The iPhone heads to launch in Japan and China
Following a pattern in the US and Germany, the iPhone will be launched in Japan with a single licensed telecommunications carrier. The authorized sole Japanese carrier is likely to be NTT DoCoMo .
That's the same carrier that launched a superb high-tech security phone last year. Inside details of this upcoming and past iPhone country-specific deals:
[....NTT DoCoMo had nearly 53 million subscribers and commanded more than half of Japan's mobile phone market at the end of September, but has struggled to add new users in recent months amid fierce competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which have slashed rates and launched aggressive sales promotions.
Apple and NTT DoCoMo are still negotiating the terms of a deal, with one stumbling block being Apple's demands to receive the same percentage of subscriber revenue from NTT DoCoMo that it receives from other carriers, according to the Journal.
If a deal with NTT DoCoMo falls through, Apple is also talking with Softbank, according to the report....
The introduction of the combination iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing device to the world's second-largest economy would be a tremendous boon for Cupertino-based Apple, which hopes to sell about 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
Apple has sold more than 1.4 million iPhones since they went on sale June 29 in the United States. Subsequent launches in Europe have boosted sales and sparked a legal fight over Apple's exclusive use of T-Mobile, part of Deutsche Telekom AG, as its wireless provider in Germany.
Apple's strategy thus far has been to pick an exclusive mobile operator for each region: AT&T Inc. in the United States, O2 in Britain, T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom's Orange wireless arm in France.
Last month, the chairman of China Mobile, China's biggest mobile services operator with nearly 350 million subscribers at the end of September, revealed the company was in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to China.]



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