日本文が後ろに続きます。
NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan’s major cell phone carriers, announced that in August this year it would sell Blackberry devices to public. NTT DoCoMo is the only carrier that has the right to distribute Blackberry in Japan.
Although Blackberry is today an essential communications tool for those from businesspersons to general people in the world, Japan has been the only first-place country where no Blackberry services for individuals are currently available. The only exception is Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) provided by NTT DoCoMo to corporations only, but BES is closed to private persons because NTT DoCoMo fears that Blackberry may affect the sales of I-mode, one of NTT DoCoMo’s core competences. There are no other mobile carriers that can offer Blackberry services, so Japanese people, except some lucky persons whose employer has BES for them, have no chance to enjoy communicating with the device.
This announce means that NTT DoCoMo is opening the door to the world. The mobile services Japanese people are currently using have been closed within Japan. Most of them are cutting-edge, but are useless if you get outside this country. This opening of Blackberry will help Japanese people to get in touch with what people in the world are usually doing in their daily life.
NTTドコモが、今まで法人向けに限定して販売していたBlackberryをいよいよ8月から個人にも開放するそうです。今さらという気もしないでもないですが、iPhoneでソフトバンクに先行され、なんとか対抗しなければという危機感の表れと思われます。少なくとも個人ユーザーとしては、今まで世界で当たり前にできていて日本でだけできなかったことが、やっと世界レベルに追いつけたということで、いいことだと思います。
BISのサービスを提供するのか、どういうサービス形態で提供するのかはっきりしていませんが、とりあえず外出先でもPCのメールをプッシュ形式で取り込める、そしてその場でPCのアドレスで返信ができる、という最低限の機能だけは実現できるでしょう。
出たら、私にとってはマストバイな機種です。価格がいくらになるかにもよりますが……。