Is it possible for someone to hate the iPhone? What about a whole nation of people? It is possible, because it appears that the entire nation of Japan could care less about the iPhone:

Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone

Why do they hate it? Let us count the ways:

1) The high cost per month (according to the article, “Japan’s carrier environment is very competitive, which equates to relatively low monthly rates for [other] handsets.”)

2) Lack of features (according to the article: “Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner…”

3) Sucky camera compared to what Japanese are accustomed to

4) Sucky design compared to what Japanese are accustomed to (according to the article: “carrying around an iPhone in Japan could make you look pretty lame.”)

5) It’s not of Japanese origin. Motorola and Nokia haven’t been able to sell phones in Japan either.

The article mentions that the Panasonic P905i is the kind of phone someone from Japan would prefer. Here’s a look at the P905i:

Features:
- Folding, flipping 3.2″ VIERA screen with 480×854 resolution and a contrast ratio of 2000:1
- GPS
- 5.1 MP camera
- Linux mobile OS
- HSDPA (which means 3.5G)
- mobile TV with video recorder
- MicroSD card
- Tri-band
- games with tilt sensors, etc.

And this is last year’s model, released in early 2008. That is a “typical phone” in Japan, apparently.

See also: Dissecting the “All-in-One” Mobile Phone