Google Android Occupies Japan Next Year
NTT DoCoMo has formally announced that it will be extending at least one Google Android smartphone as part of its lineup for 2009. This bounds the gun over challengers KDDI and SoftBank. It’s ambiguous whether NTT DoCoMo will be getting the same HTC Dream G1 as T-Mobile USA, but we do hear that they’ll be setting the Android thing during the first half of next year.
The two crucial point of this partnership are Google services access through i-Mode in order to quicken the load time and better usability of the most used G applications (maps, gmail) and most of all, the concord to bring Android-based handsets to the Japanese markets.
Japan could be the first real benchmark for G’s new mobile platform since Japanese users are more aware to what they choose and are more used to go through high profile services.