For Apple, the iPhone’s clean desktop is simply an extension of its overall minimalist design. While keeping control of what apps appear on the smartphone makes fans of users, forbidding so-called carrier ‘junkware’ could be a deal-breaker for NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless provider.
Although the iPhone can bring carriers a flood of new customers slurping up data like it’s going out of style, all that gravy doesn’t come without a few lumps. In the case of NTT DoCoMo, its president and CEO Ryuji Yamada finds Apple’s demands “difficult to swallow,” according to the Wall Street Journal (registration required.)
The problem with carriers not having access to a phone’s desktop is they cannot add services that generate revenue. In NTT DoCoMo’s case, that means no i-mode email or an e-wallet for shopping via your smartphone.
For Apple, there may not be an incentive to give the Japanese carrier access to the iPhone desktop. The Cupertino, Calif. tech giant already has deals with the country’s Softbank and KDDI carriers to sell the iPhone 4S. Landing the nation’s largest wireless carrier could go a long way to chipping away at Samsung’s lead in Japan. But the most powerful reason for not giving into a carrier this time is that it gives an opening for future wireless firms to ask for the same deal provided NTT DoCoMo — and there goes the clean iPhone desktop and the downward slide.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
57 responses to “Apple’s Ban On Carrier ‘Junkware’ Could Cost Largest Japan iPhone Partner”
Why doesn’t NTT DoCoMo just create an app for the services it wants to provide & let users download it from the app store? Â When a customer goes in to buy the iPhone a sales rep can show them the apps and where / how to install them. Â Can’t be that difficult
I’m not in favour of junkware of any description, but in truth the iOS app store is chock-a-block full of it so this is a little like the pot calling the kettle black in some ways. Â
And yet I’m stuck with Newsstand, Yahoo Weather, Stocks, …
That is what I was going to recommend, plus they could cash in on others using Apple’s Hardware and just open up billing accounts with the company
Isn’t the iPhone 4S still incompatible with NTT’s network?
Thank you apple for not letting operators to abuse us with their useless icons and silly apps.
I am in the control of what i want to have or not on my iPhone desktop.
1st of all, sales people will find it too much a hassle to explain to customers AFTER they’ve bought their iphones, to convince them to REMEMBER to go download those carrier’s apps AFTER they’ve activated their iphones at home.
2nd) customers are lazy . Most of them wouldn’t even be bothered to download carrier’s apps when they are not even sure if they want those apps in the first place or not. Surely the first things they do is to download the games and apps that they’ve always wanted. Cue Angry Birds (roll eyes), Top 25 free apps, etc.. etc..
3rdly) These Carriers could give out flyers and pamplets with instructions on how to download their apps from the appstore, but surely, these flyers will get thrown into the bin or get forgotten by the customers as they eagerly unbox their precious iPhones at home.
That being said, i think the best solution is for them to continue to make really useful and great carrier-linked apps, instead of trying to force half baked rubbish onto customer’s brand new iPhones.
Surely they need to learn to be more resolved in this increasingly competitive and opened market.
If their apps are good, words will get out and people will download.
There’s a huge difference between allowing users to download junkware and pre-installing it on their phones for them — especially when you can’t uninstall it (as is the case with many Android phones in the US).
My thoughts exactly!
Nope, I’m way off. Especially since the intro of the iPhone 4, unlocked handsets work well on DoCoMo.
Your newsstand is empty in the beginning right? Nobody is forcing you to subscribe to any thing
Apple does not need those carrier jerks telling them what they’re going to pre-install on the iPhone. Let DoCoMo write some apps and make them good enough that users want to install those apps. DoCoMo can continue selling those made-for-Japanese feature smartphones and forget about iPhones altogether. Apple doesn’t need them.
Don’t mind him. He’s just making his daily anti-everythingAmerican rounds.
The sales rep could simply set up the free app at the time of sale as part of the initial set-up.
No muss no fuss no problems.
yes it’s empty, so why cant I opt not to have it show up, or at the very least bury it in a folder
You can hide it in a folder, it’s very hard. But it’s 100% doable. Google a how to. You must be quick to move it into a folder
WTF? Â I said nothing anti-American at all. Â Also, not everyone on the Internet is male. Â
Honestly. Stop what you are doing, and concentrated on my next question:
How many percentage of the customers, do you think, would allow the sales rep, to install something (which they are not even sure if they want it in the first place) on their BRAND SPANKING NEW iPhone, the moment they have purchased them? Would you? Honestly?
Sales rep: Hey i see you just completed purchasing an iPhone from our carrier, now let me take it out for you, activate it via our on PCs, set up an iTunes account wasting another 15 minutes of your time,
Customer: What…?
Sale rep: No, just follow as i say, create your iTunes account now, enter your particular, credit number.. etc…
Customer: Erm… but i wanna get my phone a screen protector applied first.
Sales rep: Look, go buy that shit, and i’ll apply it for you, after that i must install our carrier’s app for you.
Customer: What? why is it a must?
Sales rep: Don’t ask, its for your own good!
Customer: Look i wanna go home and hook up my PC first and to charge my iPhone.
Sales rep: NO YOU STAY HERE FUCKER, DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE THIS STORE WITHOUT INSTALLING ONE OF OUR CARRIER’S APP!! BITCH!!!
….Think about this scenario in a setting as realistic as possible.
Then answer me.
Baby Twitty indeed.
Except for the ones Apple endorses, like YouTube. Â Good luck deleting that.
O2 in the UK did a forum based survey recently which concerned itself with the question ‘would you like us to preload your iPhone with software?’ Â You could tell by the way the questions were worded that they have, internally, decided it would be a great idea. I spend 30 minutes saying NO over and over again. Â The LAST thing you want on a new phone, like a computer, is bloatware all over the place; regardless how easy it is to remove.
My suggestion to them was make time when you sell the phone to sit down with a customer and show them things and help them download an O2 app and explain how it can help you. Â A better experience by a long way. Â Thing is though marketing depts. are essentially the tail that wags the dog and in most cases they are driven by buzz words and pie charts and have very little idea of how to best serve a customer and turn them into a long term partner.
hahahaha :)
YouTube was a compromise with the whole flash wars thing, youtube got a native app and in return youtube videos started getting converted to h264 faster (still a few don’t work).
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Good for Apple. I used my Dad’s Droid 3 and I was appalled by a few things. First was the lousy interface, but beyond that, he had a ton of apps.
And yet he never installed a single app, in fact, it took me a while to get the Android Marketplace to work correctly. Most of his apps were junk from Verizon .Trials, software that couldn’t be removed, and useless apps.Â
Why Verizon (or any carrier) thinks this is a good idea is beyond me.Â
Have you ever bought a phone in Japan before?Â
a) iPhones are activated in store and help customers copy phonebook data from their old phones to their iPhone all the time (you have to download an app to do it on Softbank)
It is totally something that they would offer to do for you, out of the goodness of their hearts, naturally, and many Japanese consumers (I’ve witnessed people go into the phone shop to ask staff how to use SKYPE on their smartphone before) will likely jump at the chance.Â
Have you ever bought a phone in Japan before?Â
a) iPhones are activated in store and help customers copy phonebook data from their old phones to their iPhone all the time (you have to download an app to do it on Softbank)
It is totally something that they would offer to do for you, out of the goodness of their hearts, naturally, and many Japanese consumers (I’ve witnessed people go into the phone shop to ask staff how to use SKYPE on their smartphone before) will likely jump at the chance.Â
I figured as much… but YouTube isn’t the only included app you can’t uninstall. Â Still, Apple has kept it to a minimum and for that I am grateful. Â ;-)
Yea indeed, I wish I could remove it and some others.
I never use youtube on the phone (and really the mobile website is pretty good) and on the iPad it’s just annoying how it switched form safari to youtube if you got to a youtube page.
And there is that stupid contacts icon, why would anyone actually want two icons leading to the same app? Sure on old feature phones and Android contacts actually is their own menu item/app but on iOS the icon just open the phone app on the contacts tab…
I like how contacts are in the phone app but when still keep the icon around?!