Apple’s Ban on Bloatware Bollixes NTT DoCoMo Deal

It’s been nearly four years since Apple’s iPhone first launched in Japan. Yet NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile carrier by subscribers, still doesn’t carry it. Nor will it anytime soon, it seems.

Though Apple is open to additional carrier partners — it recently signed up KDDI as a second to SoftBank — it has had trouble reaching an agreement with NTT DoCoMo. The sticking points between the two companies: The size of the upfront order commitments Apple demands of iPhone carriers, and its dim view of their proprietary apps.

NTT DoCoMo CEO Ryuji Yamada says he’d like to preinstall a few apps on the iPhone, but Apple, which exercises tight control over the device, refuses to allow it. Apple’s view here is that it is protecting iPhone users from the unnecessary bloatware that carriers are fond of slopping onto their devices. Yamada’s view is that he is being denied an opportunity to brand and monetize a phone that will run on his network.

So far, neither party has been able to find a middle ground. “If the introduction of the iPhone results in the mass majority of our products occupied by the iPhone, then that’s a scenario that’s difficult to us to swallow,” Yamada told Dow Jones.

That said, Yamada remains optimistic. “We haven’t given up our hope of introducing the iPhone,” he said.