Why is it that a phone that has generated much hype and success worldwide has failed to capture the hearts of a country that loves its sleek gadgets?

The iPhone is incapable of inputting and displaying emoji, which are little symbols and emoticons such as these:

Emoji is a staple in Japanese messaging and the lack of it on the iPhone has Japanese consumers exclaiming, “da-me!”  (”No way!)  To them, what good is the iPhone if they’re unable to input a pixelated strawberry shortcake as a means of asking a friend if they’d like to go out to eat, or a cute smiley face with hearts for eyes to proclaim: “I’m so in love!”?

Hard to believe that some people would look at the iPhone and say, “yeah, it’s got massive expandability with cheap and free software in addition to being an all-in-one cell phone, iPod, email, (best portable) web browser, calendar & contacts, GPS with Google-maps integration, etc,.. but I don’t want to get it because I can’t insert cute cartoon images of puppies in my text messages!”