Apple inks deal to bring iPhone to Japan - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Apple inks deal to bring iPhone to Japan

By Tom Krazit, CNET News.com
June 05, 2008
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Apple-inks-deal-to-bring-iPhone-to-Japan/0,130061791,339289596,00.htm

The iPhone will make its official debut in Japan later this year on SoftBank's mobile network, the company announced on Wednesday.

SoftBank is the third largest carrier in Japan, behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.

SoftBank made the announcement with a short statement, which read: "SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year." While there's no clue whether the 3G version will come directly to Japanese customers, it would make sense given nature of the Japanese market.

Apple has now cut deals to bring the iPhone to dozens of countries worldwide, but Japan's mobile-crazy market will be an interesting test for the company. Multimedia phones, mobile internet browsing, and fast network connections are old hat to Japanese mobile phone buyers.

The last big market out there for Apple is now China, which has a thriving underground iPhone market already. Talks between Apple and China Mobile, China's largest carrier, have been reported as off-and-on for several months but there's no deal in place to date.