We noted at the start of July how NTT DoCoMo had been catching up on rival operator Softbank in terms of new subscriptions. DoCoMo, the Godzilla of the Japanese mobile operators, had been lagging behind the smaller, newer operator for 26 months straight. But a slash-and-burn policy for data charges seems to have brought the bigger company back out on top.
What are the figures?
The last release showed that in June, Softbank pulled in 112,900 new customers, withh NTT DOCOMO only 500 behind at 112,400. In July, DoCoMo pulled 6,000 into the lead, attracting 143,600 users, compared to Softbankâs 137,600
What happened?
Part of the reason Softbank was doing so well was that it was the young, fresh challenger to the monolithic DoCoMo. But also, importantly, it snagged the iPhone exclusive for Japan. DoCoMo fought back by concentrating on creating really cheap, long-term data plans. The larger operator is focusing on selling smartphones to the Japanse, and it can afford to take a hit on mobile data revenue in order to do so. It reports that the price cuts will trim it’s profits by 40 billion yen – that’s almost 300 million euro.
What we think?
It just goes to show – you can sell all the fancy phones you want, but what people really want is good value plans. Cheap voice and text will draw people in, but as the mobile Internet grows it’s cheap data plans that we’ll really want. And I don’t mean cheap per megabyte – I mean a set payment per month that gets you unlimited data access.
