Haha, GSM interference. Haven't heard that since I got a 3G phone years ago...

Is it just me or does this look like all those chinese knockoff? It has a decidedly CECT feel about it, what with the cheap plastic highly-reflective chrome, high chamfer and garish highlights.

Even Sony Ericssons regular non-smartphones can multitask between several java apps (i usually run opera mini, google maps and jmIrc at the same time), the mp3 player, sms, email, timers, bluetooth incoming files and calendar sync at the same time. Sony Ericsson easily has the best non-smartphone OS.

Yeah but we don't have the infrastructure for those to begin with so they don't make sense. Once we actually get DVB-H towers, phones will quickly get that (doesn't the U.S. already have MediaFLO?). IC card also doesn't make sense since we have credit cards in the west. Built-in voice mail is actually a misfeature since my main use of voicemail is when I am out of range or my phone is off...

I mean we can counter those features with stuff like MP3 support (most jap phones only do AAC), RSS/podcasting support, unlocked phones, open/free java apps, etc

Is is just me or are japanese phones losing their edge? Aside from WVGA, everything these phones have can be got in a midrange european Sony Ericsson, which will have a non-retarded interface to boot.

Specs-wise, it sounds a lot like all those chinese iPhone/"Nokir"/etc phones, right down to A2DP support.

Yeah and only the very latest generation have GSM Roaming capabilities - I have a Softbank from 2007 that's UMTS only (still works perfectly fine here in Europe though).

If the U.S. is too big to be technologically agile, perhaps you should consider splitting it up into smaller administrative regions. Perhaps you could call them "states" or something like that.

1.4 Mbit to 1.7 Mbit? That doesn't sound very impressive, especially as this comes a week after a local network (3 Sweden) went from 7.2 Mbit to 14.4 Mbit. (with plans for HSPA Evolved with 21 Mbit by year-end, and 42 Mbit promised some time after that). Prompting another local operator (Telia SE) to claim they'll introduce LTE with 100+ Mbit in 2010.

GPS-tracking phones exist in the west as well.
Large-button, large-screen phones exist in the west as well (multiple models).
Every phone I've ever used, back to my 1999 GD30 has had an easy to activate "Silent mode".

I have an imported Japanese phone, and they really aren't anything special. The only unique features they have are strictly due to japanese infrastructure: 1seg, FeliCa and their language forces them to have high-res screens.

Western phones may actually be better. In comparison to my euro Sony Ericsson (developed in sweden), this Toshiba has a horrible music player, horrible bluetooth support (the range is shorter than my pocket to my head), ugly fonts (no antialiasing), weak multitasking, bad formats/standard support, stupid limitations (32 character filenames...), slow (taking/saving a photo takes ages, not to mention actually OPENING it to view), etc etc

I think the iPhone will be a huge hit. I mean, people said the exact same thing about the iPod in Japan...