According to the Wall Street Journal (Asia), NTT DoMoCo’s president, Masao Nakamura, already had meetings with El Senor Jobs to talk about the details around a Japanese launch. The newspaper said that Apple doesn’t expect to have any difficulties with the revenue sharing part of all iPhone exclusive deals.
Here’s the quote from the WSJ:
“People familiar with the situation say Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs recently met with NTT DoCoMo’s president, Masao Nakamura, to discuss a deal to offer its iPhone in Japan through Japan’s dominant mobile operator. These people said Apple has also been talking to No. 3 operator Softbank Corp. and executives from both companies have made multiple trips to its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters.”
As pointed out by Thomas from Engadget, the DoCoMo network does not support GSM/EDGE. That means that any iPhone released on DoCoMo’s network would have to be a 3G iPhone…
Nevertheless, put that in the rumor bin for now. If it’s going to be just like in Europe, Apple will have open discussions with all the operators in Japan until they get the deal they want. Remember the Softbank iPhone rumor last May?
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