NTT DoCoMo to carry the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C in 2013 - Japan and China will both get their bite of the Apple on Friday September 20th 2013

With the Apple iPhone Preorder day now come and gone on Friday September 13^th 2013, many eagerly await the next Friday two (2) weeks from now. In the days ahead, many will begin to form long lines in anticipation of getting their hands on the coveted Apple iPhone 5S in its entire Gold, Space Grey or Silver splendor.

The Pre-order day was for the Apple iPhone 5C, which surprisingly is also being sold in the United States as well as other Developed World countries as listed in my blog article entitled “Apple has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”.

The Apple iPhone 5C is only available at the Apple Stores, so the only way to get one is to reserve on at a location where they are traditionally sold (Apple’ll tell you the closest pickup point for a Apple iPhone 5S), as you cannot order one and get it delivered like the Apple iPhone 5C.

But take heart, dear Apple Fan! You can still get the Apple iPhone 4S for US$1 (as US$0 isn’t really possible) on a 2 year contract as stated in “Remember the iPhone 4S? Apple makes it an 8GB freebie”, published September 10, 2013 1:26 PM PDT by Roger Cheng, CNET News.

Granted, it’s an older smartphone, but at least it’s upgradable to Apple iOS 7. And you still have the option to just trade it in online at Gazelle or your local RadioShack or even an Apple Store and get the Apple iPhone 5S in your fave colour – if you can endure the long lines!

Apple iPhone Lines starting – Designed in America is very, very Special

This means like it or not, if you are an American, and I’m glad I ain’t, you HAVE to join a super long line, which by all accounts online, is already beginning to form once more. After all, the Apple iPhone 5S is very, very, special in every way, despite the competition and the penchant for bigger screens. Apple is one of the few companies that is wholly American and designs its own smartphones, which are then made by Chinese Sub-contractors.

Like the Motorola Moto X as stated in my blog article entitled “Google and Motorola Mobility launch the customizable Motorola Moto X - Motorola Moto X is The Wolverine of Customization that’s Made in America”, the Apple Mac computer is made in the US of A. This is a trend that’s beginning to pick up steam as American begins to return manufacturing to America in exchange for the US Government granting them tax exemptions that make manufacturing high-end Apple products in the US of A feasible.

Hence an explanation for the leaks and my blog articles thus far predicting what’s poppin’ with super accuracy.  This  allowed even a Jamaica like myself to know what Apple had cooking, down to even the date of the Launch as evident from my earlier blog article entitled “Apple to launch the Apple iPhone 5S and a S$199 Contract-less Apple iPhone 5C on Tuesday September 10 2013 - ATL and LIME Jamaica may not get Goldfinger that's Made for China”.

Only the details of their products was missing, which began trickling out on the day of the announcement of the date being confirmed as Tuesday September 10^th 2013 as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple's Invite confirms Apple iPhone event on Tuesday September 10 2013 - Expecting News on the Apple iWatch, iRadio, Apple TV and Apple Video Game Console”.

NTT DoCoMo on the Rocks – Apple iPhone 5S stands for “Savior”

The Chinese and the Japanese like the Apple iPhone as well. China Mobile, China’s largest Telecom Provider and indeed the largest in the world in terms of Customers, has inked a  deal with apple to sell the Apple iPhone 5S and the Apple iPhone 5C as stated in “Apple Secures License For iPhone To Run On China Mobile’s Network Standard”, published September 11 2013 by Catherine Shu, TechCrunch.

For them, it’s a love affair with American products, which are better made than even the Chinese products, which many despise in favour of higher priced and higher quality Made in America products. This trend is more resplendent among Middle Class and wealthy Chinese, who like knowing they have the latest foreign gadgets and despite their own products, which many in the city areas know are manufactured in factories under inhumane conditions.

Thus to have a product that’s’ designed by Americans but made to high quality standards as per specification by the Chinese is a testament to the quality of the design and workmanship of the Chinese-American Partnership that goes into the making of every Apple product as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone and Hardware Quality - The Count of Monte Cristo Hard Knock Life.

Japan on the other hand is another Story. Like China, Japan’s major Telecom Provider, NTT DoCoMo is late to the Apple iPhone Game. Like China Mobile, they’d allowed the competition, in their case SoftBank and KDDI, to begin selling the Apple iPhone as stated in “iPhone and DoCoMo is a big deal in Japan”, published September 7, 2013 12:26 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.

SoftBank and KDDI were new kids on the block back in 2003. If you’ve read my blog article entitled “KDDI's Broadband WiMax and Wi-Fi Municipal Network - Ruckus's Japanese Flight of the Navigator”, you’ld have realized that KDDI has had WiMaX (Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access) since 2011. Their network has the ability to seamlessly handover from Wi-Fi Networks to WiMaX thanks to technology developed by Ruckus Wireless.

Back then, according to the Nikkei Times, the Telecoms landscape was quite different:

1.      56.3% of the market belonged to NTT DoCoMo

2.      21.9% of the market belonged to KDDI

3.      20.8 of the market belonged to "Others"

Then the Apple iPhone happened in 2007. SoftBank was the first to join the bandwagon in 2008, with KDDI joining the party in 2011. Both have been carrying the Apple iPhone exclusively since in a bid to unseat the incumbent and then dominant Telecom Provider NTT DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo kept it Asian, carrying advanced Feature phones from Samsung, Sony and NEC. To the Japanese executives in NTT DoCoMo, the Verizon of Japan didn’t see the point of signing the Apple iPhone, trusting in the enduring popularity of Japanese brands.

But these Japanese brands have been coming under pressure due to having more expensive manufacturing and not keeping up with the moderns trending towards Android Operating systems. Companies like Sharp, Panasonic and Sony suffered due to this complacency, losing marketshare in the consumer electronics worlds to Chinese and Korean Brands such as Haier, Samsung and LG.

The Japanese companies an overt focus on big ticker electronics gadgets and little or no innovation in designing new electronic gadgets, including Tablets and smartphone, the root cause of their demise as stated in “The era of Japanese consumer electronics giants is dead”, published November 9, 2012 2:25 PM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.   

So while SoftBank and KDDI went with American Apple, NTT DoCoMo stuck with the sinking ships of companies that were just making Resistive touch screen devices without the benefit of the Google Android operating system. The results were dramatic. By March 2013, the numbers told the tale of the tape:

1.      42% of the market belonged to NTT DoCoMo

2.      28.6% of the market belonged to KDDI

3.      29.4% of the market belonged to Softbank

Based on my calculator on my computer, that means KDDI and Softbank have 58% of the market! All thanks to the Apple iPhone, which made many Japanese, leave NTT DoCoMo just to get a bit of the forbidden Fruit from the West, the Apple iPhone.

Supporting Samsung Galaxy Smartphone’s that came along in 2010 and beyond hasn't helped NTT DoCoMo. Japanese faith in cheaper Samsung products waned as the metallic finish of the high-quality, the well designed Apple App Store and clearly more expensive Apple iPhone made many fall in love with the product form the Cupertino Kids. NTT DoCoMo users abandoned the sinking ship!

Japan and China love the Apple iPhone – Lines already forming in Tokyo

Apple coming to NTT DoCoMo means that they may have to make a large order of smartphones, a move which will mean little marketshare for Japanese smartphone makers now late to the Game and out of favour with a NTT DoCoMo desperate to get back marketshare as stated in “Japan makers reel as Docomo begins big shift to iPhone”, published September 12, 2013 12:02 AM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.

According to Nikkei Times, that’s about 40%, a significant chunk of the smartphone market. NTT DoCoMo deals in 23.5 million mobile phones, with 40% of that number being roughly 9.4 million devices. The Apple iPhone 5S and 5C could easily crowd out the other smartphone manufacturers in a country that is also going crazy over Apple products from phones to the iPad, which NTT DoCoMo may be selling this year.

The Japanese especially must be on a high. After being rewarded with the honour of hosting the 2020 Olympic games by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) as stated in the article “Sayonara To Madrid And Istanbul As Tokyo Wins Bid For 2020 Summer Olympics”, published 9/07/2013 @ 8:06PM by Patrick Rishe, Forbes despite concerns over radioactivity, they apparently have been blessed with the Apple iPhone as well.

Japan and China will both get their bite of the Apple on Friday September 20^th 2013!