“Japan’s largest mobile carrier, DoCoMo, will finally begin selling the iPhone this fall, according to Nikkei,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac. “Apple and DoCoMo reportedly recently came to an agreement, and reports regarding the discussions emerged late last month.”
“With Apple announcing two new iPhones [5S and 5C] next week, it is likely that DoCoMo will carry the new devices,” Gurman reports. “Apple, in recent months, has taken steps to increase its presence in Japan. The company has moved to a more centrally-located headquarters in Tokyo and is currently preparing its first Japan Apple Store opening since 2005. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Boom!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
China has to follow.
India is relatively weak for Apple.
In Russia and Germany iPhones have share only just above 10%.
Apple needs to spend some marketing money there, but it ignores those markets for years. Both Germany and Russia are long standing problems for Apple and yet nothing ever got done.
Chasing dollars vs dimes. Apple is concerned primarily with the high growth markets, of course. Large countries like DE and RU are not small potatoes, however.
FUD that..,
I’m totally looking forward to this event happening. From the very beginning the iPhone was doubted to be able to crack the Japanese feature-phone market because the Japanese devices were claimed to be so much better at doing everything the Japanese consumer wanted. Hopefully, the iPhone will end up at the pinnacle of the Japanese smartphone market and I can look back and laugh at all the naysayers’ half-assed predictions.
“Hopefully, the iPhone will end up at the pinnacle of the Japanese smartphone market and I can look back and laugh at all the naysayers’ half-assed predictions.”
Uhm, you already can.
Predrag had persuasively postulated that DoCoMo would not do a deal with Apple because of its pervasive branding policies, so I expect that one of two things occurred: (1) DoCoMo folded in the face of intense competitive pressures, permitting an unspoiled Apple UI; (2) Apple, desperate to expand its slipping market share in Asia, capitulated to DoCoMo and we should expect to see Hello Kitty welcome screens on its handsets.
I’m surprised the announcement had zero impact on Apple’s share price. I’m willing to bet if any other company was rumored to sign such a significant contract the share price would have jumped a couple of percentage points.
All the more reason why you had been better off investing in predictable stocks instead of flirting with emotional disaster day after day. You wear your heart on your sleeve.
+1
This news married with next weeks announcement of adding China Mobile should turbo-charge the stock.
Now that Apple is available on all significant networks in the US you can see that market share steadily climbs. Hopefully Apple now understands and will redouble its efforts to get on all major wireless networks. I think they can easily compete with all android phones, but they have to represented universally.