to go out to eat, or a cute smiley face with hearts for eyes to proclaim: "I’m so in love!"? 

Unless the iPhone learns fluent emoji, the Japanese will be more than content using their touchpad mobile phones. (Perhaps a third party App a’la MailWrangler would be able to fill that void, eh, Apple?)

Source: What Japan Thinks