No iPhone? DoCoMo Turns to the Dark Side
Context & Ripple Effects
The backstory runs back to December 2007, when Apple met separately with DoCoMo and Softbank about bringing the iPhone to Japan — talks that left DoCoMo without the device and, per the carrier's own positioning now, pushing it toward Android handsets instead. The irony is sharp: a Gadget Lab piece in February 2007 argued Japanese consumers hated the iPhone's compromises, yet by November 2010 the Associated Press reports an iPhone craze drawing global app developers to Japan.
So DoCoMo's 'dark side' turn is less a bet against the iPhone than a forced response to losing exclusivity negotiations three years ago — the carrier is choosing the only other credible smartphone platform rather than cede the category entirely.
First-order effects
- DoCoMo's handset lineup tilts toward Android devices, giving its subscribers a smartphone alternative while rivals holding iPhone exclusivity keep that differentiation.
- Android handset makers gain Japan's largest carrier as a committed distribution channel at the moment iPhone demand there is visibly accelerating.
Second-order effects
- App developers targeting Japan — already flocking to the iOS side per the AP report — now face a two-platform market, raising the value of cross-platform tooling and pressuring carriers to subsidize Android apps ecosystems of their own.
- Carriers competing for the same smartphone upgraders will lean harder on hardware subsidies and exclusive Android models, compressing margins for both the carrier and its handset suppliers.
Third-order effects
- If carrier-level exclusivity keeps deciding which operating system reaches which subscriber base, Japan's smartphone market structure gets set by negotiation outcomes between Apple, Google-aligned handset makers, and carriers — not by consumer preference alone, a reversal of the 2000s era when DoCoMo dictated handset specs to manufacturers.
The trend: Smartphone platform share in mature markets is increasingly decided by which OS a dominant carrier backs when locked out of the iPhone.