NTT DoCoMo has released some details from it’s first quarter finances. The giant Japanese mobile operator says that it’s net profit dropped by 15.1% from the one year ago. NTT DoCoMo blames the slip on increased competition and saturation of its home market. And that competition takes its strongest form in rival operator Softbank – which has reported a net profit increase of 41%
The figures:
- DoCoMo net profit drops from 173.5 billion yen (1.3 billion euro) in Q1 2008 to 147.4 billion yen (1.1 billion euro) in Q1 this year.
- Softbank net profit rises from 19.4 billion yen (145 million euro) last quarter to 27.38 billion yen (288 million euro).
What we think?
Ok, so these figures aren’t exactly level. DoCoMo is still operating at a level far above Softbank. It even recently reported that it was catching up with the younger operator in terms of new subscribers. But DoCoMo has been bewailing the saturation of the Japanese market, and looking at foreign expansion. And these figures would tend to prove why. As a new, hungry company (with an iPhone exclusive under its belt) Softbank is bound to attract subscribers – and there really isn’t anyone else to steal them from except DoCoMo.
