Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the world's biggest technology company, advanced in premarket trading after media reports indicated it’s near agreement to offer its iPhone through NTT DoCoMo Inc. (NYSE:DCM), Japan’s largest carrier.
Apple rose 0.6 percent to $498.39 at 9:07 a.m. in New York. The shares have fallen 26 percent over the past year.
DoCoMo (NYSE:DCM) is expected to start selling iPhones as soon as autumn, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal will help Apple stretch its territory in a country where it has more than three times the market share of major competitor Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (KRX:005930).
DoCoMo has long resisted offering the iPhone to its 60 million customers due to differences with Apple over branding and sales margins, but has lost market share to smaller rivals Softbank Corp and KDDI Corp.
DoCoMo has seen its market share drop sharply since Apple introduced the iPhone in Japan in 2008. DoCoMo added 43,000 users in August, compared with 209,200 at KDDI (OTCMKTS:KDDIY), Japan's second-biggest mobile-phone company and 250,300 for SoftBank Corp.(OTCMKTS:SFTBF).
Apple is widely expected to unveil the latest version of its iPhone at an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, on September 10.
Apple has also invited Chinese journalists to an event in Beijing on Sept. 11. The event has stoked bets Apple may unveil a long-awaited deal with China Mobile Ltd, which is the world's biggest mobile phone company by customers and the only one of China's big carriers that has not yet struck a deal with the U.S. tech giant.
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