With Apple’s iPhone launching soon in Japan, and a lot of hot air on the blogs and in the press about why the iPhone will or won’t be a hit in Japan, it’s timely to take a look at which mobile carrier can carry the from Apple. iPhone in Japan. The top four players in the Japanese market in order of size are NTT DoCoMo, au by KDDI, SoftBank, and EMobile. Which one will win the bidding war?
1. Will NTT DoCoMo carry the Apple iPhone in Japan? NTT DoCoMo has been reported to have been in talks with Apple recently, but let’s take a look at their portfolio to see what kind of company they are and whether the iPhone would fit into their range of offerings. As part of the formally state-owned communications network, they are seen as the most reliable operator, but also the most serious. They already offer Motorola and BlackBerry smartphones but bury them in the back of their catalogs. DoCoMo has the money to offer Apple a good deal, but given their track record, would they bury Apple’s iPhone in Japan? They’re currently weak in the music support arena, so beefing things up with a Japanese iTunes would help, but I don’t see them having the skills or the desire to help make the iPhone a success in Japan.
2. Will Au by KDDI ship the Apple iPhone in Japan? They have the image of being the most cutting-edge of all mobile phone service providers in Japan, and were the first company to adopt music-playing mobile phones with their LISMO product. They are the company that is most capable of supporting the iPhone and most likely to promote it correctly, but unfortunately the strength of their LISMO brand is the key at work that will prevent them from supporting iTunes as well, so KDDI will not carry the iPhone from Apple in Japan. This will be a disappointment to many people, but trying to promote two competing and incompatible offers does not make financial sense.
3. Will SoftBank carry the Apple iPhone in Japan? SoftBank is the hungry VodaFone reborn, now resurfacing with innovative billing schemes, recovering from its bad reputation for coverage. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will no doubt be ready to supply Steve Jobs with as many wheelbarrows full of cash as it takes to get Apple’s iPhone to SoftBank. Their current lineup is technologically far behind the other two big operators and they don’t have any real music product to speak of, so Yahoo! Co-branding iTunes compatible with a SoftBank iPhone makes a lot of sense in Japan. Although sales in Europe have been disappointing, and even if sales in Japan don’t live up to predictions, SoftBank’s image boost by being the iPhone operator in Japan will help them in the market when it comes to competing. by the more traditional customer base.
4. Will EMobile carry the Apple iPhone in Japan? Unfortunately, EMobile is such a nice little carrier that they can’t afford to get into the bidding war, so it definitely won’t be an EMobile-branded iPhone in Japan.
Of course, these are just predictions based on observations of the cell phone market in Japan. There hasn’t been an official announcement yet about Apple’s iPhone in Japan, but all opinion polls and other consumer interest surveys show that the Japanese are a bit desperate to get their hands on this new device.