Why does Japan get all the cool sleek and stylish flip phones that do all sorts of cool shit like getting live TV...

Why does Japan get all the cool sleek and stylish flip phones that do all sorts of cool shit like getting live TV, but the best you can get for a flip phone stateside is this hideous garbage that does fuck all?

Japan has the market for them, simple as that. Most people using flipphones in the west are drugdealers and old people and they hardly care about aesthetics

It's the Galapagos syndrome.

Link to phone?

more like the retailers and manufacturers in the US are morons ignoring a market niche that could make them money

Everyone on Japan uses iPhone now

i suppose thats true, production costs would likely be quite low if they are going for low specced dumbphones with decent aesthetics

nips don't use flip phones anymore, gramps, don't you watch anime

maybe it's easy to write in japanese with t9?

Japanese use romanji and have it converted to hiragana. You type de[space]su[space] and it gets converted to です.

Sad but true

But they seem to be going back towards flip phones more recently, due to Japanese mobile carrier's data plan rates being ridiculously overpriced, so Keitai culture lives to see another day

>do all sorts of cool shit like getting live TV
AT&T recently partnered with Samsung to make a phone that receives satellite TV. Still would be neat to get OTA bradcasts too

Japan is small and so unsold inventory can be levelled across stores easily.

The USA is fucking huge so unsold stock gathers dust in a warehouse forever because gas ain't cheap.


This is one of the reasons for the nichie market. Another is that its easier to commute without a car in Japan so you're likely to walk into random shops more instead of going to Wallmart.

>market niche that could make them money
That's not how it works.

Finds a way

what cheap flip phone does Sup Forums recommend?

>wanted a flip phone for a while
>OP's pic made me google some nice gook phones

I didn't know people made non-shit flip phones. Amazing.

Sharp has some slick looking ones with android OS and half-decent hardware specs.

Cyberpunkish Japan is a meme. They still use fucking fax machines.

Oh no, I don't intend to use the camera, apps, and junk. I just want simple texts and phone calls. I have my deactivated smartphones that I add stuff and do stupid shit with.

Upvoted.

Hey man, if it works it works. We still use fax machines in the US, its not THAT uncommon

You've never typed in Japanese with a 10-key pad have you? It's insanely fast, especially the flick method on smartphones.

How cheap we talking?

>live TV
why would you even do that

>flip phone
>2017
What is he on about?

>What is he on about?
Flip phones.

Do they still make them?

Yes.

But why?

For people who want flip phones.

I thought they were out of fashion.

Generally, yes. That doesn't mean nobody wants them and nobody makes them though.

>flip phones
>2017
more like not having flip phones running as fast as a raspberry pi zero with a strip down android os

on laptops we do
on phones we use pic related

Nips like them because apparently t9 works well with their language.

So no one uses this?

i think that people who used computers for japanese text and then got an iphone will use romaji input

but people who switched from cell phones to iphone will use flick input


in japan more people use phones than computers so more people will use flick input because it will be more familiar. your friends will have used flip phones and other phones then when they got iphones they set them up to be like their old phones. then even if you never had a phone and iphone is your first phone you will set it up like your friends do.

>You type de[space]su[space]
Why the fuck are you converting every letter? You just type desu [space], baka. You can even type your entire sentence and press space depending on what you're writing and the IME will do its best to convert it all correctly but you can always go back and cycle through the various kanji and kana.

t9 nip input is based as fuck though, t9/whatever they call it >>> qwerty.

>Most people using flipphones in the west are drugdealers and old people and they hardly care about aesthetics

Maybe they don't care about what's currently fashionable and they have no need for the features of a modern smartphone. Aesthetics isn't even relevant because they all look similar with minor differences.

weeaboos and chinese immigrants

Flip phones are obsolete junk and you only like them because you are a weeaboo

Elaborate plz

I know multiple people that like flip phones that certainly aren't weebs.