TMCnet News
Apple's new iPhone models go on sale in Japan(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone models went on sale Friday in Japan, with the country's three biggest mobile phone carriers in fierce competition to capture demand for the popular smartphones in a saturated market. With preorders having flooded in since opening last Friday, customers formed lines in front of stores to try to pick up the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models, which have been redesigned with bigger screens and thinner bodies. KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp. said last Friday they would offer the 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 effectively for free with a two-year contract by discounting monthly fees, and competitor NTT Docomo Inc. soon followed. When taking the differences between the major carriers' pricing systems into account, their plans for the new models end up costing roughly the same, with the cheapest plans with unlimited calling at 7,023 yen per month. NTT Docomo stands out, however, for its aggressive marketing campaign, having announced Sunday it will buy back other carriers' older iPhones for up to 43,200 yen. KDDI hit back with the announcement of a similar campaign on Wednesday. Softbank said Tuesday it would also accept trade-ins of handsets other than iPhones, and on Wednesday struck a point of difference by unrolling a service aimed at the new iPhones eliminating additional calling charges in the United States. Competition between the three major carriers heated up with last year's release of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, when NTT Docomo entered the fray. Increased competition could yet trigger a cashback war again. (c) 2014 Kyodo News |