NTT DoCoMo riles smartphone makers by favouring Samsung, Sony - Total Telecom

Hemorrhaging subscribers to its iPhone-carrying rivals, Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. can no longer afford to support the country's mobile-phone ecosystem, and has decided to pick favorites. This summer, the country's biggest mobile carrier will give top billing to Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S4 and Sony Corp.'s Xperia A smartphones, offering hefty discounts in a marketing blitz. By focusing resources to promote the best phones, DoCoMo hopes to keep users from migrating to SoftBank Corp. and KDDI Corp., which supply Apple Inc.'s iPhone. DoCoMo's tough love could be the decisive blow for the struggling handset businesses at the companies that didn't make the cut--Fujitsu Ltd., Sharp Corp., Panasonic Corp., and NEC Corp., who sell most of their phones in Japan. Long insulated from the rest of the world by a vibrant domestic market, Japanese handset makers are now reeling, as even DoCoMo integrates into a world dominated by the operating systems of Apple and Google Inc. "I agonized over this for six months," DoCoMo President Kaoru Kato said in an interview Wednesday, adding that he was well aware of the potential impact on suppliers."We built (DoCoMo's mobile internet service) i-mode with Panasonic and NEC." NTT DoCoMo was a pioneer in mobile telephony, launching the world's first mobile Internet service with i-mode on its 2G network in February 1999, catapulting Japan to world leadership in mobile technology. Japan developed the world's first handsets that could download ringtones, while Kyocera Corp. and Sharp developed the first phones with built-in camera sensors. But DoCoMo kept a tight rein on handset makers' technology and designs in exchange for generous access to incentives and technological support. That stunted handset makers' understanding of global markets and undermined innovation, experts said. Both DoCoMo and KDDI were blindsided by SoftBank's introduction of the iPhone in Japan in 2008, and Japanese handse t makers were ill-prepared for the smartphone. "Japanese phone makers should have consolidated five years ago. They have amazing technology, and had a fighting chance to be globally relevant, but now it's too late," said i-mode creator Takeshi Natsuno, now a professor at Keio University's graduate school of media and governance. Now, DoCoMo is giving clear ... via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEy0zgec7BATRnQp-BHlSFNXmqWtg&url=http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=482175

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