Softbank Mobile Corp and Telefonica Moviles Espana have announced that they will make iPhone available on the Japanese and Spanish markets respectively. Neither company has given any further details about the deal, a thing that has become a habit for any company that reaches an agreement with Apple to distribute the device.

Apple had previously negotiated with NTT DoCoMo to launch the device in Japan, but the deal might have come to a stop. DoCoMo is Japan’s largest mobile company and has more that half of the entire mobile phone market in the country. Softbank ranks third, but last year it showed a steady growth, being the company that managed to get the largest number of new subscribers every month.

It is possible that Softbank thinks the deal with Apple will enable it to gain more market share. However, if this is the case, the company could end up being disappointed with the results. Experts have said that iPhone may not have the same success in Japan that it experienced in the US because Japanese users are accustomed to writing text messages, and iPhone’s touch screen is not very well suited for the task.

The race for the Apple device has been even closer in Spain. Two days ago, Telefonica Movistar announced that it had managed to close the distribution deal of the popular device, only to take back the statement later on.

After Apple agreed to allow two different companies to distribute its device in Italy, it is only fair to think that DoCoMo and Movistar might still have a chance of landing a deal with the creators of the iPhone.