“NTT Docomo Inc. (9437) added the most new subscribers among Japan’s three wireless carriers for the first time since December 2011 after starting sales of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone,” Mariko Yasu and Takashi Amano report for Bloomberg. “The stock closed at a five-year high… Shares of Docomo rose 2 percent to close at 1,749 yen in Tokyo trading, the highest since January 2009.”
“Japan’s largest wireless carrier added 279,100 net users in December and has 62.2 million total users, according to data released by Tokyo-based Docomo today,” Yasu and Amano report. “That compares with an additional 222,600 subscribers for second-ranked KDDI Corp. (9433) and 224,300 new customers for SoftBank Corp. (9984).”
“Docomo started selling the iPhone 5s and 5c when the handsets were released in September, ending a holdout that saw smaller competitors win market share and lure customers with Apple’s device. The company had resisted the iPhone to focus on handsets from Sony Corp. (6758) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and protect its online store dmarket from competition with iTunes,” Yasu and Amano report. “‘It’s the iPhone effect,’ Tomoaki Kawasaki, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Holdings Inc. in Tokyo, said by phone. ‘All three major carriers offer the iPhone now so it will likely be a competition of connectivity, services and content offerings as they vie for subscribers.’ The main reason Docomo added more new users than other carriers is because it began offering the iPhone, said Hiroko Shimoyama, a company spokeswoman.”
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