DoCoMo to launch Samsung Galaxy phone this year

TOKYO, JAPAN: Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc will start selling Samsung Electronics' smartphone and tablet computer this year, with the South Korean maker hoping to win over Japanese consumers that have warmed to foreign devices thanks to Apple's iPhone.

DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile phone operator, has been expanding its smartphone line-up to attract consumers and increase data usage, and will sell Samsung's Galaxy S phone from late October in Japan.

That will be followed by the launch of the Galaxy Tab tablet computer, which competes with Apple's iPad from late November.

Foreign mobile phone makers have long struggled to crack the uniquely developed Japanese market, and even Nokia, the world's biggest handset manufacturer, has been forced to retreat from the market in the past.

Smartphones had a slower start in Japan, given that ordinary cellphones here were already capable of connecting to the Internet and playing music, but the iPhone helped change all that.

Samsung debuted Galaxy S, its answer to the iPhone and its first smartphone sold globally through some 100 carriers, in June. Galaxy S is based on Google's Android operating system.

KDDI also unveiled a smartphone made by Sharp Corp on Monday.