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The day Apple Inc unveiled its next-generation flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5S, at its high-profile launch event in Cupertino, California, long-time antagonist NTT DOCOMO announced that both iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will be available on its network beginning Friday, September 20. NTT DOCOMO, Japan's largest cellular provider, would start selling Apple's smartphones for the first time and that also meant the country's three major carriers (DOCOMO, SoftBank and KDDI) now have jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon.
And, considering that iPhone has always been such a disruptive force, this has led to the unleashing of a price war to attract new customers - all three telcos are offering the iPhone 5S with discounts that effectively make the phone, sensationally, free on contract. However, as with any subsidized device, limitations apply to early upgraders, though the up front fee is still less than what customers in the US will have to pay.
As far as the 'no frills' iPhone 5C is concerned, at the moment, only KDDI is offering a free version with a new contract activation or transfer from another carrier.
To steal an early march, DOCOMO is running a promo to lure existing iPhone users away from rival networks. If an iPhone owner brings in his/her used SoftBank or KDDI handset, they will receive special bonus 'points' that can be applied to a new DOCOMO account, redeemable for other products or repair services. Not that DOCOMO joined Apple Inc willingly. It was dragged kicking and screaming by the Japanese company's customers. How? They just up and left DOCOMO -a report estimated that a humongous 66 per cent of former DOCOMO customers exited the carrier because it did not sell the iPhone. This suits Apple Inc very well indeed. After all Steve Jobs loved to have his clients over a barrel to liberally impose his will on them. Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, DOCOMO has been unwilling to carry the smartphone as Apple Inc does not allow carriers to pre-install apps or brand the device with their logo. The telco was still holding out as late as July when CEO Kaoru Kato said his company was in no rush to ink a deal due to Apple's strict requirements. His antagonism collapsed in months! This is what he had to say when deal was clinched: "We're thrilled to offer the incredible new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C to our customers."
Tim Cook was not exactly gloating, but he was definitely feeling triumphant and could not help highlighting what NTT DOCOMO was missing. He said: "We've enjoyed tremendous success with the iPhone in Japan, in fact it's the top selling smartphone in the country, and we look forward to delivering it into even more customers' hands through NTT DOCOMO."
Aside from DOCOMO, other companies have been put in similar predicament by the iPhone. Big name companies that sold Japan-only handsets, including Panasonic and NEC, recently exited the sector after months of declining sales .It remains to be seen what effect the iPhone will ultimately have on Japan's smartphone ecosystem, which was previously dominated by domestic products, but subscriber statistics appear to show Apple Inc's handset quickly gobbling up market share.
All this grief will indubitably be so much grist to power the Apple Inc mill. Some industry watchers believe company stands to gain some 35 million additional iPhone sales in 2014 as a result of deals with DOCOMO and also China Mobile. The latter has yet to announce a partnership with Apple, though both the iPhone 5C and 5S were granted a network license by the Chinese government earlier this week, allowing it to operate on the unique TD-LTE bands used by the world's largest cellular provider.
The US company proclaimed new iPhone would be twice as fast as the iPhone 5 and 40 times faster than the original iPhone. iPhone 5S features an all-new A7 chip, making iPhone 5S the world's first smartphone with 64-bit desktop-class architecture for blazing fast performance, an all-new 8 megapixel iSight camera and introduces Touch ID, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your iPhone.
The iPhone 5C, on the other hand, features an all-new plastic design, packed with features that people familiar with Apple iPhone know and love and that too in five 'loud' colours — blue, green, pink, yellow and white.
Source:Indianexpress
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