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Operation Normandy II – Apple’s 3G-iPhone Invasion



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Dec 19 2007
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Japan’s NTT DoCoMo seems to be the latest partner that Steve Jobs is trying to court. Rumours were spreading that NTT and Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) were cooking something before the former confirmed on Wed 19th Dec that its president, Masao Nakamura, had met with Apple’s Steve Jobs. The odd is getting higher that Apple’s iPhone would reach the soil of Japan.

Kyodo News reported that DoCoMo is Apple’s top choice in a plan to penetrate Japan’s market with its iPhone. However the biggest stumbling block would be the formula on subscriber revenue sharing. Apple Inc. has multiple distribution partners in other countries including US AT&T’s (NYSE: T, stock). Amongst them are Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Orange in France and O2 in United Kingdom.

Apple iPhone NTT DoCoMoBesides NTT DoCoMo, Apple Inc. has entered talks with Softbank Mobile, NTT’s competitor, as well. Interestingly Japan’s mobile network doesn’t runs GSM / Edge network. Hence if iPhone was to enter Japan’s market it has to be based on UTMS / HSDPA network – which means it’s going to be a 3G iPhone. However iPhone needs to do some homeworks or tweaking if the Japanese texting style is anything to goes by, of which could be easily accomplished by deploying a virtual QWERTY keyboard.

Nevertheless features wise the Japanese consumers might be yawning at iPhone since most Japanese phones are functionality-riched; but their interest could be in the slick touch-screen interface and elegant design. Consumers in Japan are looking at nothing less than a good camera with video capability (obviously) ability in ringtones selection and texting input similar to current Japanese phones (so that they don’t have to re-learn again).

Japan currently has over 73 million 3G subscribers, over a third of whom are on flat-rate data plans – meaning fast downloads of full-track music and video without having to pay extra packet charges for the data. While it was speculated that Apple Inc. is asking for 10% in terms of revenue sharing, DoCoMo was arm-folded with the message “Go fly Kite, Steve!!!” (Apple Inc.’s stock price to fly instead?)



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Hello FinanceTwitter!

This is Boon. I hope you are doing fine. Just to leave a note saying that I will be closing my Trade Bursa Malaysia blog soon. Might start a new blog though. I am already back in the UK from China but will remain in holiday mood. You know, Christmas is coming, and Christmas is a big thing here in the UK.

We all have heard and read a lot about China. But seeing it through your own eyes and experiencing it personally are really different from simply learning about it from the TV and newspapers.

Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas + Happy New Year!

Best wishes
Boon

hello boon,

it’s indeed a sad moment to hear that your blog will be closed soon … you’ve done a great job …

hope to hear from you soonest possible … do share with us any opportunity in making money leveraging from your esperience in china …

merry christmas to you too …

cheers …

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