The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is meeting with Japan's #http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif1 (DoCoMo) and #3 (Softbank Corp.) mobile operators for the right to carry the iPhone. This is big news because well, Japan is the world's 2nd largest economy and has a culture geared towards gadget-obsession - and of course the iPhone has been for gadget of the year.
Apple has had previous deals in place with SoftBank including the promotion where when you bought a cellphone you got a free iPod Mini, but DoCoMo is now said to be the first choice for such a deal that will no doubt hinge on which gave Apple a better revenue sharing percentage.
Interestingly enough DoCoMo doesn't have an EDGE network, so any iPhone there would have to be 3G - which makes sense anyways since I doubt the Japanese public would take a second look at an iPhone if it only ran at EDGE speeds.
