Pinephone regulatory approval in Japan

[b.tomik]

The current plan for regulatory testing is to get testing done for FCC and CE marks, but not for the single country tests.

This isn't due to lack of interest in certain markets, it's simply cost prohibitive for P64 to put the devices through all these tests. For example, the FCC/CE testing alone costs $50k. Due to the low profit margins that the business side of P64 runs on, it just is not feasible to go through all the worldwide testing.

If regulatory conformity beyond FCC/CE is necessary for you to buy a PinePhone, unfortunately you may have to pass on it.

Thank you very much for the prompt and informative response. I can understand the policy decision and think that it's quite reasonable given the budgetary constraints and the myriad of single country certifications that would be required for a fully global device. Doing some research, I discovered that even the big industry smartphone makers release unique models in the Japanese market to avoid needing said certification in other markets.

In practice, many people in Japan buy phones from other countries and use them back in Japan with no real issues; although this is technically wrong. Indeed you can even buy foreign phones on Amazon Japan. As it turns out, I bought my previous smartphone from Amazon Japan and it (Galaxy note 8) is also not certified for use in Japan - despite still being in use here every day! 

It is very helpful to know the Pine64 official direction, so people don't sit around waiting for certification that is not coming and make their decisions either way. Therefore would-be Pinephone buyers in Japan will have to proceed at their own risk. It is a shame that the lack of certification will dissuade some would be users and contributors to the project, but nothing is perfect, and at least this forum discussion could act as a clear point of reference.

@TG127 - thanks for the link; unfortunately it doesn't matter who imports or sells the phone (these activities are allowed), the risk lies with the end-user choosing to use the device in Japan. So any would-be buyers who are happy to proceed despite the certification issue can go ahead and do so directly from Pine64 as usual.

Also as a side note, although I'm sure you don't need my advice here; Pine64 is not doing anything wrong by selling / shipping to Japanese customers, as users are  free to buy foreign devices legally and do so frequently.