NTT DoCoMo eyes fully entering U.S. cell phone market next year

Saturday 05th September, 02:16 PM JST

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spudman at 07:54 PM JST - 5th September

wish Docomo had taken the iphone given the discriminatory crap softbank is putting foreigners through. Good luck to DoCoMo if it means Softbank change their discrimination against non-Japanese.
Mocheake at 10:03 PM JST - 5th September

Crap phones?! You've been drinking too much Softbank kool-aid. The only thing that the iPhone has over my DoCoMo is a bigger screen. I'm always connected (try saying that with a Softbank phone), can use my phone as a cash card or even buy drinks with it. I've also got roaming functions that I use when I go back home on vacation. The phone locks itself when I close it and my IC Card is always locked so even if you remove it, you need a 6-digit code or one of my fingerprints to unlock the thing. There are many more functions which I could name but those right there top whatever the iPhone or Softbank has, That's why they are the industry leader.
aizoyurei at 02:31 AM JST - 6th September

I was a Docomo user before and I was like eh......with their "service." My phone had a battery problem in which before it would stay charged for maybe a day and a half and suddenly the battery would die in 2 or 3 hours. I took it to Docomo and they had no idea why it did that and made me BUY a new battery even though I had bought a warranty on the phone(which I guess doesn't cover that battery). No big deal considering it was 4sen. I later lost my phone and when it came time to get a new phone(or the same old one) I looked at their new line up and was less than impressed. Japanese phone features like IR and the barcode reader(neato for girls looking for cafes in hot pepper....but you know not all of are girls with oodles of time to kill) are O...K....but that is about as cool as it gets. 1 seg (which kills battery time is great and all around Sumo season and if you're into baseball) is again just O....K....For the most part Japanese TV sucks and I'd rather watch Podcasts, movies, TV shows I CHOOSE on my LARGE screen not to mention Youtube. I only pay about 8sen a month for all of my interneting and phone usuage. Half of the Japanese phones aren't even that customizable. Hell even on my old RAZR from back home I could upload and file format for ringtones. My P905iTV wouldn't except ANY format for ringtones. If I want a ringtone I have to buy it. If I wanted music I needed Winblows to upload music. (with my iPhone I can use a Mac or PC). Also the only game I had on my P905iTV was a terrible poyapoya game and we all know how awesome the APP store is. Most of the phones Docomo has Softbank also has or a similar one. I like Docomo's prices and all but old Giants with old thinking won't make NEW money.
ebisen at 08:27 AM JST - 6th September

aizoyurei ? you do make a point here - while the Japanese phone are more advanced than the IPhone, they are slowly killed by incompetent (idiotic) management and market handling (stupid greed). I wouldn't allow ANY manager over 45 y-o in such a company...
Darren White at 09:54 AM JST - 6th September

Too late ... Japanese handsets were cutting-edge, like, about 5 years ago. Now they're just packed full of extraneous features like 1-seg tv that slow down the already unintuitive interfaces and drain the battery.

When I used to go back home with my Japanese phone, everyone used to say "wow ! It's so futuristic". Nowadays, apple, blackberry, Nokia etc are way ahead of them.

The current i-mode service is not full internet and you can only access certain content.

No matter how they dress it up, it's just old technology.

i-Phone has already failed in the UK >

“the i-mode service concept itself runs counter to trends that are emerging in the mobile Internet market. In the i-mode business model, operators keep only a small amount of content revenue, making most of their money by charging for data network usage. But regular users of the Internet on mobiles will become increasingly dissatisfied with ‘having the meter running’ while they surf, and the trend is already moving in favour of flat-rate data tariffs.”
DeepAir65 at 09:43 PM JST - 6th September

wish Docomo had taken the iphone given the discriminatory crap softbank is putting foreigners through. Good luck to DoCoMo if it means Softbank change their discrimination against non-Japanese.

granted if NTT had taken the iphone I would have changed ages ago but I just switched this week and there was absolutely no "discriminatory crap" at softbank. Don't get me wrong I hate the softbank signal coverage but there is no need so spout this rubbish
guest at 08:09 AM JST - 7th September

That's why they are the industry leader

A complete lack of Korean competition is why docomo leads, but apples iphone has them sweating bullets. America has an open and free market, it includes manufactures from everywhere. Docomo is a no no, but America will take your money. Japanese phones are huge and are just now trying to copy American, Korean, Norwegian, excellent features and designs. If Japan had open markets they would not be in the position to play catch up. Japanese consumers cannot be counted on anymore to purchase this crap and not look for alternatives.
jamar at 08:36 AM JST - 7th September

When I used to go back home with my Japanese phone, everyone used to say "wow ! It's so futuristic". Nowadays, apple, blackberry, Nokia etc are way ahead of them.

Uh, I'd take a keitai over an iPhone any day. It's just a 904T but it still turns heads (outside Japan). On the other hand, Blackberries are too "average", and the iPhone looks to be the same. And I will never touch a Nokia again. New ones even more so; I just haven't scrounged up the money to get one. And i-mode is old, yes, but it works. More importantly, it works well. There's the PC Site Browser if you really insist on browsing computer-sized webpages on a keitai that's obviously not made for it (and it's more stable than mobile Safari; I won an iPhone in a raffle and now it's gathering dust in a drawer because the browser would crash so much).

My P905iTV wouldn't except ANY format for ringtones.

Dear lord, how dumb are you? A simple Google search will tell you how to load your own ringtones onto that.

Japanese phones are huge and are just now trying to copy American, Korean, Norwegian, excellent features and designs.

I'd rather they not. They're just fine as they are, as evidenced by Sharp's instant hit when they adapted the 920SH for China. The China-market version of the 923SH is still the hottest-selling phone in its price bracket there (same price bracket as phones like the Omnia and N96, for instance; that should tell you something, especially in a country where people will boycott Japanese goods at the drop of a hat).
spudman at 09:03 AM JST - 7th September

Deepair65

absolutely no "discriminatory crap" at softbank.

bet you have to pay the cost of the phone up front, pay with a credit card. Bet you can't pay through off the phone through monthly bank transfers like Japanese can. What would you call that? The new WM platform should help Docomo as it's going to make things much more flexible, if they have multi language capability.
pawatan at 03:23 PM JST - 7th September

bet you have to pay the cost of the phone up front, pay with a credit card. Bet you can't pay through off the phone through monthly bank transfers like Japanese can.

???? I'm with Softbank and I pay my phone off monthly via bank transfer. I don't know where you get your information.

@Darren_White: When I used to go back home with my Japanese phone, everyone used to say "wow ! It's so futuristic". Nowadays, apple, blackberry, Nokia etc are way ahead of them.

What do you mean by 'way ahead'? Maybe at the same level but hardly 'way ahead'. It seems that (with the exception of the way behind the times US market) that phones have the same functionality and features most places in the world these days.
Yelnats at 03:51 PM JST - 7th September

I hate my keitai and use it like once a week to tell my brother whether fuji is visible from the beach or not while surfing.
lostrune2 at 06:01 PM JST - 7th September

The current trend in the US smartphone market is about apps, whether iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc. Americans like choices with more apps that cost cheap. Also, youths and yuppies drive the market, so DoCoMo needs something that'll hook them.
spudman at 12:06 AM JST - 8th September

???? I'm with Softbank and I pay my phone off monthly via bank transfer. I don't know where you get your information.

me too until the iphone 3gs is mentioned, I get my information from Softbank Service Center. Any other phone is fine just not the Apple smart phone. NTT must be looking at some new market I think. Maybe the kids and tweenies thing? Seems like all the others are already being done pretty well.
jamar at 01:44 AM JST - 8th September

Maybe the kids and tweenies thing? Seems like all the others are already being done pretty well.

There's also the old people. In America there barely seems to be anyone making phones targeted towards those people. Their Raku-Raku phones could be a big hit if they market them right.
societymike at 11:12 AM JST - 10th September

guest - are you kidding? Korean phones are total JUNK! They are nothing but very OLD US version phones, and some old Euro phones. Worst phones I've seen since the 90's. I've got 3 of them sitting here that are supposed to be state-of-the-art. (i work between Japan and Korea)

aizoyurei - sorry bud, but you sound pretty clueless about your old DoCoMo phone, it can do all those things you said it couldn't.

The only way I see DoCoMo making something of a hit in the US market is if they keep bringing new technology, and finish their 4G tech. With the "osaifu" debit/wallet built into the phone, that along can get them an edge, but they still need to bring some powerful handsets since everyone follows fads and trends and the current one is touch screens.