iPhone coming to Japan's NTT DoCoMo?

According to the Wall Street Journal Asia, Jobs and Co are in Japan working out the details for a domestic iPhone launch. It's no surprise then that Jobs was rumored to have just met with NTT DoCoMo's president, Masao Nakamur, to discuss the deal with the largest carrier in the world's second-largest economy. As usual, Apple seems to be playing the carriers off one another with rumors that The Steve is courting Softbank as well. However, "people familiar with the situation" say that DoCoMo is the first choice. While the revenue sharing is a sticking point as usual, WSJA says that Apple doesn't expect to have any difficulty closing the deal. Funny, that's what everyone was saying about Vodafone in Europe.

P.S. -For what it's worth, NTT DoCoMo does not run a GSM / EDGE network. Any iPhone released on DoCoMo's FOMA service will be UMTS / HSDPA -- right, the 3G iPhone.

[Jason Collin @ Dec 18th 2007 3:59AM]

Hmmm, no mention of Au, the carrier I use. I'd be willing to switch carrier's though if the cost of the iPhone is reasonable here, i.e. under ¥40,000 and the monthly plans with unlimited data were under ¥8,000. I wonder if they would still use Edge here?

There is no public wi-fi in Tokyo for free or for a fee, I mean none if you can believe that for such a supposedly high tech city (Starbucks has none, no other cafes have any, I hear maybe some McDonalds do but I don't frequent that rainforest destroying company, and maybe some train platforms do, but who hangs out on train platforms?).

Also, the features would have to be available in English. I have a 3G phone that is basically a portable e-mail device only because none of the other 3G services are in English.

So an iPhone that is truly all in English would be most welcome.

[Ken @ Dec 18th 2007 4:10AM]

For a fee wifi is absolutely available in pretty much all Starbucks locations, all Tully's (except the tiny mall types like in Shinjuku and Shibuya), I think the HUB bars, and many other places. Free wifi in Tokyo? I've only found a few places, and they're independent coffee and tea shops.

[kev @ Dec 18th 2007 9:31AM]

The McDonald's Wifi (when I was there) was through some other subscription service.

[cc @ Dec 18th 2007 1:21PM]

Wifi in Tokyo sucks, I agree -- but if you have a mobile phone you do all your mailing/browsing on that so it's not a major thing that people demand.

(If you're looking for wifi, by the way, the Wired Cafe chain is pretty good... no power outlets though so make sure you have a full battery!)

[Jason Collin @ Dec 21st 2007 12:16AM]

No Starbucks I've ever been in in Tokyo has had wi-fi. And I've never seen any advertising for it inside a Starbucks either. Can you say specifically which Starbucks you've used wi-fi in? And you were talking about Tokyo, Japan right? I hear there is a Tokyo, Ohio USA as well.

[Jason Collin @ Dec 21st 2007 12:17AM]

No Starbucks I've ever been in in Tokyo has had wi-fi. And I've never seen any advertising for it inside a Starbucks either. Can you say specifically which Starbucks you've used wi-fi in? And you were talking about Tokyo, Japan right? I hear there is a Tokyo, Ohio USA as well.

And places that allow smoking don't count as they aren't fit for human occupation.

[asnozz @ Dec 18th 2007 4:03AM]

Japan doesnt use standard GSM (neither does South Korea). If you want your western phone to work you usually need 3G. Presumably this means a new revision is in the works for Japan.

[xbit @ Dec 18th 2007 4:05AM]

NTT DoCoMo don't have a GSM/EDGE network so this must be the fabled 3G iPhone.

It would make sense to sell it on NTT DoCoMo though. They're by far the largest carrier in Japan.

[js @ Dec 18th 2007 4:09AM]

iPhone in Japan?

AHAHAHA AHAHAHA AHAHHAHAHAHA AHAHHAHAHAHA

[Paul D @ Dec 18th 2007 4:11AM]

AU seems to stick with cheaper phones, so I doubt they're in the running.

I know what you mean about the lack of public wifi. I only know of one place here in Nagoya where I can get reliable wifi and sip a coffee at the same time. McDonald's and MOS are supposed to have wifi, but it never works when I try it.

My big concern with the Japanese iPhone is that it won't work well in *Japanese*. Japanese input (including emoticons and all) is pretty advanced on the phones produced by Japanese companies, and the Japanese input currently available on the iPod Touch won't cut it with most Japanese consumers — or me.

[yoid @ Dec 18th 2007 4:39AM]

ipod touch already has it (from what i've seen in ads anyway) - it's just romaji input with dictionary suggestions above the keyboard that you can touch to select. maybe there's a 5-tap alternative? don't know... i do know... i wants!

[Paul D @ Dec 18th 2007 4:49AM]

Yes, but the iPod Touch's Japanese input, from what I've seen, is inadequate compared to current Japanese cell phones and needs an overhaul before being put on the Japanese iPhone.

[binchan @ Dec 18th 2007 5:30AM]

a 3G iPhone will be sufficiently feature rich to penetrate the Japanese market, even without a 5 MP camera, or WVGA display. Although, 1Seg or GPS would be a nice touch, as would 16 MB flash memory. Besides the product lines between the top three mobile phone companies have become so similar that docomo (or Softbank) will market the iPhone pretty heavily. Actually, on a recent trip to the US, two friends asked me if I could bring back an iPhone for them (!!!), so yeah, I'd say there is market interest in it.

As for the iPhone's JIS...it should be fine. I can write an email on the iPod touch about as fast as I can on my SO902i, and maybe a little faster. The email module will need an emoji engine, but that shouldn't be a problem. docomo would be nice, because I wouldn't need to switch carriers, but in some ways, I think Softbank would be a better choice.

[James @ Dec 18th 2007 12:10PM]

AU has some amazing phones, and some very expensive phones too. DoCoMo has a pretty crap selection in comparison to be honest!

[Jon @ Dec 18th 2007 4:19AM]

With no keypad do you think the Japanese will want to rely on an imprecise virtual keypad for kanji? Plus it is seriously outdated compared to the phones there (WVGA, 5Mp camera, 1seg).

[Jeff @ Dec 18th 2007 10:43AM]

"With no keypad do you think the Japanese will want to rely on an imprecise virtual keypad for kanji?"

They're not typing kanji. I don't honestly quite know how texting works on a phone keypad, but all the iPhone needs is a virtual QWERTY keyboard - every Japanese knows how to use one of these to type Japanese, because that's what their PC's come equipped with. And it's definitely easier to type Japanese this way than on a Japanese phone (which probably works similarly, just with fewer keys).

People are always surprised when they hear that the Japanese type Japanese using roman letters. But that's what they do. If you want to write "sayonara" in Japanese, you type "sayonara". The software turns it into kana or kanji. You select the correct kanji from a list. There's no reason the iPhone couldn't work this way. (You can easily install Japanese language support on your PC or Mac and see this work.)

That said, this is not the iPhone's biggest problem in Japan. Its biggest problem is that it's just not a very advanced phone by Japanese standards, and its form factor is not what they prefer (if you think clamshells are popular here, they're about 99% of the market in Japan). Even with 3G added, it'll be a mid-level phone with a clunky form factor.

I remember when the Razr was released in Japan; it was still the most popular phone in the US by a mile, but it was near the bottom end of DoCoMo's lineup and nobody bought it. It actually looked pretty pitiful on their selection page. (It's probably still there.) The iPhone will probably do a bit better just based on the popularity of Apple and the iPod there (and they are popular), but look for something closer to the European launch than the US launch. There's not going to be a huge amount of excitement.

[Pierre @ Dec 18th 2007 4:29AM]

Come on, a 3G iPhone in Japan? As the other comments say, this new version should better offer more than just a 3g upgrade... will it allow 3G video calls? 5mp camera at least? GPS ?

The iPhone is a half success in Europe because it's not 3G... but if Europe is about 2 years ahead the US in terms of network technology, Japan is (roughly) 3 years ahead of Europe. Simple calculation, the iPhone in Japan is... 5 years too late!

[pants @ Dec 18th 2007 4:46AM]

i think by 2009 ALL japanese mobiles must have GPS.... hmm..... the government says so. however, more and more, there seems to be wifi based alternatives cropping up (that i don't understand - sony's placeengine). considering how generally not that impressive and imprecise gps in a phone is, that could be interesting.

[Ken @ Dec 18th 2007 5:31AM]

You underestimate the power of cool in Japan. It's not just about features.

[Rich @ Dec 18th 2007 6:16AM]

@pants
You're right. All phones in Japan must have GPS for emergency purposes by 2009.

Believe or not but not everyone in Japan is obsessed with features. NTT DoCoMo have sold both the Motorola RAZR and LG Shine in the past - both very low spec phones. Fashion phones like the iPhone sell.

[cc @ Dec 18th 2007 1:20PM]

Apple stuff is huge in Japan... the one thing I can see hurting the iPhone though is poor texting ability and lack of compatibility with other popular texting services. If they don't work those features out, nobody will buy them. People in Japan use mobiles for texting more than talking, and they send more email from phones than computers.

[Shawin @ Dec 18th 2007 4:43AM]

NTT DoCoMo is known for their customised versions of mobile phones and their wonderful "i-mode". No wonder they'd want a better iPhone than any other country has, and it won't be a big surprise if their iPhone is 3G.

[tom @ Dec 18th 2007 5:10AM]

3G Iphone? Music to my ears, that means it is on its way to Australia as well and the minute it comes out here, ill be flushing my blackberry down the toilet!

[Shawin @ Dec 18th 2007 5:16AM]

I hope you won't mind sending your blackberry to me instead of throwing it away.
Would you? I'm in Mauritius, and the iPhone ain't coming here soon, be it 3G or not.

[tom @ Dec 18th 2007 5:11AM]

ahh... now I feel bad.. ill give it back to IT dept, it has served me well... sorry RIM.

[Scott @ Dec 18th 2007 12:34PM]

of course it will be 3g here, you are hard pressed to find a phone here that isnt 3g at the moment. I guess the question is whether they will go W-CDMA / CDMA2000 ( with softbank ) or FOMA with DoCoMo.

[Pierre @ Dec 18th 2007 5:53AM]

This is the area of doubt indeed, I don't know Japan enough to foresee this. I am btw a happy mac switcher, I love my ipod touch and I do understand the interface of the iphone (similar to the touch) is seen as a revolution.

However, when it comes to selling a phone, hype is for some people just about style, for others, its about trendy usage.

Example in France, a document was found that was an internal Orange document telling the sellers when to redirect customers to other phones that the iPhone, e.g;
- What, I can't watch TV on the iPhone ? > redirect to a 3G phone
- What, I cannot send MMS on the iPhone? > redirect to any other phone (100% of the range does MMS, but the iPhone)
- What, I cannot film videos on the iPhone? > redirect to any other phone with an integrated camera (100% of the camera phone can film, but the iPhone)
I had numerous friends who went to buy an iPhone...and came back with just pure deception: they've had better phones for 3 years.

Now I am not saying it is a reason for failure...but if that prevents a few young people from doing what they've been doing for years on their 1 euro subsidized phone, that will be a reason to think about buying it.

My (pure) assumption is that this will be even more the case in hype and techy Japan.

[umijin @ Dec 18th 2007 6:28AM]

Actually, Docomo's handsets have been pretty crappy, user-experience wise. But because they are the oldest boy on the block, some Japanese think they are more reliable. Au is a better company for it's customers - less expensive. SoftBank (formerly Vodafone Japan, formerly Jphone) has the best prices recently, but their signal breadth is the worst of the three by far.

All of the big three give you email service (in addition to carrier specific texting). I wonder how they would integrate this with the iPhone. I also wonder if Apple can get the revenue sharing they'd expect in the US. Japan cell phone companies (all companies) don't really negotiate well with foreign business partners. Remember how long it took to get the Japan iTunes store online?

So, don't expect it soon, no matter what you read.

[Surur @ Dec 18th 2007 7:01AM]

Maybe they will get Docomo to install EDGE. They got O2 to do it, didn't they? :D

[Karan @ Dec 18th 2007 9:27AM]

Considering NTT had 3G in 2001, and Japan is closer to 4G than 2, I think not :)

[Eric @ Dec 18th 2007 7:06AM]

cool, maybe they should consider softbank (vodafone) and come out with a 3G model.

[nosrednAneB @ Dec 18th 2007 7:48AM]

Ha! The iPhone will suck in Japan. They'll all be like "Where's the TV on this thing?" Nearly all phones in Japan have TV on them, even the cheap cheap ones from the bargain bin. This thing will hardly be a revolution for the Japanese. Maybe the design and touchscreen would be the only new thing.

[James @ Dec 20th 2007 8:54AM]

Thats not true... only the One-seg phones have TV on them and that is a very small amount of the ones available. My phone is the AU Casio Exilim 5.1m phone, and I'm pretty glad it doesn't have a TV because Japanese TV is pretty damn boring to be honest, and I don't want to be paying for something I'm not going to use.

[Karan @ Dec 18th 2007 7:53AM]

Point of interest) - DoCoMo's WCDMA is 2100MHz, which only AT&T doesn't have as they operate a 1900MHz network for their AT&T Mobility network (T-Mobile is rolling that out now apparently)

(info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System#Interoperability_and_global_roaming)

[Jamar @ Dec 18th 2007 9:21AM]

They do run an 850MHz network (like AT&T does), though, so not all hope is lost.

Oh, and I can tell why DoCoMo was the first choice- their branding fits rather well with Apple. iMode, iAppli, iChannel, etc.

Oh, and AU's out of the running because they're CDMA more than anything else.

[Jamar @ Dec 18th 2007 9:21AM]

They do run an 850MHz network (like AT&T does), though, so not all hope is lost.

Oh, and I can tell why DoCoMo was the first choice- their branding fits rather well with Apple. iMode, iAppli, iChannel, etc.

Oh, and AU's out of the running because they're CDMA more than anything else.

[vince @ Dec 18th 2007 10:27AM]

isn't the 850 network PDC? I'm pretty sure it's incompatible with their UMTS network..

[Jamar @ Dec 18th 2007 6:57PM]

No, they have 850MHz UMTS. It replaced PDC in some places, and it's called FOMA Plus.

[Markus @ Dec 18th 2007 1:19PM]

And yet right next store here in Canada there is STILL no word on when the iPhone will make its debut. Rogers communications- you suck so bad and are an embarrassment to this country.

[roole @ Dec 18th 2007 11:00PM]

Move, man. Lots of your compatriots seems to have done so..... (e.g., Dion, Fox, Young to name just a few).

[Domier @ Dec 19th 2007 4:53PM]

Typo in article: it should be Masao Nakamura, not Masao Nakamur.

How texting works on Japanese phones:
The input is actually not via roman charachters, but by the Japanese sylabary. This is divided up by consonant sound, of which there are five per vowel. For instance, in america, 2 is abc, in Japan it is ka,ki,ku,ke,ko. 3 is sa,shi,su,se,so, etc. once the phonetic characters have been inputted, a predictive dictionary lists appropriate kanji for the reading, and the user choses which one to insert. [there are a large number oh homonyms in the Japanese language.]
Japanese phones also have the same predictive features that newer american phones have, where oyu can just type 'tom' and a list of predictions like 'tomato' and 'tomorrow' will come up to chose from, in order of which was most recently used.

Thus, A qwerty keyboard or something would not be necessary on a Japanese iphone, as the standard number pad layout is plenty adequate. Also, due to the way the language works, texting in Japanese is significantly faster that in English.

On other thing I would like to mention, is that while Japanese phones are capable of texting in the traditional sense [to a phone number] e-mailing is the standard. Japanese phones have both and Email address and a phone number. The email address can be customized at any time via an internet application on the phone. For instance, docomo phones all have emails ending in @docomo.ne.jp. Everything before the @ is decided by the user.

Because of this, the Japanese iPhone would HAVE to be internet capable, or would never get anywhere on the Japanese market.
Yes, the RZR etc. were all sold in Japan, but the revisions that I have seen were all internet/email capable, unlike in the US.
In my opinion, Wifi would not become an issue, as Japanese carriers offer both packet and email packages. For instance, on Au [as of august 2007] the customer can get unlimited email to/from ANY email address on ANY provider in ANY part of the world for 1000 yen a month. [

[Eddy @ Dec 18th 2007 11:01PM]

Will not buy this if it does not have saifu-keitai functions like my current N905imyu. And all other recent docomo phones. I have electronic money, a credit card and a public transport chargeable wallet all in my phone. Just wave the phone to get on the train, wave the phone to pay at convenience stores, and wave the phone to pay for taxis. I can see a lot of Japanese won't want to give up all that usefulness.

[预备流氓 @ Dec 20th 2007 3:14AM]

to 3楼的
MS现在的IPHONE已经内置了日文输入法。
真希望能够快点香港行货上市啊。
399的被炒到5000的日子不好过啊=_=!!

[Gerson Braschi @ Dec 23rd 2007 2:16PM]

I'm from Brazil and here we have the same 3G standard UMTS 850Mhz and the same Digital TV standard ISDB-Tb that differs from the Japanese standard just on the High Definition codec that Brazil opted for H.264AVC with audio HE-AAC that DOUBLES the number of channels but the 1seg segment of both countries is exactly the same leading to a posibility that this iPhone UMTS 850Mhz 1Seg TV Tuner be on sell in Brasil, third biggest mobile market on the planet.