[yhamaie]

Fox Incorporated (a smartphone accessory retailer operating in Japan) has announced that it will soon start distributing Classic and Passport as Distribution Partner of BlackBerry Limited (whatever it means) in Japan.

Attachment 377949


The following pictures are quoted from a Japanese blog . (8% VAT will be added to the prices found in these pictures.)

http://i0.wp.com/umazui.com/wp-conte...9/IMG_0282.jpg
http://i1.wp.com/umazui.com/wp-conte...9/IMG_0283.jpg

[yhamaie]

As posted before . . . Fox Incorporated (a smartphone accessory retailer operating in Japan) has started distributing Classic and Passport as Distribution Partner (of BlackBerry Limited) in Japan.

We have been wondering what kind of services users may expect from a local distribution partner in the absence of branch office nor subsidiary of BlackBerry Limited. (BlackBerry Limited (then Research In Motion Limited) closed its Japanese office prior to the launch of BlackBerry 10 devices.)

http://foxinc.jp/blackberry/

Attachment 377638

The following label is found at the site quoted above.

Attachment 378033

Attachment 377540

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[bidirectional]

This is good news but I think there are a couple of issues to look out for in the Japanese market.

1. Blackberry Maps. Basically it is not working when I'm in Tokyo. Hope that there will be improvements here.

2. Native LINE app. Majority of the Japanese do not use whatsapp or BBM. Naver LINE is the preferred messaging app for most Japanese. The sideloaded LINE apk file does not seem stable for me cos' I experienced receiving messages quite late sometimes.

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These.

I went to Japan with my BB Classic. I had to depend on Google Maps because Blackberry Maps doesn't cover Japan, and Google Maps has all the public transportation routes and schedules. Most of my contacts there use LINE. Since it's very difficult to get a prepaid SIM that allows normal call and text, I had to use LINE for most of my communications. These are the two apps that I use the most while I was in Japan, along with the Browser. My Classic would normally run out of battery before 3 PM.

I'm hoping this means Naver will start working on a native LINE client for BB10, even Firefox OS gets a LINE client . I'd love to see all my group conversations integrated in Hub, in addition to the battery savings.

[jonaong]

Yeah, that's what I did relying on Google Maps instead of BlackBerry Maps.

As for communicating with my contacts in Tokyo, it has to be Line and nothing else. So, my sideloaded Line app is draining quite a lot of battery power.

Maybe one solution is to carry a battery bank with us. I will be travelling to Tokyo again for 2 months. Now I'm wondering if I should carry my Q10 with me because I have a spare battery.

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[anon(2325196)]

Cool, except everybody in Japan wants a flip phone.

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[Jason Angle]

Live in Japan, using my Classic from ShopBB already with DoCoMo. Google Maps and Translate sideloaded both work fine.

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[Superdupont 2_0]

I think that it's basically the right move, because BB10 has Japanese language.
It was quite ridiculous to see them pulling away from the Japanese market last year, although the language is built in.

However, I have never met any Japanese (nor any other south-asians) who would not use Line.
Japan is a big market and people there can afford high-end devices, but selling a smartphone in Japan without Line will be quite a challenge, to say the least.

[jpoq]

The Line apk works fine with Passport and Q5, I presume that with a Classic there would not be a difference. AFAIK Line does not come preinstalled on the iPhone version sold here and customers have to download it. Maybe some android versions include it but the variety of android phones is so big that is hard to tell. Although smartphones are all the rage amongst the younger crowd, still many ppl over 30 keep faithful to the flip phone txt messaging which takes full advantage of the japanese keyboard and size for one hand use.



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