Year: <span>2004</span>
Year: 2004

Year: 2004

DoCoMo to Invest in FOMA Single-Chip LSI

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company will invest in Renesas Technology Corp. to jointly develop a single-chip LSI making FOMA 3G handsets compatible with both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. Currently, it is necessary to embed two chips in the handset in order to produce a dual-mode W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS handset. However, by combining DoCoMo’s W-CDMA technology with Renesas Technology’s LSI fabrication capabilities, multimedia application processors, and GSM/GPRS technologies, a single-chip will be developed that enables a lower-cost 3G handset to run on both network standards.

KDDI: Fuel Cells in 2007; Where's NEC?

The Nikkei reported on Saturday that KDDI aims to commercialize fuel cells for keitai using Hitachi and Toshiba technology by 2007; this is supposed to be at least two years behind claims often made by Japan’s mobile-phone leader NEC that it will have fuel cells ready for commercialization for mobile phones by next year at the latest.

KDDI ''Flash:'' Slashes Prices, Debuts 3 Models

A year ago, WWJ predicted the end of packet-based pricing. A year later, KDDI/au, and Japan, would seem to be entering a new price war. Today, KDDI threw down the gauntlet to DoCoMo by slashing its fixed packet charge from 4,200 yen to 2,000 yen (Yes! You read that right…) on August 1, while flaunting three cool new mobile models armed with what will rapidly become de rigeur in Japan: flash! We’ll have an exclusive video program with Anup Murarka, Macromedia’s senior director of mobile marketing and devices coming in a few weeks, and — of course — breathtaking visuals of KDDI’s newest and sexiest phones and menus. But first, let’s take a look at the No. 2 carriers’s latest strategy to keep pummeling DoCoMo and Vodafone for new adds in a maturing market.

Nation-Wide VoIP Network by Stealth?

My discussion with Steven Graff, who recently joined WWJ as marketing guru and maker-of-all-things-happen, suddenly turned technical. “Imagine being able to throw the switch on a network of several million WiFi hotspots located all over Japan. What if Yahoo’s modems permitted Yahoo to pass traffic through the user’s DSL connection and WiFi air interface independent of the home network? Today’s Viewpoint is a fable which, were it true, would shake Japan’s mobile market to the core.

Hello Hot Spots: Wi-Fi Sniffing

Hello Hot Spots: Wi-Fi SniffingDo you need hassle-free WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity? Of course you do (so do we, come to think of it!) and Hiromasa Takato, product manager at Toshiba’s Global Strategic Planning Group, claims that their ConfigFree software will soothe you into a seamless WiFi connection wherever and with whatever Bluetooth-enabled device(s) you have at hand. WWJ took Hiro, his Pocket PC e805 PDA, his laptop, and a Toshiba A5504T (au) cellie for a test run — and a beer — in downtown Shinjuku. With hotspots multiplying like tribbles and all the buzz about VoIP and Bluetooth-enabled keitai about to boom, this is definitely a WWJ peek at the future — right here and now. Subscribers read on to get the full skinny! Full Program Run-time 12:51, also available in Real Player and Quick-Time formats.

Fujitsu's New IP Prototype Phone

IDG reports that Fujitsu Labs and Fujitsu spinoff Net-2Com have this week been showing the world’s first mobile IP/PHS dual-mode phone in central Tokyo. We’ve already shot a program and did an interview with the phone’s developer, we’ll have great video of the device coming up soon. Meanwhile, take a look at this story from IDG for some angles on the phone, which is still a prototype but could be on sale within a year. P(H)S. Did someone say China?