Editing Smartphone (section)

===Japanese cell phones===
{{main|Japanese mobile phone culture|Mobile phone industry in Japan}}

In 1999, Japanese wireless provider [[NTT DoCoMo]] launched [[i-mode]], a new [[mobile internet]] platform which provided data transmission speeds up to 9.6 kilobits per second, and access web services available through the platform such as online shopping. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode used [[cHTML]], a language which restricted some aspects of traditional [[HTML]] in favor of increasing data speed for the devices. Limited functionality, small screens and limited bandwidth allowed for phones to use the slower data speeds available. The rise of i-mode helped NTT DoCoMo accumulate an estimated 40 million subscribers by the end of 2001, and ranked first in market capitalization in Japan and second globally.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Rose|first=Frank|title=Pocket Monster: How DoCoMo's wireless Internet service went from fad to phenom - and turned Japan into the first post-PC nation|magazine=Wired|date=Sep 2001|volume=9|issue=9|url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.09/docomo_pr.html|access-date=January 24, 2014}}</ref> 

Japanese cell phones increasingly diverged from global standards and trends to offer other forms of advanced services and smartphone-like functionality that were specifically tailored to the [[Japanese mobile phone culture|Japanese market]], such as [[mobile payment]]s and shopping, [[near-field communication]] (NFC) allowing [[Osaifu-Keitai|mobile wallet]] functionality to replace [[smart card]]s for transit fares, loyalty cards, identity cards, event tickets, coupons, money transfer, etc., downloadable content like musical [[ringtone]]s, [[mobile game|game]]s, and [[mobile comic|comics]], and [[1seg]] [[mobile television]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Huff|first1=Sid L.|last2=Barnes|first2=Stuart J|title=Rising Sun: iMode and the Wireless Internet, Vol. 46, No. 1|date=November 1, 2003|publisher=Communications of the ACM|pages=79–84}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Anwar|first=Sayid Tariq|title=NTT DoCoMo and M-Commerce: A Case Study in Market Expansion and Global Strategy |url=http://www.itu.dk/~rold/1_sem/B1/Cases/DoCoMo.pdf|publisher=The American Graduate School of International Management |access-date=February 16, 2014}}</ref> Phones built by Japanese manufacturers used custom [[firmware]], however, and did not yet feature standardized [[mobile operating system]]s designed to cater to [[mobile developers|third-party application development]], so their software and ecosystems were akin to very advanced [[feature phone]]s. As with other feature phones, additional software and services required partnerships and deals with providers.

The degree of integration between phones and carriers, unique phone features, non-standardized platforms, and tailoring to Japanese culture made it difficult for Japanese manufacturers to export their phones, especially when demand was so high in Japan that the companies did not feel the need to look elsewhere for additional profits.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/technology/20cell.html|title=Why Japan's Smartphones Haven't Gone Global |last=Tabuchi |first=Hiroko |author-link=Hiroko Tabuchi |work=The New York Times |date=July 20, 2009 |access-date=2018-10-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Budmar|first=Patrick|url=https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/430254/why_japanese_smartphones_never_went_global/|title=Why Japanese smartphones never went global|work=PC World AU|date=11 July 2012|access-date=2018-10-06|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162436/https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/430254/why_japanese_smartphones_never_went_global/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Devin |last=Stewart |title=Slowing Japan's Galapagos Syndrome |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devin-stewart/slowing-japans-galapagos_b_557446.html |quote='Galapagos syndrome', a phrase originally coined to describe Japanese cell phones that were so advanced they had little in common with devices used in the rest of the world, could potentially spread to other parts of society. Indeed signs suggest it is happening already. |work=[[Huffington Post]] |date=April 29, 2010 |access-date=2010-06-24 |author-link= Devin Stewart}}</ref>

The rise of [[3G]] technology in other markets and non-Japanese phones with powerful standardized [[mobile operating system|smartphone operating system]]s, [[app store]]s, and advanced wireless network capabilities allowed non-Japanese phone manufacturers to finally break in to the Japanese market, gradually adopting Japanese phone features like [[emoji]]s, mobile payments, NFC, etc. and spreading them to the rest of the world.