Without iPhone, Japan's biggest mobile carrier is losing subscribers at a record rate
News On Japan via venturebeat.com -- Dec 07
Remember when Japanese carrier NTT Docomo was the darling of the wireless world, could do no wrong, and was the subject of every adoring U.S. report on how mobile in Japan rocked in every possible way?
Japanese hipsters watched TV, gamed, bought stuff, chatted, flirted, and paid for groceries on their advanced mobile devices, generally rocking the modern world while mobile over here basically sucked balls - according to the self-flagellating reports - and we got super-excited about innovative new features like T9 texting.
Yeah, that was a few years ago. As in, pre-iPhone years ago. Fast-forward to today, and Docomo has just reported its biggest-ever loss in subscribers: 40,800.
The reason? As Reuters notes, competitors Softbank and KDDI carry the iPhone. Softbank grew by 301,900 subscribers, and KDDI grew by 228,800.
To be honest, there's still no question that Japanese broadband and wireless speeds kick our ass but good. But it's the iPhone 5 that Softbank and KDDI are using to capture Japanese customers. And it's the lack thereof that is causing NTT Docomo its worst subscriber results ever.
NTTドコモの11月末の携帯電話の契約数は、5年3カ月ぶりに減少に転じた。
減少幅は過去最大となる。
Source: venturebeat.com, FNNnewsCH
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