How Is The Zaurus Doing In Japan?

[TsingTao]

How is the Zaurus doing in Japan ?  It's profitable obviously, else Sharp would have dumped the product line (as they did here in the US), but are they popular over there ?

With so many functions available on their twitchy-sick cell phones and competition from Cassio and Sony I could see it remaining niche over there even if it is making a profit.

   When I get there in september, will I be able to stroll through the Akihabara and easily get an ad hoc connection to my Z equipt brethern native to the land of the rising sun, or will I end up spending several hours trying to interperet what the pretty girl who brings me my coffee in the french style cafe at Ueno station said when she pointed to my wifi sniffing Zaurus only to discover she just said "What's that ?" ?


  Also, how much does the C1000 cost there for local purchase ?


 Thanks all!

[Scot]

I was in Japan last month and found the PDA market DRASTICALLY reduced from what it was
a couple years back. A friend told me Sony is pulling out completely. Zaurii, thus, have a very large
share of a very small market.  

I got a used c3000 for ~60,000 yen and you'd be very had pressed to tell it apart from a new one.
New C1000s were going for ~50,000 yen - there may be used ones in the market by now.  Sofmap 8,
I think, in Akihabara is a good place to look.

scot

[kahm]

I was in Japan last month and found the PDA market DRASTICALLY reduced from what it was
a couple years back. A friend told me Sony is pulling out completely. Zaurii, thus, have a very large
share of a very small market. 

I got a used c3000 for ~60,000 yen and you'd be very had pressed to tell it apart from a new one.
New C1000s were going for ~50,000 yen - there may be used ones in the market by now.  Sofmap 8,
I think, in Akihabara is a good place to look.

scot
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Check for a store called Naniwadenki - A discount electronics place. I know they've got a store in Den-Den town in Osaka and probably elsewhere, and I could dig up the web page for them if required. Their retail on c1000s is 43000 yen.

[lpotter]

How is the Zaurus doing in Japan ?  It's profitable obviously, else Sharp would have dumped the product line (as they did here in the US), but are they popular over there ?

With so many functions available on their twitchy-sick cell phones and competition from Cassio and Sony I could see it remaining niche over there even if it is making a profit.

   When I get there in september, will I be able to stroll through the Akihabara and easily get an ad hoc connection to my Z equipt brethern native to the land of the rising sun, or will I end up spending several hours trying to interperet what the pretty girl who brings me my coffee in the french style cafe at Ueno station said when she pointed to my wifi sniffing Zaurus only to discover she just said "What's that ?" ?


  Also, how much does the C1000 cost there for local purchase ?


 Thanks all!
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Zaurus line is the most popular pda in Japan. Sony pulled out probably because the Zaurus is so popular and they couldn't compete.

[Stubear]

kakaku.com lists the top 5 pdas in Japan as

1) SL-C1000
2) SL-C3000
3) CLIE PEG-TH55 (
4) SL-C860
5) iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC

http://kakaku.com/ranking/itemview/pda.htm

Stu

[kahm]

Ironically, that list still has the SL-B500 and SL-6000 on it, as #17 and #18. None of the other clamshells are there, though.

[TsingTao]

 


 Well...then I guess I might see one or two while there for a year.


 And to think I harshed on the C-1000 when I read about it on Engadget because it didn't have more flash menmory (I was hoping that at leas 512mb would have been put in the chasm left by the removal of the HDD from the C-3000).  

 And it's No. 1  


 I supose I shouldn't be surprised.  Most people over there with the gadget fever will have at least a couple SD cards lying around that can be nigh permanently stuck in the SD slot, and it's a cheaper entry level price than an C3000.

 Heehee, yes...I am now actively trying to contrive a way to purchase one for myself    

 So I was wrong on this one, but happily so. I'm quite heartened to hear that the Zaurus line is flourishing...even if only over there.  The added chic of having to gray market import them is an additional (costly) bit of fun.

 Though I just might wait 'till I get over there to purchase mine.  Cause even with the best prices I'm finding online, it still looks like you can't get your hands on a NEW one in the US for under $600 all told.  Various sources (Conics, Dynamism, JapanDirect  {I think}, and even eBay) offer various price points, but the slack is always taken up in 'shipping' cost.  But for $200 less I might be willing to forgo having it to entertain me on the plane over (especially if I get that Yopy I've almost closed escrow on...).

 September can't come too soon...  

 PS - Anyone have any experience with the Yopy ?  I keep asking but no one seems to mention if Movie (AVI or MPeg) is of reasonably clarity and fidelity (smoothness).

 PPS - So I guess the coffee serving girl won't ask me what it is.  She'll probably just   laugh because I'm still running Qtopia while she has hers personaly tweaked with pdaXrom hanging from a lanyard around her neck with a tiny Hello Kitty fob...

 No,  September can't come too soon...

 Thanks all !

[spaul]

Cool japanese software.  There must be a japanese counterpart to this community.  Custom japanese ROMS?  I read somewhere that Sharp has fully functional (voice directions redetermining route in realtime as you wander)  GPS software for Japan.

Japan has Sharp MPEG4 DVRs, fiber optic broadband so I'll bet many use their Z for remote TV watching.  

We're turning into a technological backwater

[nilch]

We're turning into a technological backwater
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Learn to use the right tense - we already ARE a technological backwater and turning into a cesspool of stinking old dinosaur age invested technology with backward mindsets of keep them going till the next age, and vendors trying to hold on to their age old turf with legistlative hurdles to any new fresh ideas.

Asia is doing wonderfully with these new technologies - in communications and new hardware platforms and designs with Japan seeming to lead the pack.
Hardware wise even the Taiwanese and Koreans are UP there while we are content to use phones which have cameras - albeit 1 megpixel (thats the latest and best here) - , no connectivity to other devices,  same old clunky designs (look at Japanese phones and you will drool), non-intercommunicating protocols, 320xwhatever resolution handheld screens (they are all the rage still here), notebooks which will make your shoulder droop with wight, and all the old crap that the Asian market dumps on us and which just sells here cause someone called you a "Dude" and pushed you yesterdays technology.

That was a bit of a rant...