Folks at Japanese NTT DoCoMo seems to work round the clock lately in an effort to bring innovation to their network. We’ve already reported that the company is looking at portable gaming consoles for growth and about their plans to unlock phones starting from April of next year. Now, they are opening their once famous i-mode platform with the idea to engage developers and eventually launch an app store later in the year, most likely in November.
At the moment, the only app store DoCoMo users can access is the Android Market, which comes built-in with smartphones running Google’s mobile OS.
Rumors say it Japan’s leading mobile operator is engaging in these initiatives as it tries to fight back SoftBank, which as you may know is the “iPhone carrier” in the Land of the rising Sun.
Commenting on the news, DoCoMo’s spokeswoman, Makiko Furuta, said: “The open platform is everywhere in the world today and as the market changes, we would like to provide a platform similar to the smartphone for our i-mode customers.”
[Via: CellularNews]