DoCoMo in talks with Apple to bring iPhone to Japan

When asked about iPhone at NTT DoCoMo’s shareholder meeting held on June 19, the company’s management confirmed that DoCoMo was interested in bringing iPhone to Japan and intended to have discussions with Steve Jobs about this possibility. However, DoCoMo is likely to face a competition from Softbank, third largest operator in Japan, who is rumored for a long time to carry iPhone on its network in Japan. Both operators run 3G networks based on WCDMA standard, meaning that the current 2G version of iPhone is not compatible with Japanese networks. It seems that it will take another year to have iPhone optimized for Japan’s market. The willingness with what Japanese operators are ready to embrace iPhone contradicts with their traditional approach to handset vendors when the game is played by operators’ rules. For the first time in Japan, operators may agree to bend these rules and accept Apple’s conditions such as to sell unsubsidized handset and pay a portion of service revenue to handset vendor. Judging by the size of market shares, the chances of DoCoMo to snatch iPhone are more promising than Softbank’s.

Source: ITmedia