Softbank Corp.'s announcement last Friday it was buying Vodafone K.K., a Japanese unit of Vodafone Group PLC, may give the Internet company a competitive edge in the mobile phone industry.
Now analysts are closely watching whether Softbank can become successful enough to be a threat to Japan's two giants in the cell phone industry -- NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp., operator of the au service.
Yuichi Iwata, researcher at InfoCom Research Inc., a think tank specializing in the information and telecommunications industries, said Softbank needs to launch a new and unique service to become a strong competitor of the two existing firms.