New NTT DoCoMo head grapples with competition

NTT DoCoMo is seeing smaller rivals such as Softbank erode the company's dominance in Japan as its market share is now 52 percent compared with nearly 60 percent in 2001. Operating profit continues to decline and international investment opportunities aren't so hot. The company's recent blow was Softbank becoming the exclusive provider of the Apple iPhone in Japan, which is considered a marketing coup for Softbank.

As such, the new head of DoCoMo Ryuji Yamada said he's going to make some changes. He said DoCoMo is working to improve its services, focusing on keeping customers loyal rather than focusing on a massive land grab of customers. Yamada said this strategy involves instituting between 100 and 200 "concrete measures" that range from offering replacement batteries for handsets to premium customers after a year to developing handsets that target specific customer segments.

For more:
- read the Financial Times [1]

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