Reality on a Stick

(image from mobilegazette.com)

Apple’s iPhone is finally coming to Japan next month (3G, July 11th), and NTT Docomo (about 50% market share) is about to lose a whole lot of customers to newcomer Softbank who has negotiated a deal to carry the 3G iPhone. Interestingly, neither Softbank nor Apple mentioned any exclusivity clauses, so it may very well be that Apple is doing a bit of posturing with this move to convince Docomo to agree to it’s exorbitant licensing agreement–Exhibit A: “How to call the prideful negotiator’s bluff.” If Docomo caves in eventually, they will have lost quite a few subscribers, mostly for good, all for no good reason. More importantly, they will lose their image of unchallenged market dominance, which is incredibly careless IMHO.

This release is really going to shake things up in Japan’s mobile market. Anyone who says that Japanese consumers already have better phones just doesn’t know what they are talking about. Trust me. I teach teenagers and adults every day, so I see a lot of phones. There’s nothing on the market that comes close to wowing like the iPhone.

Yesterday, I spent all my remaining Docomo points–which got me a Nintendo DS Lite for the wifeypoo, so as to soften the blow that I am changing carriers!–and started processing the phone number mobility forms to switch to Softbank.

Docomo blew it years ago with their decision to offer robust smart phone models only to corporate clients (they have a few limited Blackberry models). And they are blowing it again by allowing Softbank to gain traction in the market when they clearly had the opportunity to slam the door on all competition with the iPhone deal.

(Cross-posted in the comments at Graceful Flavor)