It was about time for major Japanese phone manufacturers to start looking outside their home market. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, except from Sony, all other Japanese giants have been absent from the world market for some time. In the past, the big stumbling block was software — it was very hard for Japanese companies to design and market handsets specifically for overseas markets, as their existing line of phones catered to the idiosyncrasies of their local market. With the advent of Android however, there was no longer any excuse, as they could finally focus on hardware, something they can do very well, and simply use stock Android on top.

Thing is, Japanese companies are now being more or less forced to expand. While in the past Japan had been a very closed market, other international players are now coming in dynamically and eroding the hold that local companies had. The iPhone specifically has been killing on sales with the Samsung Galaxy S II trailing far behind.
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