NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday it will introduce a new model of the BlackBerry handset to woo business users.
Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Bold model offers a brighter display, global positioning and will be available in the January-March quarter, DoCoMo said.
DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone operator but facing a shrinking market share, in December cut monthly subscription fees for BlackBerry services, which are not marketed directly to individual users, by 40 percent to ¥3,570 to fend off Softbank Corp. and KDDI Corp.
Softbank, the fastest growing carrier, beat out DoCoMo for the right to sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the country.
In the past year, Softbank added three times as many new subscribers as DoCoMo, with KDDI attracting 50 percent more new users. DoCoMo added a net 903,100 subscribers in the 12 months ended Aug. 30, compared with 2.6 million for Softbank and 1.3 million for KDDI, according to numbers released by the carriers.