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Leading Japanese Carrier NTT DoCoMo Losing Customers as iPhone Deal Remains Elusive

Friday July 5, 2013 8:06 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Reuters reports on difficulties being faced by NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier with 60 million customers, as it has yet to reach a deal with Apple to offer the iPhone. The major hurdle to a deal has been DoCoMo's insistence on allowing its own services to be preloaded on devices it carries.
It is paying heavily for that obstinacy - with a net 3.2 million users jumping ship to its two domestic rivals over the last 4-1/2 years - but is determined to protect the walled garden of services it has built around its own smartphones.

"We're trying to develop a lifestyle system," NTT DoCoMo CEO Kaoru Kato told Reuters in an interview this week.
The report notes that while DoCoMo pioneered a number of smartphone services, those services have been surpassed in popularity and ease of use by third-party offerings. Combining that reduced consumer reliance on DoCoMo's own services with Apple's equally obstinate position that carriers can not preload apps and services on the iPhone may leave DoCoMo in an increasingly difficult position with its customers.

DoCoMo appears to be banking on iPhone saturation at rival carriers Softbank and KDDI to force Apple to relent as it seeks to drive further sales growth of the popular device, but DoCoMo's list of demands, which also includes carrier branding on handsets themselves, clashes so strongly with Apple's philosophy for the iPhone that an imminent deal appears unlikely.

ntt_docomo_logo
Little appears to have changed in the stalemate between Apple and DoCoMo, as a November 2011 report highlighted many of the same sticking points. And with the iPhone continuing to lead the Japanese smartphone market even without DoCoMo on board, it appears that Apple may be able to continue negotiating from a position of strength.

Still, Samsung's dramatic rise in most of the rest of the world has enabled it to surpass the iPhone in many markets, and Apple may be feeling some pressure to make its best effort to ensure that a similar scenario does not play out in Japan.

[ 139 comments ]


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blackburn
76 months ago
Carriers should never ever brand their phones, much less mess around with the software.

Never saw a carrier modified phone that had any advantage to a normal phone.
Rating: 46 Votes
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Ljohnson72
76 months ago

Kinda hoping the same for NTT DoCoMo, showing that Apple cannot dictate every carrier they want :)


LOL... Seriously?

It's Apple's phone; you play by their rules if you want to sell it. Simple enough.
Rating: 33 Votes
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Timster83
76 months ago
I hope Apple stand firm over this, only because if they let DoCoMo brand devices and preload apps, it would only open the floodgates for other carriers to do the same.

And it wouldn't be avoidable by buying an unlocked device directly from Apple either. It would be automatic just like today's carrier updates are.
Rating: 20 Votes
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ChrisTX
76 months ago
One of the main reasons I like the iPhone. No carrier branding, and no crapware on their devices. It is hands off from everyone but Apple.
Rating: 20 Votes
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lkrupp
76 months ago

Kinda hoping the same for NTT DoCoMo, showing that Apple cannot dictate every carrier they want :)


Except for the fact that the iPhone continues to be the most popular smartphone in Japan (according to this article) and that Samsung sells only 1/5 the number phones in the country. Then consider that DoCoMo has lost 3.4 million subscribers because they don't carry the iPhone. Now who do you think has the most bargaining power?

As for your lamented desire to see Apple taken down a notch I don't get your point at all.
Rating: 18 Votes
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NoNothing
76 months ago

Kinda hoping the same for NTT DoCoMo, showing that Apple cannot dictate every carrier they want :)


Android fanboys are a funny lot. They hate the carriers but hate the iPhone even more for Apple having a far superior mobile OS people actually ask for by name allowing Apple to dictate demands to carriers instead of bending over backwards to them.
Rating: 15 Votes
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Sky Blue
76 months ago
Hope Apple hold out.
Rating: 14 Votes
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aristotle
76 months ago

Kinda hoping the same for NTT DoCoMo, showing that Apple cannot dictate every carrier they want :)

Do you also pay exorbitant amounts of money to wear clothing with garish designer logos on them as well?

Do you want to know what people in first class airport lounges wear? Well made clothes with no large logos on the front of their shirt or jacket.

Do you seriously want a Verizon, AT&T Sprint, NTT DoCoMo etc.. logo on the front of the phone that you are actually paying a thousand dollars for? Really? What did any of those carriers have to do with the design or functionality of the iPhone and iOS?

Do you want branded apps imbedded in firmware that is specific to a carrier? Do you want to be held hostage by the carrier as to whether your year old iPhone will get an update to the latest iOS release?

If you really want to be someone's ***** and pay through the nose for it, get an Android instead. They have those carrier logos that you like so much as well as the carrier branded crapware that you cannot remove as well has only receiving updates if the carrier allows it.
:rolleyes:
How about you grow a pair instead and realize that if it was not for Apple standing up to the carrier, we would still all be using locked down carrier specific phone that connected only to carrier run "stores".

I remember how the phones were before the iPhone. I had a Rogers phone where I could only have ringtones purchased from the Rogers store and games from the Rogers store and songs from the Rogers store.

They charged something like 3-4 bucks for a ringtone on top of data charges.

PS. If you really want to wear advertising then I suggest getting into NASCAR as a driver because at least then you are paid to wear it.
Rating: 14 Votes
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ValSalva
76 months ago

The major hurdle to a deal has been DoCoMo's insistence on allowing its own services to be preloaded on devices it carries.


Good luck with that. Thankfully Apple held out against the U.S. carriers or the iPhone would have had a bad user experience.
Rating: 12 Votes
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Karma*Police
76 months ago

Kinda hoping the same for NTT DoCoMo, showing that Apple cannot dictate every carrier they want :)


Carriers are the worst. At least you can argue that Apple cares about the user experience. Can you say the same for carriers? Give me an Apple garden over a carrier garden any day of the week.
Rating: 12 Votes

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