Ryuji Yamada, president of NTT Docomo Inc., stated on Wednesday that the carrier has no plans to begin offering Apple’s iPhone in the near future. He says that as Japan’s largest mobile service provider, they would like to compete instead by offering their original services for a variety of their handsets, specifically focusing on smartphones that run Google’s Android operating system. Softbank, Japan’s third largest cell phone company, was previously seen as the exclusive carrier in Japan of Apple’s hottest-selling product, until last October when carrier KDDI also began offering the iPhone 4S.
Yamada says that a key reason NTT Docomo is not too eager to add the iPhone to its lineup is that Apple won’t allow them to run some of their proprietary services. Some of these include Docomo’s own application and media marketplaces, which would be in direct competition with what Apple offers on their iOS devices, such as the iPhone and iPad.
NTT Docomo just unveiled its latest 16 model lineup of smartphones to be available throughout the next year. Included is Apple’s largest smartphone competitor, Samsung, and their new flagship device, the Galaxy S III smartphone. Several of the carrier’s other popular phones feature “Xi” compatibility, meaning they support Docomo’s high-speed data networks. The mobile service provider stated that smartphone sales were over 8.8 million in the 2011 fiscal year, tripling what they had sold in the previous year. This year they have a goal of selling 13 million units or more.