Bloomberg is reporting that shares of NTT DoCoMo are rising on rumors that Japan’s largest carrier will get the iPhone this year. The company’s rivals, KDDI and Softbank (who just bought Sprint) both currently carry the iPhone and saw their share price drop in morning trading.

Apple is also working on China’s largest carrier, China Mobile, which also doesn’t currently carry the iPhone. If Apple can hook one or optimally both of these two monster carriers, it will be able to sell significantly more iPhones in Asia.

Rumors of DoCoMo carrying Apple products including the iPhone have been going on for years.

Tsubouchi adds, “Nothing has changed.  It will be difficult (to sell the iPhone on September 10th). But for Apple, it is not economically reasonable to not sell the iPhone on Japan’s largest carrier.  As for NTT docomo, we must sell phone the customers desire.  It’s a matter of terms.

The Wall Street Journal reported mid-November 2011 that negotiations with carriers in Asia came to a standstill because Apple was requiring iPhone sellers to commit to too large a volume. Additionally, NTT DoCoMo wanted to control what software goes on users’ iPhones, a concession Apple was unwilling to make.

Image via SonnyDickson

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook talking iPhone with the world’s largest telecom, China Mobile, Chairman confirms (9to5mac.com)
  • China Mobile said to be ‘keen’ on selling iPhone, issues that remain are ‘commercial and technical’ (9to5mac.com)
  • Apple said to have tested 64-bit ‘A7′ chips for iPhone 5S, 31% speed increases reported (9to5mac.com)
  • New iPhones rumored to rollout on September 20th, at least in Japan and Greece (9to5mac.com)
  • Survey suggests iPhone 5C could make Apple the top-seller in the world’s largest market – China (9to5mac.com)
  • Picture of iPhone 5Cs leaked by Pegatron employee (9to5mac.com)
  • Tim Cook visits China again hoping to entice local carriers with upcoming iPhones (9to5mac.com)
  • Analyst: US$400-500 iPhone 5C will hit China Mobile in Q3 and replace the iPhone 5 globally in Q4 (9to5mac.com)
  • Bin full of ‘iPhone 5C’ packaging captured in China, perhaps name of upcoming plastic iPhones (or another knockoff)? (9to5mac.com)