http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/01/14/ipod.shuffle.in.japan/
Apple Japan to boost marketshare with iPod shuffle
updated 06:55 pm EST, Fri January 14, 2005
iPod shuffle in Japan
Apple hopes to of Japan's portable digital music player market to 80 percent from around 50 percent now, according to the Jiji Press English News Service. Apple says it will achieve that goal with the launch of flash memory-based iPod shuffle digital music player in Japan, which is scheduled for January 15. "In Japan, it is expected to retail at around 10,000 yen (US$98), about half the price of similar products sold by other manufacturers....[Apple] has received more prerelease orders for it in Japan than those placed for the iPod mini player.... Sakito also unveiled a plan to launch the iTunes Music Store online music distribution service in Japan within the next 12 months.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2003
Things changing in Japan
It sounds as though things have changed a lot in Japan since I left in 2002 after having lived there since 1986. Just three years ago, cable Internet was virtually nonexistent there and DSL speeds were only a fraction of what North America had. I worked at Akihabara, the electronics district, which was always very busy, but the percentage of households with computers in Japan was low compared to the rest of the developed world, and the percentage of Internet-connected households was only a tiny fraction of that. Now, though, it sounds as though Japanese households capable of converting or downloading music files has significantly increased. To be fair, though, MP3 caught on in Japan before most Americans had heard of it. Music-related technology has always been advanced there, even when computer technology was slow. Most programmers in Japan are from mainland China.