Briefly: Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo blames iPhone for biggest ever loss in subscribers as Korea sta

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Japan's largest wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo said Thursday that customers are jumping off its network to sign on with rival providers that carry the iPhone, while Samsung's home country of South Korea started sales of the latest iPhone 5.

NTT DoCoMo

Near-ubiquitous Japanese cell provider NTT DoCoMo saw a net loss of 40,800 subscribers over the course of November as former users switched to smaller rivals Softbank Corp. and KDDI Corp., both of which are Apple partner carriers, reports Reuters.

Softbank iPhone 5
Softbank's dedicated iPhone 5 webpage. | Source: Softbank


Driving the exodus was the iPhone 5, with the decline being the first drop in subscriber numbers since 2007 and the biggest loss since being spun off from NTT in 1991, the company said.

Over the same period, iPhone carriers Softbank and KDDI saw gains of 301,900 and 228,800 subscribers, respectively. After years in the internet and telecommunications industry, Softbank first began operations as a mobile provider in 2006 after buying out Vodafone Japan, and recently announced plans to take over Sprint in the U.S.

iPhone 5 launches in Korea

As part of its fastest rollout ever, Apple launched the iPhone 5 in South Korea on Friday to significant demand from wireless carriers SK Telecom and KT Corporation. Combined pre-orders hit over 300,000 units leading up to the midnight launch with SK's 50,000 units eclipsed by the 250,000 garnered by KT, reports The Chosun Ilbo.

KT iPhone 5
iPhone 5 on KT's olleh wireless service. | Source: KT Corporation

While both carriers are offering subsidies for the iPhone 5, KT promised to waive early upgrade fees for those anxious to switch to Apple's newest handset.

China, the next massive market to get the iPhone, also saw healthy pre-release activity as second-largest carrier China Unicom reported over 100,000 preorders in less than 24 hours. The Chinese launch will kick off on next week as part of a 50-country blitz for December.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    maccentricmaccentric Posts: 263member
    Apple is doomed as the beleaguered device manufacturer continues to struggle all over the world*



    *to meet insane demand
  • Reply 2 of 13
    maclancermaclancer Posts: 49member
    Iphones are the fenomenom of the century.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    China Mobile should learn a lesson from this.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    cutykamucutykamu Posts: 230member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by quinney View Post



    China Mobile should learn a lesson from this.


    i hope they do, but look at their 3g subscribers figure… the numbers are almost same as korea's population.

  • Reply 5 of 13
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,819member
    DoCoMo is still nearly as big as Softbank and KDDI combined. "DoCoMo had 60.8 million total subscribers at the end of November, compared with 36.6 million at KDDI and 31 million at Softbank, according to the companies%u2019 statements." So they might have lost subscribers but are still way ahead. Hopefully Apple will sell to them and China's largest carrier soon. My AAPL stocks could use some boost. It has been a rough couple of weeks.
  • Reply 6 of 13
    fuwafuwafuwafuwa Posts: 163member
    How about stop being stubborn and start selling iPhone?
  • Reply 7 of 13
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by quinney View Post



    China Mobile should learn a lesson from this.


     


    what incentive is there for China mobile to be competitive?  All three major mobile operators are state-owned.

  • Reply 8 of 13
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member


    ...But I thought no one was buying the iPhone anymore because of the tiny display and lack of features like the Samsung Galaxy S3 has.  From all the stories I've read, it seems the whole consumer world is moving to Android devices because everyone in the world prefers really cheap smartphones.  Maybe DoCoMo is lying but usually the lies are against Apple to make it seem as though Apple will be shortly going out of business.  It's even harder to imagine that South Koreans would decide to buy an iPhone over a Samsung Galaxy S3.  That sounds almost anti-Korean.  You can practically get a Galaxy S3 for half the price of the iPhone, so why would consumers throw away good money on an overpriced Apple product.  Never!  Impossible!  Doesn't make sense!


     


    /s

  • Reply 9 of 13
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post


    ...But I thought no one was buying the iPhone anymore because of the tiny display and lack of features like the Samsung Galaxy S3 has.  From all the stories I've read, it seems the whole consumer world is moving to Android devices because everyone in the world prefers really cheap smartphones.  Maybe DoCoMo is lying but usually the lies are against Apple to make it seem as though Apple will be shortly going out of business.  It's even harder to imagine that South Koreans would decide to buy an iPhone over a Samsung Galaxy S3.  That sounds almost anti-Korean.  You can practically get a Galaxy S3 for half the price of the iPhone, so why would consumers throw away good money on an overpriced Apple product.  Never!  Impossible!  Doesn't make sense!


     


    /s



    Don't read and believe everything in the media.  Some people in the media think that Apple sales have dropped because the iPhone 5 only sold about 5 million units in the Sept. quarter, when there was only 10 days of sales and they can't make them fast enough.  Now, 12 weeks later, in the US, iPhone sales have eclipsed Android sales so Apple is doing just fine in the US, in Europe and other countries, we have to wait until after the December quarter and next year's March quarters to REALLY see the numbers and how they are doing.  Samsung is just trying to capitalize as much as they can from their 3 month head start, and Apple STILL hasn't rolled it out to everyone with at least 3 months worth of sales. Wait until Apple has rolled out to all of their markets and has at least 3 to 6 months worth of sales, and THEN look at the numbers. Right now, it's just a guessing game based on whatever the media releases in terms of REAL numbers.

  • Reply 10 of 13
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Just FYI, here are some population numbers:

    California = 37 million
    Korea = 50 million
    Japan = 127 million
    China = 1.3 billion
  • Reply 11 of 13
    peter236peter236 Posts: 254member


    In China, Lenovo is about to take over #1 position in smartphone market share from Samsung. It is all Android in China. Huawei and ZTE etc are ahead of Apple which is only #6 in China.

  • Reply 12 of 13
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,676member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by peter236 View Post


    In China, Lenovo is about to take over #1 position in smartphone market share from Samsung. It is all Android in China. Huawei and ZTE etc are ahead of Apple which is only #6 in China.



    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/06/china-smartphones-idUSL4N09G1QK20121206

  • Reply 13 of 13
    successsuccess Posts: 1,040member


    Yup, thanks to me, my girlfriend just jumped ship from Docomo to Softbank. Having an iPad, iPhone, MacMini and two MacBooks in my apt tends to influence people :)  Since Softbank has a promotion for people who ship and she paid cash for the iPhone she is only paying approx $30 USD / month for a brand new iPhone 5 with unlimited data. That's insanely cheap in Japan. I look at my contacts and about 70% are on SoftBank. These are all Japanese people too. The only ones remaining on Docomo are the ones who are waiting for their contracts to expire. Even though AU carries the iPhone now they were too late. I see the lines everyday. AU/Docomo stores have a spattering of customers who are still on contracts buying new phones cause theirs broke down or whatever. Also if they have family plans it's more important for them to stay on the same network than buy 5 new iPhones 5's. Softbank has waiting lines every day.


     


    NTT and KDDi suck balls. And if you want home internet go with JCOM or someone else other than NTT etc. 


     


    http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T121109004066.htm

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