NTT DoCoMo looking to help manufacturers offer simpler phones
Perhaps stinging a bit from its severed ties with Mitsubishi and a Sony Ericsson relationship that's on the rocks, Japanese megacarrier NTT DoCoMo has said that it'll be making key changes to its standard, cross-manufacturer platform that makes it easier for its partners to simultaneously offer awesome phones domestically and meh phones abroad. Apparently, DoCoMo's thinking that its extraordinarily complex, high-function platform makes it difficult for companies like Sony Ericsson to offer the same (or even remotely similar, for that matter) models both in Japan and elsewhere -- and with a Japanese phone market that's saturated and extremely difficult to profit from at the moment, the carrier would love to help manufacturers make a buck or two by reusing designs in other parts of the world. High on its list of features DoCoMo wants to make removable are i-mode (its branded mobile internet service) and FeliCa, the infrastructure behind its contactless payment system; in other words, the best stuff. Will we still want NTT DoCoMo's goods after they've been watered down? It's thinking that it wants to start offering stripped versions of its phones at home, too, so there just might still be an exotic appeal to it after all.
[Via mocoNews]
