The iPhone's popularity in Japan is cracking open an industry long thought inaccessible to outsiders.
For years, the typical Japanese cell phone — built to operate on a network hardly used anywhere else in the world — has been stuffed with quirky games and other applications that cater to finicky local tastes.
That helps explain why Japan's mobile phone industry earned the nickname "Galapagos" — drawing parallels with the exotic animals that evolved on the isolated islands off South America — and why cell phones are called galakei, which combines keitai, the Japanese word for cell phone, with Galapagos.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.