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Mar 27, 08 - 09:42 am Comment from: Spark

That is "Friendly" spelled with a "$".

Mar 27, 08 - 09:44 am Comment from: Spark

I'll bet that Apple has been sweating bullets on this one for a while. As more countries become iPhone territory, it will be interesting to learn why some of them took so long to come about.

Mar 27, 08 - 09:48 am Comment from: ron

AAAiiii-Phone ---said with a massive karate chop.

Mar 27, 08 - 09:49 am Comment from: cptnkirk

@Spark: "I'll bet that Apple has been sweating bullets on this one for a while. As more countries become iPhone territory, it will be interesting to learn why some of them took so long to come about."

I agree. Currently we still have no official iPhone provider in Canada. There is the trademark 'iPhone" belonging to a VOIP provider. This is probably holding up the availability along with a recalcitrant provider: Rogers.

http://www.aiphone.com/General_Info/What's_new.htm

What a craptastic website. Welcome back, 1994.

Mar 27, 08 - 10:08 am Comment from: Snapper

Good luck getting it done in Canada. Thanks for nothing Comwave Telecom

Mar 27, 08 - 10:13 am Comment from: Aldebaran

And in Southern Louisiana, it will be called the AaaaeeeeeePhone.

About 30 years ago, when the Japanese were doing knock-offs of virtually everything -- GILSON guitars, for example -- PLAYBOY lost a copyright infringement suit in Japan because the Japanese judge ruled that the KATAKANA rendering (プレーボイ) made it different. Following that precedent, AIPHONE should have no case against Apple in Japan.

プレーボイ does sound quite a bit different then Playboy (when spoken)

How Courteous is the Japanese
They Always Say 'Excusit Pleese'
They Step into their Neighbors Garden
And Smile and Say 'I Beg Your Pardon'
They Smile and Grin and Friendly Grin
And Bring Their Hungry Family In
They Smile and Bow and Friendly Bow,
'So Sorry, This My Garden Now!'

Mar 27, 08 - 12:18 pm Comment from: silverwarloc

@Spark

You are so right on the "$." Nothing like "$" to make the world go round.

Mar 27, 08 - 12:47 pm Comment from: ron

@Cars, プレーボイ does sound quite a bit different then Playboy (when spoken)


Looks different too - プレーボイ does look quite a bit different THAN Playboy (when written).

Mar 27, 08 - 01:27 pm Comment from: Anonymous©

I wonder what the situation is in China, because japanese characters are the same, being based upon chinese characters. It's the two alphabets, katakana and hiragana, that are different, as China does not have alphabets. The Japanese use the alphabets to phonetically spell foreign words.

Now, perhaps, the Aiphone is spelled using katakana and not kanji, which are chinese characters. That would mean no problems in China. But, if the settlement is about the kanji, then the same problem exists in China.

http://www.aiphone.co.jp/index.html

Okay, I looked. It's not kanji, but katakana. So, this implies no problems in China. HOWEVER, I just looked at their chinese website, and they use kanji for their name.

And, as I suspected, the "ai" is pronounced like a long "i", just like in iPhone. In chinese the sound "ai" means love. and that's the kanji they use, the kanji for the character "love".

I'm guessing Apple does not change the name of its products into kanji, but uses the roman characters, as most chinese can read the roman characters.

I'll be in Shanghai in a few days, so I'll see what they do there in regards to spelling iPhone, but I am guessing it's the roman.

Thanks to all for the follow-up comments on my PLAYBOY message. I didn't have an issue to consult, but later in the day I was at a local bookstore and i noticed that I had mis-written the Japanese KANA. But the essence of my post remains.

Yes, it is true that AIPHONE and iPhone would have the same pronunciation, but homophones are nothing new to the Japanese. I think that being spelled differently would exempt Apple from any liability. Perhaps Apple is looking at this payoff in terms of maintaining good will rather than as forestalling a frivolous lawsuit.

Well, maybe a little of both.

It should have been プレイボーイ , not プレーボイ