NTT DoCoMo changes its tune, now open to carrying iPhone
It would appear that Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo is performing an about-face with regard to supporting the iPhone on its network. Following reports late last year that it had seen record defections of customers to other carriers, the company's president now says it is open to carrying Apple's smartphone, something it has been openly against in the past.
NTT DoCoMo president Katoru Kato recently told the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun that the company has actually wanted to offer the phone to its customers, but that Apple has been demanding it guarantee certain sales quotas before allowing it to. According to Kato, this would require the iPhone to amount to 20 to 30 percent of NTT DoCoMo's total annual sales.
The carrier serves more than half of Japan's mobile customers, but has seen its subscriber base on the decline during 2012, particularly after the launch of the iPhone 5 on rival networks Softbank and KDDI. Both saw six-digit growth in new subscribers each month following the phone's introduction, while NTT DoCoMo saw five-digit losses.
[Via The Mac Observer]
