Apple reportedly in negotiations to bring iPhone to Japan
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Dec 18, 2007 at 12:21pm
Apple “is playing” mobile operators NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Corpagainst one another on selling the iPhone in Japan, reports Reuters.
The article says Jobs & Company is in talks with both DoCoMo, Japan’s top carrier, and number three Softbank about launching the iPhone, but both have balked over the share of subscriber revenue that Apple is demanding. Apple CEO Steve Jobs purportedly met DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura in San Francisco earlier this month, a company source said.
The two discussed the terms of a deal should DoCoMo, which controls over half of Japan’s mobile market, become exclusive carrier partner for the iPhone, notes Reuters. Apple’s talks with Softbank, which bought Vodafone’s local unit in 2006, could be a negotiating tool to win a favorable deal with DoCoMo, the article adds.
The challenge for Apple is to get Japanese consumers, who are used to fast mobile Internet connections, interested in a phone that operates on a slower 2G network, notes TheStreet.com.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
