The Japan arm of Apple announced on Friday that it's once again bringing back its "Lucky Bags" promotion on January 2nd, 2015. A "Lucky Bag" is a Japanese New Year tradition, and also known as a Fukubukuro.
In addition to its existing research and development centers in Israel, Taiwan and Shanghai, Apple is now looking to build another facility in Japan, Reuters reported Tuesday. The “cutting-edge” R&D center was confirmed by Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
The facility “will be formally announced soon,” he told local media, as confirmed by the Jiji and Kyodo News.
Apple has launched a new service in Japan called iTunes Pass. The program is actually quite interesting, as it appears to allow customers to purchase iTunes Store credit from an Apple retail store, using Passbook instead of physical gift cards.
Users have long been able to store gift cards in Passbook, but we've never seen a direct-to-Passbook service like this, without the need to redeem a code. It almost looks like this could be a prequel to Apple's oft-rumored mobile payment system...
Folks in Japan may have noticed that newer Disney movies like Frozen and Thor: The Dark World have been unavailable for purchase in iTunes over the past few days. You could rent the titles, but the option to buy them had been removed.
Good news this morning though, as it looks like Disney has resumed iTunes sales in the country. Variety is reporting that the temporary halt was due to difficulties in negotiations over the renewal of the old contract between the two firms...
Last night, Apple posted a video to its official YouTube channel showing off its newest retail store in Japan. The store is located in Omotesando, Tokyo, and it includes a brushed aluminum staircase and other unique architectural features.
Photos of the outside of the store surfaced in May, showing what appeared to be a power-saving green curtain of foliage draped down one wall. But this new video from Apple takes you on a brief virtual tour of the entire multi-floor building...
Last week, Apple's Lisa Jackson spoke at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference about the company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. She noted that all of its data centers run on renewable energy, and it's working toward a similar goal with its retail stores.
And today we get a glimpse of those efforts with photos of a new Apple Store in Tokyo, Japan. The store, which is expected to open next month, features an eco-friendly design with a curtain of thick vines on at least one wall that will help control the store's climate...
Apple just issued a press release, announcing that it will begin offering NTT DoCoMo versions of its iPad Air and Retina iPad mini in Japan next month. The carrier, which is the largest in the country, began offering the iPhone for the first time last fall.
The new iPads will be available for pre-order starting June 2, and will officially launch in retail stores a week later on June 10. Those interested in picking up one of the tablets can choose from a variety of purchase plans, some of which call for $0 down...
According to a new report from Bloomberg, the iPhone now accounts for more than one-third of Japan's mobile phone market. Citing data from MM Research Institute Ltd, the outlet says shipments for Apple's smartphone jumped to 36.6% in the year-ended March.
That's a sizable jump from the previous year, where the iPhone held some 25% of the market, and it's all thanks to NTT Docomo. Last September, Apple inked a deal with the company—which is the largest carrier in Japan—to finally start officially offering its handset...
Apple continues its international expansion of iTunes services this afternoon, with the launch of iTunes Match in Japan. iOS users in the country can now access the service, which first launched in the United States back in 2011.
For those unfamiliar with the service, iTunes Match allows users to 'mirror' their music libraries to the cloud. This enables them to access their songs from any compatible device, without having to spend hours uploading them...
Apple is currently putting the finishing touches on its next-generation iPhone. And if the flurry of rumors and so-called insider reports are to be believed, the handset is going to feature an Ultra Retina display that will come in two sizes: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch, among other improvements.
With that in mind, you can understand why this new 5.5-inch panel from Japan Display—a long time Apple supplier—is so interesting to us. Unveiled this week, the panel measures 5.5-inches and is of the Quad HD (aka WQHD) variety, with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 and a ppi of 538...
Japanese news outlet Nikkei threw its weight behind a popular rumor today, reporting that Apple's next-gen iPhone will come in both 4.7- and 5.5-inch models. The theory that the company is working on two new larger-sized handsets has been reiterated several times over the past 6 months.
Citing sources within Apple's supply chain, Nikkei says that manufacturers have already begun making components for the new smartphones, like fingerprint sensors and chips for liquid-crystal drivers, and Sharp, Japan Display and LG will begin mass-producing their panels as early as April...
During a television interview with Charlie Rose that aired this week, SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son told an interesting story of how he landed the iPhone in 2008. Apparently Son met with Steve Jobs two years before Apple launched the infamous handset to discuss...smartphones.
Son told Rose that he arranged a meeting with Jobs solely to show him a crude sketch of an iPod with mobile capabilities. Obviously, since the iPhone project was already well underway, Jobs didn't need the drawing, but the meeting still spawned a relationship between the two...