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Docomo likely to select Sony, Sharp, Fujitsu for new smartphone lineup

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Docomo, you're a sinking ship.

You're stuck in the 00s and losing 40,000 customers / month. Your utter stubbornness in refusing to sell a certain market leading phone (hint hint) is doing more harm than good. Sure, I understand that you want to protect local OEMs (and thus have 100% control over what they produce), but this model is archaic and resulting in failure after failure.

It's a two-horse race - iPhone or Galaxy. Get with the times, Docomo! No one wants your bloatware services!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The business model of having carriers dictate to handset makers what to make is what killed Japanese handsets in the global market.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Docomo has so much technology and yet they have destroyed not only themselves but also NEC and Panasonic with their previous 2 top strategy, ignoring their previous stance of equally supporting all of their handset manufacturers. What is strange is that Japan is probably the only market where Samsung's Galaxy has flopped. I used to own a LG phone because it was the only Docomo model that supported the connectivity I needed in my international travels, but it was seriously a pain to use and certainly was not user friendly.

Docomo will never include the iPhone in its line-up. What people don't know is that Docomo forces some changes in the protocol handling of phones that connect to their network that is not a part of world-wide specifications of W-CDMA and LTE. These changes allow better operability within Docomo's networks but iPhone will never make changes to their protocol stack just to appease Docomo. Also, Docomo likes to to have full control of their handset suppliers which again is not likely to happen with Apple.

Times have changed for mobile operators in Japan. And they will keep changing, hopefully to the benefit of the consumers.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Hello John master.. Xperia A is the equivalent of Xperia ZR in other markets, not Xperia Z. Btw, I myself own an xperia Z, and despite its shortcomings, I still prefer it to the plasticky S4 with its gimmicky bloatware features. Xperia Z actually helps sony steal some customers from samsung

1 ( +2 / -1 )

hikkifan17,

Tell me about market share for crappy Japanese phones? Who buys Japanese phones? Nobody. if the Japanese phones are so good, why is Korean phones like Samsung is outselling by wide margin? Can you fool the consumers that much?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Japanese phones are top of the line even greater then Apple iPhones. You drop that iPhone its doomed forever unless you put it in rice and wait for hours and hours while Japanese phones you drop in the water, all you have to do is dry the water off and bam it still works..

In reality Japanese phones are more advanced then U.S phones and even Korea. Some may not agree but its how I see it.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Glad they're not picking up Apple's overpriced crap.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

When will they learn that apple rules the mobile phone market?

Android gaining to 79% of world wide share, iphone shrinking to 14% - oh yes, they sure do rule...

Oh and Smartphones account for 50% of total phones. So really that is 7% of ALL phones. Yes sir 7%, ruling indeed.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Funny how its only the Japanese people who are buying Sony's Xperia Z... while rest of the world are buying HTC one, iPhone, or Galaxy series.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Is it possible to use your own phone on Japanese networks? For example, I bought my son a Sony Experia phone from Hong Kong for about half the price DoCoMo charge. He uses it in the UK with no problems, but could he also use it in Japan? Or will they insist you buy one of their overpriced phones?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

A Japanese carrier dictating to its Japanese customers that it must buy Japanese handsets, which are inferior to the top global handsets.

Yep, Japan is really going to have an easy time in the TPP negotiations as it argues that its markets are completely free.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Panasonic Corp has also said it is unlikely to supply a smartphone this winter to Docomo, its only smartphone customer.

Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Docomo, another legacy of japans ancient and archaic business models. No apple still and they will continue to lose market share to competitors. When will they learn that apple rules the mobile phone market?

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

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