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

jcpb said:

So many clueless and thoughtless iDefenders whose left hands don't know what their right hands are doing.

Steve Jobs couldn't save Apple even after he was re-hired to run the ship. Microsoft did.

Yep, you should tell Comcast et al. how to run their services. They own the pipes, they don't own the content. Except the cable/telcos saw what happened to cellular and wanted none of the "dumb pipe" bullcrap.

The longevity of your product means nothing. Look at Nokia.

Do some independent thinking on your own instead of having someone else do that work for you, kid.

And why do you care?

I don't give a damn if Apple goes out of business tomorrow. The world can and will move on without Cupertino. Get a hint.

And how will that matter? Oh yeah, it's bad for iOS because 1) you are not allowed to jailbreak your iDevices as you'll void warranties and lose all product support, and 2) you are not allowed to replace core Apple system apps with third-party apps.

I'd like to see the unthinkable happen so I can start reading every iBrainwashedFanboy whine how the world is being so unfair to Apple. The world is unfair. We don't necessarily play by Apple's rules. Deal with it.

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Way to waste your time on such a long and pointless comment.

If Verizon couldn't do it then there's no way in hell this little Japanese carrier will get Apple to allow bloat ware and branding on the iPhone.

PadreQuevedo said:

You can't even read...that's pathetic....

NTT still the number one. Read the article again.

"Softbank again led in subscriber additions..."
"Softbank 33.04 million....NTT 61.62 million subscribers in total"....

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subscribers are the key point in Japan you idiot ! Softbank are getting more and more new contracts ! The point of the thread is who is number 1 and in the monthly rankings Softbank is ! So go F%&k yourself

http://www.japantoday.com/category/...lds-out-against-iphone-mania-but-at-what-cost

Here is an article from today, people are dropping Docomo like flies. Softbank have been showing ads on TV recently basically saying "we are No 1 thank you"

Sounds like a good fight.

hchung said:

You just posted an article which states NTT Docomo still has 28 million more subscribers than Softbank, and yet you're claiming Softbank is #1?

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The rankings are based on the number of new subscribers they get for a month. That determines if they are number one or not and Softbank has beaten Docomo in the monthly rankings for a while. This is how the system is here and that's why Softbank is allowed to air ads on TV and print them in newspapers saying "we are number 1"

I like this quote taken from one of the posters on japantoday "For 53 months straight DoCoMo has shown a net loss of subscribers"

SlCKB0Y said:

My first mobile phone!

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Same here. I got mine in 1996 I believe. After that one, I had a series of Nokia candy bar and flip phones, a Samsung Slider feature phone and then finally a Motorola KRZR. After that, I got my first iPhone when the 3G hit the Canadian market.

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jcpb said:

Because the Motorola ROKR E1 wasn't a good enough example of how bad Rogers was before the iPhone. I don't need to know - I had that as my first Big Red phone, and I know how suckage all those carrier bloatware are.

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I suffered through a Samsung slider feature phone and a Motorola KRZR on Rogers before I switched to Fido the day the iPhone 3G came out. Rogers was supposed to have sent me a headset for my feature phones but I never got it.

aristotle said:

Same here. I got mine in 1996 I believe.

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Haha! Same year as me - I was finishing high school. I seem to remember getting the fatter battery too.

Hmmm....

NTT DoCoMo has the largest installed base of users here in Japan because, basically, they were the first cell-phone provider here. As has been pointed out before, the number of their users fleeing to other carriers has consistently been the highest among the big three carriers here. The main reason is cost. DoCoMo is expensive! The bloat ware that Apple wants to keep off their phone is not simply some advertising flash screen type of thing, they are "services" that DoCoMo charges you for. Apple currently offers many of these things as part of their OS for free. While I am not certain of the actual figures, I believe that many of the users of DoCoMo are still using traditional hand-set type of devices. DoCoMo was slow to embrace the "smart-phone" idea. They now use Samsung, Sony, Sharp and a variety of other makers products as smart phone platforms but they are playing catch-up with the likes of Softbank and AU because of the iphone. DoCoMo is an old company run by old men. Change does not come easily to them.
A while ago I had an interesting experience on a train here in Tokyo. There were about 5 men sitting across from me. There were all in their 60s and possibly 70s. They were laughing and comparing their iPhones which they all had recently bought. These guys have money and they could have chosen DoCoMo if they wanted to. They didn't
It's time for DoCoMo to wake up and smell the coffee, I believe.

aussieinjapan said:

The rankings are based on the number of new subscribers they get for a month. That determines if they are number one or not and Softbank has beaten Docomo in the monthly rankings for a while. This is how the system is here and that's why Softbank is allowed to air ads on TV and print them in newspapers saying "we are number 1"

I like this quote taken from one of the posters on japantoday "For 53 months straight DoCoMo has shown a net loss of subscribers"

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So Softbank is number 1 in new subscriptions for the month. That's great. That's certainly not number 1 as an absolute.

Sure, Docomo is losing subscribers. That's why I think they'll eventually reconsider their position with regards to iPhone.

But if Docomo has about double the subscriber count of Softbank after 53 months of losing subscribers, that's a ridiculously wide margin. It's like cheering for Sprint when they were "number 1" for 4G subscribers...

shashin said:

NTT DoCoMo has the largest installed base of users here in Japan because, basically, they were the first cell-phone provider here. As has been pointed out before, the number of their users fleeing to other carriers has consistently been the highest among the big three carriers here. The main reason is cost. DoCoMo is expensive! The bloat ware that Apple wants to keep off their phone is not simply some advertising flash screen type of thing, they are "services" that DoCoMo charges you for. Apple currently offers many of these things as part of their OS for free. While I am not certain of the actual figures, I believe that many of the users of DoCoMo are still using traditional hand-set type of devices. DoCoMo was slow to embrace the "smart-phone" idea. They now use Samsung, Sony, Sharp and a variety of other makers products as smart phone platforms but they are playing catch-up with the likes of Softbank and AU because of the iphone. DoCoMo is an old company run by old men. Change does not come easily to them.
A while ago I had an interesting experience on a train here in Tokyo. There were about 5 men sitting across from me. There were all in their 60s and possibly 70s. They were laughing and comparing their iPhones which they all had recently bought. These guys have money and they could have chosen DoCoMo if they wanted to. They didn't
It's time for DoCoMo to wake up and smell the coffee, I believe.

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I wouldn't say they were slow to embrace the smartphone. It's more like the meaning of smartphone changed around them. Given that Docomo introduced many of the mobile services we take for granted now before people in the States knew the meaning of texting, they basically provided the largest smartphone platform of a past decade.

I totally agree though; change isn't going to come easily for them.

hchung said:

So Softbank is number 1 in new subscriptions for the month. That's great. That's certainly not number 1 as an absolute.

Sure, Docomo is losing subscribers. That's why I think they'll eventually reconsider their position with regards to iPhone.

But if Docomo has about double the subscriber count of Softbank after 53 months of losing subscribers, that's a ridiculously wide margin. It's like cheering for Sprint when they were "number 1" for 4G subscribers...

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NOT for A month - quite a lot actually but I cant find the figures in English for you. It is counted as an absolute here cause new subscribers and phone change overs are what make the business

I don't think NTT Docomo should worry about Softbank and iPhone.
Android is much more versatile than IOS.
iPhone has no FeliCa, no OneSeg TV, no NFC built-in.

BTW, I lived in Japan for 13 years. Dad is Japanese.

aussieinjapan said:

Ummm No, they are NOT - Do you live in Japan ? Havent you been reading the news or watching TV ??? Damn check your facts !

Here is a recent example in English for you....

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/japanese-mobile-carriers-add-616900-new-subs-in-may--948283

Softbank has been ranked as the Number one mobile company for a while beating out docomo and KDDI.

They are NOT number one in Japan at all.

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Err, what are you talking about? Can you read? The link you included shows Docomo as having almost DOUBLE the number of subscribers than Softbank.

The rankings are based on the number of new subscribers they get for a month. That determines if they are number one or not

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Nice try to save face in a later comment. The only place that a company with half the subscribers of another company is "number one" is in your imagination.

CEmajr said:

If Verizon couldn't do it then there's no way in hell this little Japanese carrier will get Apple to allow bloat ware and branding on the iPhone.

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They do not need to. MTS - another "small" carrier - who happens to be Russia's largest carrier showed middle finger to Apple and stopped selling iPhone last year. Instead they re-focused on Windows phones. This year in RUssia Windows Phone sales reached the level of iPhone (not just for MTS, for entire country).

Link

PadreQuevedo said:

I don't think NTT Docomo should worry about Softbank and iPhone.
Android is much more versatile than IOS.
iPhone has no FeliCa, no OneSeg TV, no NFC built-in.

BTW, I lived in Japan for 13 years. Dad is Japanese.

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It doesn't matter what is "more versatile". These consumers want iPhones, and they're willing to switch carriers to get one.