The growing popularity of smart phones is changing the landscape of Japan's cell phone market, which has long taken a different path from the rest of the world, and the trend is giving more business chances for newcomers from abroad, including HTC Corp. of Taiwan.
"You can see that the trend especially in the local market is changing. User experiences are changing," David Kou, country manager at HTC Nippon, said in a recent interview at his office.
Indeed, ever since Apple's iPhone debuted in Japan in 2008, smart phones have enticed cell phone users who were used to gadgets specifically tailored for the Japanese market.