Softbank reaches deal to sell iPhones in Japan

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-4  |     ONLINE EDITION

JAPANESE mobile carrier Softbank Corp said today it now has a deal with Apple Inc to sell the iPhone later this year – the first such agreement in Japan for the hit cell phone.

Softbank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said no further details, such as pricing and dates, were available, and he said it's not clear if the deal is exclusive.

An addition of the iPhone to Softbank's lineup in this intensely competitive mobile market is almost sure to be a plus for the company. Gadget-loving Japan is already a big market for Apple's other popular product, the iPod portable music player.

Tokyo-based Softbank has 18.77 million subscribers in Japan, and is still lagging in third place behind mobile service providers NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. In recent years, it has been aggressively expanding by offering cheaper services and running catchy TV ads featuring actress Cameron Diaz.

The signing with Softbank is the latest for the Cupertino, California-based company that is seeking to expand iPhone sales overseas by inking deals with wireless carriers in Europe, South America and other places.

Initially Apple had insisted on exclusivity to sell in a certain country but it has begun to break from that pattern in recent deals.

Japan boasts some of the world's most sophisticated cell phones, which can be used for watching digital TV broadcasts, taking digital photos, doing restaurant searches, e-mail, electronic payments, reading digital novels and music downloads.

And so some of the razzle-dazzle of the iPhone – an iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing device – may be lost on Japanese.

But the gadget, with its trademark touch-screen phone, controlled by the user's fingers on the screen, still promises an import glamour as well as an extra "cool" factor that's likely to attract many fans here.

NTT DoCoMo spokesman Shinjiro Minami said the company was unhappy that Softbank had beaten it to an iPhone deal as DoCoMo had also been considering such a deal.