Archive for the 'Carriers' Category
Carlyle Group Books Loss on Willcom
The Washington Post is reporting that The Carlyle Group suffered a $330 million loss Thursday when a Japanese mobile phone company in which it had a big interest filed for bankruptcy protection, the second time in a little more than a year that Carlyle has taken a hit in the highly volatile telecommunications field.
Wholesale Applications Community
Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.
SoftBank Q3 Results Show iProfit
Softbank Corp. said its fiscal third-quarter net profit jumped 41% year-on-year, driven by strong sales of the Apple iPhone at its wireless division. Softbank Mobile’s strong performance helped the group expand in the country’s cutthroat but profitable mobile market.
DoCoMo’s Q3 Net Profit Surges
DoCoMo said Friday its group net profit for the fiscal third quarter jumped 48% from a year earlier thanks to earlier-than-expected amortization in its second-generation mobile phone business. Net profit for the three months ended December rose to 135 billion yen ($1.5 billion) from 91 billion yen. Operating profit for the period rose 28% to 217.4 billion yen from 169.8 billion yen according to WSJ.
SoftBank Fall 2009 Handset Series
On the same afternoon that DoCoMo rolled their latest offering of 19 new models, across town SoftBank Mobile was also pitching their upcoming series of devices. Not only on the same day and time but SBM also introduced 19 new handsets for their winter 2009/10 lineup with 7 units coming from Sharp, 5 by Panasonic, 3 NEC’s, 2 Samsung and 1 by Toshiba. While Wi-Fi is certainly their keyword, taking advantage of the existing Yahoo BB network, the mystery Android handset marked for arrival in spring 2010 is getting all the buzz. Described only as a high spec. unit running a “Snapdragon” 1Ghz CPU with a 3.7-inch organic EL liquid crystal display - sounds like this Toshiba - and various new related services. Check-out the fancy Flash Gallery or watch the full 1:40 minute video presentation with English voice-over for all the details.
Latest DoCoMo Handsets - Version Up?
We made our way to the DoCoMo press conference held at the Tokyo Forum here yesterday afternoon to witness the wraps-off event of their Fall & Winter handset series. Under the tag line “Version Up” the lineup featured a total of 19 new designs on offer, with 5 Sharp units, 4 models by Fujitsu, 3 from each LG, NEC and Panasonic plus 1 Samsung. Considering the range of new devices - along with service announcements such as Auto-GPS for i-concier, MyArea Femtocell with exclusive AV contents for the home plus several Blu-ray capable units - there should, at least hopefully, be something appealing here for everybody. Check-out this Flash Gallery or see the full 80-minute presentation Video Here.
DoCoMo Share Price at Record Low
According to this report via Bloomberg, DoCoMo aims to rely on dividend payments and strategic investments to raise its share price from record lows. “The dividend is our top policy choice, followed by investments in growth areas; buying back shares comes after that,” Tsubouchi said in an interview today. “The share price is just too low.” Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said.
DoCoMo to Offer Flat-Rate Tethering
DoCoMo has announced that beginning December 1st it will reduce the monthly maximum charge for wireless data charged by tethering a handset with PC or other device under their Pake-hodai double flat-rate data service to 5,985 yen, down from 13,650 yen (from approx. $150 to $65), via selected Internet access points.
KDDI Introduces 12M Camera Phones
KDDI held their Fall and Winter 2009 handset launch in Tokyo yesterday with a splash of new hardware on display for the upcoming season. The lineup has 13 new models in total; four coming Sharp, three by Kyocera, two each via Casio and Sony Ericsson and one from each Sanyo and Toshiba rounding out the pack. Most noticeable by all accounts is the jump to 12 mega-pixel camera spec. on both Sharp Aquos Shot models and the CA003 Exilim by Casio which also touts shooting 20 frames per second - thank you very much! The usual fancy touch&try Flash-style site is Here [Jpn] and our best effort machine translation is below.
Clearly the #2 operator has moved aggressively to address their device portfolio offering as they have struggled over the last 18-months with new customer additions. It should be interesting to see the December subscriber numbers and no doubt all eyes now on what DoCoMo and SoftBank have on tap, those announcements also expected very soon, to roll in the coming months as well.
New iida Handsets PLY and Prismoid
KDDI releases 2 more iida handsets - PLY and Prismoid - in Sept along w/ access. unveils new “Polaris” concept model [J] http://bit.ly/ATXBf
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- Carlyle Group Books Loss on Willcom
- Mobile World Congress 2010 Report
- Global Solution for Voice over LTE
- Wholesale Applications Community
- Japan Trials RCS Initiative
- Buffalo Licenses Ericsson WiFi Patents
- Tokyo Court Grants Qualcomm Stay
- KDDI Invests in American MVNOs
- LG Gains LTE Approval in Japan
- DoCoMo to Demo LTE handset at MWC
