DoCoMo Aquires Fuel-Cell Stake

DoCoMo announced today they will form a business and capital alliance with Aquafairy Co. to develop fuel-cell products. DoCoMo will acquire an approximate 36.5-percent stake in the company through a purchase of newly allocated shares in the near future. Aquafairy, which develops and markets micro fuel cells for mobile devices, was established in Osaka in 2006 and has 11 employees. It has capital of 33 million yen.

Coming on the heels of the recent seminar at FCDIC, it’s clear that alternative power sources for mobile devices is becoming a hot topic. We reported on KDDI’s demonstration of methanol-based solutions from Toshiba and Fujitsu at CEATEC last October but we have not heard much about it since. Don’t be too surprised if this becomes a much more active area of discussion in the future.