This paper examines the failure of Japanese mobile phone manufacturers in the mobile phone market after the emergence of smartphones. This paper overviews the smartphone market, then examines the case of Japan. It finds that current theories do not sufficiently explain the difficulty Japanese firms face. It uses a literature review of studies of firms attempting to adapt to technological change in the mobile phone market to pinpoint commonalities and differences between those firms and Japanese firms. This paper concludes that Japanese firms failed to recognize the importance of software and its ability to allow the user to quickly and easily
