How Steve Jobs and Masayoshi Son Brought the iPhone to Japan

The iPhone, it's safe to say, is big in Japan. Toward the end of last year, three out of every four smartphones sold in Japan was an iPhone, according to market researcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Tim Cook said during Apple's most recent earnings call that its phone sales in the country shot up 40% after it signed a deal with NTT Docomo.

Breaking into Japan was no cheap trick. To get there, Steve Jobs took a chance on a self-made Japanese billionaire who had a crude drawing of an iPod phone and no mobile carrier to speak of. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son recounted how he scored the deal to become the iPhone's exclusive carrier in Japan in a television interview with Charlie Rose that aired this week. Read more...