Apple iPhone Not Likely To Be Released In Japan Until A 3G Version Comes Out

February 7th, 2008

Japan’s biggest wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo’s have hit a road block in their discussions with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan. The issue isn’t in fact the iPhone’s revenue sharing model, but rather a technology related issue.

NTT DoCoMo CEO Masayuki Hirata said that,

”The handset is easy to use and can open new markets, which makes this an interesting proposition,” Hirata said in an interview yesterday. We are in continuous contact with the company, but the specifics are still in the future.”

The main problem here is that NTT DoCoMo’s networks have all converted to the more advanced W-CDMA (3G) standard, and will subsequently not work with the current GSM iPhone. The only way the iPhone would function on the Japanese network would be for Apple to release a 3G model making the iPhone compatible with the W-CDMA standard.

Given the current subscribers numbers for 3G versus GSM it just doesn’t make sense for Apple to bring out a 3G model at this time (a 3G release would most likely canibalise the current GSM sales). Therefore it’s unlikely Japan will get their hands on the iPhone anytime soon.

[via Bloomberg]

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