iPhone in Japan, Thailand and Madagascar

Salama Folks! We are just back from a long trip that took us to Thailand, Madagascar, Maritius and Japan. Although it was an amazing trip and I would love to post here about all our great experiences, I don't want to get too far off topic. If you are interested in pics and stories please check out our Makinet ning site.

It was interesting to note the level of iPhone adoption in each country. I met two people with iPhones in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Both were jail broken and one had dozens of applications, some even localized to Malagasy! My iPhone automatically switched to a local carrier for voice, but not data. Luckily I was able to get WiFi access pretty easily in the capital.

Thailand was flooded with jail broken iPhones. They are something of a status symbol in Bangkok.

In Japan Softbank is heavily advertising an iPhone ripoff called Full Face 2. Rumor has it DoCoMo will be the carrier for Apple's iPhone launch this year. I assume the Japanese iPhone will be the 3G version, hopefully with GPS. It will be interesting to see how they handle Japanese input. Japanese handsets currently do a very good job, so it will have to be slick.


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