Via Gruber who rightly questions the use of “surprising” in the headline. We said on our podcast that NTT DoCoMo was the “Verizon of Japan” – a phrase originated by Ben Evans – and that you could expect a similar Verizon style jump. As Gruber also points out, the iPhone was already the leading phone in Japan without DoCoMo, so it hardly seems a shock that it can widen its lead when it launches on the largest carrier.