NTT Docomo, Japan’s largest carrier by subscriber numbers, announced nearly flat profit for the last three months of 2010.
The firm said net profit for its third fiscal quarter was 134.2 billion yen ($1.63 billion), compared to 134.6 billion yen the previous year.
Operating profit for the same period grew 4.4% to 227 billion yen coupled with a revenue fall of 2.3% to 1.071 trillion yen.
Company president Ryuji Yamada told the Wall Street Journal that Docomo was aiming to ‘capture the wave of smartphones’.
The carrier, whose smartphone portfolio includes the Samsung Galaxy S and Sony Ericsson Xperia, lost market share to rival Softbank, which retails Apple’s iPhone.
Docomo sold 1.26 million smartphone devices in the nine months through December last year. Yamada added Docomo expected smartphones sales to exceed 2.5 million units by March. Smartphones are forecast to account for a third of Docomo’s total handset sales, or 6 million units, in the coming fiscal year.
Docomo kicked off its smartphone drive by announcing a new monthly flat fee scheme for data that will start March 15.
The carrier forecasts a net profit of 497 billion yen, operating profit of 840 billion yen and revenue of 4.209 trillion yen for the coming fiscal year.