DoCoMo's mistake was waiting this long to offer the iPhone. They insisted that they would not release a smartphone without their own apps pre-installed. Apple told them where to stick it until they came back and agreed to Apple's terms. But now it was probably too little too late for iPhone 5s production. New carriers to iPhone always get less stock than existing carriers (look at Sprint and T-Mobile in the USA compared to AT&T and Verizon).
In Japan, being the first with a new tech gadget is a huge status symbol because the Japanese are largely a culture of tech enthusiasts. If NTT DoCoMo is out of stock, but Softbank or KDDI have a store across the street and they have stock then why wouldn't somebody switch?
The iPhone is not going boost NTT DoCoMo's sales because their competitors already have it. Getting the iPhone on NTT DoCoMo is going to be about slowing and reversing the losses of subscribers in the long term. Just imagine how big those subscriber losses would have been without the iPhone on DoCoMo.
In Japan, being the first with a new tech gadget is a huge status symbol because the Japanese are largely a culture of tech enthusiasts. If NTT DoCoMo is out of stock, but Softbank or KDDI have a store across the street and they have stock then why wouldn't somebody switch?
The iPhone is not going boost NTT DoCoMo's sales because their competitors already have it. Getting the iPhone on NTT DoCoMo is going to be about slowing and reversing the losses of subscribers in the long term. Just imagine how big those subscriber losses would have been without the iPhone on DoCoMo.