Shortly after the launch of the iPhone in 2007, Apple launched an internal initiative that was informed by the popularity of kamoji in Japan. Kaomoji were booming on the “J-Phones” - a nick-name given to the SoftBank’s devices at the time. Originally Apple released a set of 471 emojis for the Japanese market only. One of the goals of the first emoji set was to be compatible with SoftBank’s emoji set.