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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hope Apple hold out.

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.

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.