Apple’s iPhone XS, XS Max Released in Japan

September 21, 2018

Tokyo- Eagerly awaited sales of Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max smartphones kicked off in Japan on Friday.

The country's three major mobile carriers--NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp.--are gearing up to attract customers by offering service plans that effectively reduce handset prices.

Prices are set at levels between 120,000 yen and below 140,000 yen for 64-gigabyte iPhone XS handsets, almost the same as those for the iPhone X, which was launched last year to mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone debut.

Among iPhone XS Max handsets, which have a larger screen than the XS, the version with the largest data capacity is priced at nearly 200,000 yen.

Under an NTT Docomo discount plan for a 64GB iPhone XS model that assumes handset use for two years, a subscriber's handset purchase costs will be reduced to 69,984 yen.

KDDI and Softbank will each offer a plan for the same model that slashes the handset cost by half. Under their plans, a customer buys the handset under a four-year installment contract and if he or she switches to a different model after the first two years, the subscriber will not have to pay the remaining amount.

On Friday, NTT Docomo held an event to mark the launch of the new iPhone models at a handset shop in the Marunouchi district in central Tokyo. At the celebration, NTT Docomo President Kazuhiro Yoshizawa said that the company had received brisk advance orders.

"I look forward to watching videos and playing games on a larger screen," said a 47-year-old male corporate employee from Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, who bought an iPhone XS Max handset. Jiji Press