Apple (News - Alert) Inc., the company which created a revolution by revealing the most entertaining mobile device, iPhone, is negotiating with Japan's top mobile phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo (News - Alert), to launch the device in Japan.

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs met recently with NTT DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura to discuss the launch. NTT DoCoMo is Japan's premier mobile communications company. If the deal goes through, Apple Inc. has placed a demand to receive the same percentage of subscriber revenue from NTT DoCoMo that it receives from other carriers, as stated in the Journal.

NTT DoCoMo has nearly 53 million subscribers and dominates more than half of Japan's mobile phone market. But with fierce competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., the company is all set to redefine its commitment towards its customers by slashing rates and launching several value added services.

Apple may also initiate discussions with Softbank once the deal clicks. Apple hopes to sell about 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 through this launch.

Upon success of this deal, NTT DoCoMo would join the list of Apple's exclusive mobile operators which includes AT&T Inc. in the United States, O2 in Britain, T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom's (News - Alert) Orange wireless arm in France.

Apple is also eyeing China. The chairman of China Mobile, China's biggest mobile services operator with nearly 350 million subscribers, revealed that the company has been in discussions with Apple to bring the iPhone (News - Alert) to China.

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Meenakshi Shankar is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

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