3 American Tech Players Embraced by Japan

Its people have a reputation for jumping on cutting-edge technology faster and
earlier than the rest of the world, bit Japan has remained a tough nut to crack
for tech companies. Even a behemoth like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) has had
trouble infiltrating the market. For example, the company has sold around 53
million Xbox 360 video game consoles worldwide since 2005. In Japan, the cradle
of the video game console industry, Microsoft has struggled to sell even 2
million Xboxes.  This is because Microsoft is a foreign company. That its an
American company is beside the point the Japanese people have traditionally
preferred products and services made by Japanese companies. While a grand sea
change hasnt taken place, there are a number of non-Japanese technology
companies making a significant impact on the Japanese market. Some of them are
even beginning to erode the sales of products made by Japanese companies. Here
are three changing the face of Japanese consumer habits. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL )
Given the way Apples reign has spread over most of the world, it should be
unsurprising that its also having an impact on Japan. But its popularity is
surprising. At the end of 2010, the iPhone accounted for a whopping 72% of the
Japanese smartphone market . The iPad also has proven hugely popular in the
country. Even though the populace is still reeling from the earthquake and
tsunami in March, enough people turned out for the iPad 2s release on Friday to
line multiple Tokyo blocks . At least one consumer buying a new iPad last week
said they were purchasing it rather than Sonys (NYSE: SNE ) S1 because it was
sleeker than Sonys clunky tablet. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) While Amazons retail
operation in Japan has always been healthy the companys international segment,
which includes Amazon.jp, generated $5.7 billion in 2010, up 26% over the
previous year its been the success of the Kindle thats been truly impressive. 
Though Amazon has never revealed full sales numbers for the e-reader in any
region, Amazon.jp was included in the companys statistic that the Kindle was its
best-selling item ever during the holiday 2010 quarter. There is other evidence
of the international model of the e-readers success in the country, particularly
pre-orders for Kindle-related books and especially the 2010 refresh of the
entire Sony Reader line of devices. Twitter Although investors are still
clambering for an initial public offering from the popular social networking
website, would-be shareholders can at least take comfort in knowing that the
service is already successful around the world, particularly in Japan. Japans
Twitter user base began growing significantly in 2009. As of March, the country
accounts for one of the three densest populations of Twitter users on the planet
. Facebook and other western social networks have never managed to penetrate
into Japanese culture, but Twitter is a hot commodity in the region.