Sony Ericsson withdrawing from NTT DoCoMo, sort of

What the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi's announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson's partnership with KDDI -- a CDMA carrier -- will continue. [Warning: subscription required]

Update: It turns out that Sony Ericsson intends to continue working with DoCoMo by initially delivering new models through mid '08, at which point it will start buying handsets from other manufacturers and rebranding them. In other countries this would be truly egregious, but as our Japanese bureau points out, DoCoMo lays out very strict requirements for each of its lines that would probably make it difficult to distinguish a true Sony Ericsson model from a rebranded model sourced from, say, Sharp or Toshiba.

Update 2: Sony Ericsson's Japanese PR folks have denied Nikkei's report, although they did mention that they are "reevaluating" their DoCoMo line without going into any detail. Whether the report was actually false or Nikkei just managed to out the info well before Sony Ericsson wanted it out, though, remains unclear.

Update 3: The official Sony Ericsson response, and while it says that they're taking a good, hard look at their DoCoMo business, it also mentions that they'll continue to develop new handsets for the carrier. Clear as mud? Good!

Read - Nikkei report [subscription required]
Read - Sony Ericsson response

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 9th 2008 6:02PM]

We might see the end of NTT

[L @ Mar 9th 2008 6:07PM]

Because SE withdraws?

[Deluxe @ Mar 9th 2008 7:18PM]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
You fail.

[fh @ Mar 9th 2008 6:07PM]

It's because au/KDDI is on the rise!

[ethana2 @ Mar 9th 2008 7:34PM]

Setting useragent to Googlebot/2.1
..i'll be back to report..

[ethana2 @ Mar 9th 2008 7:38PM]

Oh wow. Googlebot can't go where we can't go on that site. Good. They won't be contaminating my search results with worthless pages I can't access.
...but half the time, that useragent works quite well with the read links engadget warns us about.

[adrian @ Mar 9th 2008 7:47PM]

No wonder Vodafone got out, it must of been a mine field for them in Japan.

[Jamar @ Mar 9th 2008 8:36PM]

No, Vodafone's major problem was not having anything special going for them in the face of competition. And they were losing money from people unlocking phones. Frankly, though, I wish they would get back into the Japanese mobile market. After the sale of Vodafone Japan the rest of the world stopped getting localized versions of nice Japanese phones.

[Jamar @ Mar 9th 2008 8:33PM]

Now how about they do the same for the rest of the world? The only decent phones I've seen from them are their Japanese-market models (is it THAT hard to plan an international release for the SO905iCS?).

[yui @ Mar 9th 2008 10:04PM]

Difficult due to Japan's unique technological infrastructure
Even if they release Bravia mobile SO903i and Cybershot mobile SO905iCS in the international market, it would turn out to be a functionally trimmed one - no i-mode, no One-seg (TV), no felica (electronic wallet).
Japanese won't mine to carry a 24mm thick mobile phone - as all things they needed are built-in
but how many 24mm thick handset could sold internationally?

Do you remember Sonyericsson W900i?
it is actually done by Japan design team, and I read an interview from them saying that full function but giant size mobile won't be marketable internationally - so afterward they developed w880i.

[Jamar @ Mar 9th 2008 10:51PM]

Digital TV and i-mode are easily replicated for international markets, especially Europe, where i-mode is already offered and DVB is broadcasted widely. I'll give you the Felica, though- that will be hard to replicate when many different countries use different RFID standards for passes and such.

The W900i was amazingly popular where I lived; the W880i not so much. Maybe not global, but Asia-wide might be OK.

The best place to start off would be Hong Kong. They have a carrier with i-mode (3), they have a digital TV standard (not 1seg, the SO905iCS doesn't have TV anyway), and their subway pass/electronic money system uses Felica.

[yui @ Mar 10th 2008 3:08AM]

i-mode in Hong Kong isn't that popular, and actually, quite disappointed.
Unlike Japan, it lacks contents, and lacks users...
There are no mobile Digital boardcast here, too. (but SHARP may have 920SH to release in HK with Digital TV, rumored)
Felica...yes. HK's system is using Sony's Felica, but until now there are no integration with mobile phones...and seems no provider is going to do it first...(Japan's Felica could be control and view in mobile...)
I personally have a SO905iCS too. The camera function much much better than SE's worldwide models..and I also wonder why worldwide models do not have FWVGA screen?!?!

[Ferny @ Mar 9th 2008 9:46PM]

Is nothing profitable these days?

[shaliron @ Mar 9th 2008 9:57PM]

I've always wondered why all those Japanese phones looked so alike - they're all from the one manufacturer.

[tempest790 @ Mar 9th 2008 10:16PM]

Gimme an Xperia in CDMA and I'll be good forever!

[labrats5 @ Mar 9th 2008 11:09PM]

90% of Japanese phones are really big, boxy flip phones. That's not to say that the technology inside isn't top notch, but there just isn't much variety. I've always wondered why that was. Now I know.

[Jamar @ Mar 10th 2008 1:12AM]

I'd rather have a big boxy phone that does everything but the kitchen sink than a small, light phone that doesn't do much of anything.

[AoMoe @ Mar 9th 2008 11:12PM]

Update 3: It was all part of an April fools day joke.

[AoMoe @ Mar 9th 2008 11:13PM]

Update 4: It isn't even April yet.