With Apple Inc. expected to officially announce the arrival of its second-generation 3G iPhone at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, the preparatory groundwork of international product coverage continues with the confirmation that Softbank Corp. will carrier the iPhone in Japan.
Japanese mobile phone carrier Softbank secures regional iPhone contract. Image: Softbank.
In somewhat of a scoop for Softbank, which ranks as Japan’s third-biggest mobile communications provider, the Tokyo-based corporation secured the iPhone contract with Apple ahead of more notable rivals such as NTT DoCoMo.
Offering a vague outline of the iPhone carrier deal via a brief official statement, Softbank Corp. confirmed that its Softbank Mobile division “has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year.”
As of this time, no concrete retail release date or regional pricing structure has been divulged by either Softbank or Apple.
It also remains unclear as to whether Softbank will be the iPhone’s exclusive carrier throughout Japan, or whether Apple will attempt to maximise potential exposure in the country’s already saturated market by allowing other operators to also offer the popular touch-screen smartphone.
On that front, NTT DoCoMo remains cautiously optimistic about its chances of landing a similar iPhone deal in the near future.
“If there’s still a possibility of releasing iPhone from DoCoMo, we would consider it, though we cannot comment on whether we have specific negotiation plans with Apple,” commented an NTT DoCoMo spokesman in a CNN Money report. The spokesman also added that the iPhone is an attractive device that could certainly draw attention from Apple fans in Japan.
And, considering Apple’s recent flexibility when it comes to regional exclusivity, DoCoMo might well secure its iPhone carriage deal. Although the initial iPhone rollout in the United States and select European territories saw the iconic handset bound tightly to exclusivity deals with the likes of AT&T (US), O2 (UK) and Orange (France), Apple recently broke form by announcing a carrier deal for Italy that will be spread between Vodafone Group PLC and Telecom Italia SpA.
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