Japan's biggest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, would select from Fujitsu Ltd, Sharp Corp and Sony Corp's smartphone models for the company's major winter product lineup. Sources with knowledge of the matter said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd would be excluded from the lineup since the company does not have a new smartphone for the winter. Also, the failure of Samsung Galaxy S4 to meet DoCoMo's summer sales target accounted for the exclusion.

DoCoMo's move was expected to be a major advantage for Sharp. Sharp is currently the biggest display maker in Japan and a supplier of Apple Inc. Furthermore, Sony was expected to profit from DoCoMo's campaign. The summer lineup of DoCoMo allowed Sony to sell 1.3 million units of Sony Xperia A. The Xperia A gained a title from the mobile operator as DoCoMo's fastest-selling smartphone ever. Subsequently, Sharp and Fujitsu smartphones were DoCoMo's best-selling mobile devices outside of its major summer lineup this year.

During the first quarter of 2013, DoCoMo reported a revenue of JPY1,113.6 billion, up by 3.9% from last year. Its operating income was JPY247.5 billion, down by 5.8% or JPY15.2 billion year on year. DoCoMo's full-year estimated target was JPY700 billion.