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Japanese Carrier DoCoMo to Gain iPhone This Fall

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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nttdocomo-250x50.png
After years of negotiations, Japanese carrier DoCoMo will begin carrying the iPhone this fall, according to a report from Japanese newswire Nikkei [Google Translate].

DoCoMo will begin carrying the new models of the iPhone this fall, after Apple and DoCoMo came to an agreement over terms and conditions, including sales quotas, claims Nikkei.

The other large Japanese carriers, KDDI and Softbank, have carried the iPhone for years. Softbank recently purchased a controlling interest in American carrier Sprint.

DoCoMo lost a total of 3.2 million users over the last four-and-a-half years years, with much of that loss blamed on the lack of an iPhone on the network. DoCoMo had long insisted that its own services be preloaded onto devices sold on its network, something that is anathema to Apple.

The companies have appeared closer to a deal in recent weeks, as the CEO of DoCoMo said there were "compelling reasons" for the two companies to reach an agreement.

Nikkei previously reported that both the iPhone 5S and 5C would launch in Japan on Friday, September 20th -- expected to be the same day as the phone's release in the United States.

Article Link: Japanese Carrier DoCoMo to Gain iPhone This Fall
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/09/05/japanese-carrier-docomo-to-gain-iphone-this-fall/
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Brandon263

macrumors 6502
Sep 12, 2009
404
37
Beaumont, CA
Will be interesting to see if Apple will allow DoCoMo to put its bloatware on the iPhone. Don't see how they could have made a deal otherwise. They probably struck the same deal with China Mobile.
 
UnfetteredMind

UnfetteredMind

macrumors 6502
Jun 6, 2012
451
77
Brandon263 said:
Will be interesting to see if Apple will allow DoCoMo to put its bloatware on the iPhone. Don't see how they could have made a deal otherwise. They probably struck the same deal with China Mobile.
Click to expand...

Or DoCoMo and ChinaMobile got sick of losing subscribers to other carriers. I'm sure more details will leak out before or after the official announcements.
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
UnfetteredMind said:
Or DoCoMo and ChinaMobile got sick of losing subscribers to other carriers. I'm sure more details will leak out before or after the official announcements.
Click to expand...

Was subscriber loss an issue for China Mobile? Hard to imagine with a carrier that has over 700M customers.
 
0

0029937

Cancelled
Jul 29, 2010
540
597
chrmjenkins said:
Was subscriber loss an issue for China Mobile? Hard to imagine with a carrier that has over 700M customers.
Click to expand...

Maybe loss wasn't a current threat but definitely a near future threat. Striking a deal before the losses started happening would be smart.
 
mdelvecchio

mdelvecchio

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2010
3,151
1,149
DoCoMo was finally like,

okay.jpeg


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Brandon263 said:
Will be interesting to see if Apple will allow DoCoMo to put its bloatware on the iPhone. Don't see how they could have made a deal otherwise. They probably struck the same deal with China Mobile.
Click to expand...

you serious? there is absolutely no way apple allowed them to put their bloat on the phone. none. it would open apple up to everybody wanting it. no, DoCoMo looked at the business they were losing year after year and finally conceded, probably negotiating on price to save face.
 
ob81

ob81

macrumors 65816
Jun 11, 2007
1,406
356
Virginia Beach
Docomo has sucked for years. They always had the worst coverage, and half a decade later, they finally appear to see the light.

Congrats on staying around this long.
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
0029937 said:
Maybe loss wasn't a current threat but definitely a near future threat. Striking a deal before the losses started happening would be smart.
Click to expand...

I think it was more working out the logistics of their network technology and SKU management. The W1605L takes care of their special TD-SCDMA network in addition to all of the other networks out there. Now Apple just have to differentiate SKUs by which bands they support.
 
mavis

mavis

macrumors 601
Jul 30, 2007
4,734
1,452
Tokyo, Japan
Just an FYI, Macrumors - NTT DOCOMO is not stylized "DoCoMo" anymore, and hasn't been for years. ;)

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/
 
V.K.

V.K.

macrumors 6502a
Dec 5, 2007
716
466
Toronto, Canada
Brandon263 said:
Will be interesting to see if Apple will allow DoCoMo to put its bloatware on the iPhone. Don't see how they could have made a deal otherwise.
Click to expand...
want a bet?! why would Apple give in to Docomo when they didn't give in to bigger players like Verizon? Apple doesn't need Docomo that badly but Docomo does need Apple.
They probably struck the same deal with China Mobile.
Click to expand...

why should it be the same? I don't recall any reports of China Mobile wanting bloatware on iphones as a big sticking point in negotiations with Apple. as noted by others in the thread the main issue was network incompatibility which is supposed to be resolved with the new chips in the upcoming new iphones. I also remember reading that the size of iphone subsidies was a big point of contention.

All that said, China Mobile with their huge subscriber base is probably the stronger side in the negotiations with Apple. if anybody can bend Apple to allow bloatware on iphones (if they REALLY wanted it) it would be China Mobile. But definitely not Docomo.
 
theBB

theBB

macrumors 68020
Jan 3, 2006
2,453
3
chrmjenkins said:
Was subscriber loss an issue for China Mobile? Hard to imagine with a carrier that has over 700M customers.
Click to expand...
I remember seeing reports about 3G subscribers growing far more quickly on other networks. (Most of the smartphones in China were said to be 2G until recently.) However, I don't know whether most of the difference can be explained by lack of iPhones or lack of high end phones in general or by something else.
 
S

Snowshiro

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2008
387
6
ob81 said:
Docomo has sucked for years. They always had the worst coverage, and half a decade later, they finally appear to see the light.

Congrats on staying around this long.
Click to expand...

Docomo have pretty much managed to shrug off the iPhone for this long, simply because they have the largest network in 3, 3.5 and 4G. Although Softbank have made strenuous efforts to improve recently after buying their god-awful network from Vodafone, they're still a fair distance behind.

The idea that Docomo's coverage is the worst is either the result of you having no idea what you're talking about (most likely) or a blatant lie.

I've had phones on all 3 networks during the last 10 years. Docomo are far and away the fastest. AU have good coverage, but not amazing speeds. And as I said, while Softbank have improved, they're still playing catchup.

Really, next time you make a pointless comment, at least try to aim somewhere in the rough direction of the truth.
 
ob81

ob81

macrumors 65816
Jun 11, 2007
1,406
356
Virginia Beach
Snowshiro said:
Docomo have pretty much managed to shrug off the iPhone for this long, simply because they have the largest network in 3, 3.5 and 4G. Although Softbank have made strenuous efforts to improve recently after buying their god-awful network from Vodafone, they're still a fair distance behind.

The idea that Docomo's coverage is the worst is either the result of you having no idea what you're talking about (most likely) or a blatant lie.

I've had phones on all 3 networks during the last 10 years. Docomo are far and away the fastest. AU have good coverage, but not amazing speeds. And as I said, while Softbank have improved, they're still playing catchup.

Really, next time you make a pointless comment, at least try to aim somewhere in the rough direction of the truth.
Click to expand...

Woah! Slow down there killer. I was just speaking from my experience. Next time I will add that caveat in there for the more passionate folks.

Back on topic: THEY SUCK!
 
mavis

mavis

macrumors 601
Jul 30, 2007
4,734
1,452
Tokyo, Japan
sinsin07 said:
Who cares. Not germane to the article.
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Docomo apparently cared enough to change it in 2008. And since this is a site that seems to take professionalism and accuracy seriously, I thought they might want to know. Writing Docomo like "DoCoMo" would be like writing "aPpLe." I guess since it's not an American company it's not a big deal?

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skipper113 said:
Softbank iPhone here in Japan already includes some of its bloatware preinstalled.
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I've bought a launch day iPhone every year since the iPhone 3G in 2008, and I've never once had anything preinstalled on my phone besides the stock Apple apps. :confused:
 
W

windowpain

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2008
590
100
Japan
At last!!

To be honest I thought they would never get it. Good to see common sense prevailed. They are going to sell truckloads of the things.
 
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