Year: <span>2006</span>
Year: 2006

Year: 2006

Kyocera to Share Research Costs

Kyocera Corp., which makes handsets for Carlyle Group Inc.’s Willcom Inc. and KDDI Corp., plans to boost profit by sharing research costs at its mobile phone and network businesses in Japan, U.S. and China, its president said. The company is creating a new unit to combine the businesses and shifting some development operations to India, President Makoto Kawamura said in an interview in Kyoto yesterday. The new unit will comprise of the company’s handset-making business in Japan, San Diego, California-based Kyocera Wireless Corp. and a cell phone business in China, Kawamura said.

Vodafone K.K. Results for Q1 – 2007

Despite growth in data transmission revenue due to an increase in 3G subscriptions, consolidated operating revenue in the period has recorded 352,321 million yen, a decrease of 11,451 million yen (3%) as compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, due to a decline of voice revenue affected by a new price plan launched in the previous fiscal year and other factors. In total, VKK reports 15,240,200 customers at the end of June 2006 with positive net customer additions of 30,300 for the quarter ended 30 June.

Software Glitch Hits Casio & Hitachi Handsets

Two mobile phone models sold by KDDI Corp. automatically switch off after sending or receiving certain e-mail characters, the major phone carrier said Monday. The phones are the W42CA model made by Casio Computer Co. and the W42H model made by Hitachi Ltd., which were sold between late June and July. The basic software was developed jointly by Casio and Hitachi.

Japan 3G Beats the Hype – Lessons for European Cellcos

Japan 3G Beats the Hype - Lessons for European CellcosThe International Herald Tribune ran a couple of gloomy 3G-related articles last week (see “3G cost billions: Will it ever live up to its hype?” and “Operators in Asia learn from mistakes”). It’s the height of the summer vacation slow-news cycle, and maybe the IHT was just fishing for some headline attention, but we couldn’t let these egregiously faulty items pass without comment.

3G cost billions: Will it ever live up to its hype?

European mobile phone companies spent $129 billion six years ago to buy licenses for third-generation (3G) networks, which were supposed to give people the freedom to virtually live from their cell phones, reading email, browsing the Internet, placing video calls, enjoying music and movies, buying products and services, making reservations, monitoring health — all from the beach, the bus, the dentist’s waiting room or wherever they were.

But today, most people use their cell phones just as they did in 2000 — to make calls — and the modest gains 3G has made do not begin to justify the massive costs of the technology, which has strapped some mobile operators financially, bankrupted entrepreneurs, spurred multibillion-euro lawsuits against governments and phone companies, and sapped research spending.

Over the long term, 3G runs the risk of becoming the Edsel of the mobile phone industry — an expensive, unwanted albatross rejected by consumers and bypassed by other, less costly technologies, some experts say.

These articles are worse than merely wrong: they help fuel the flawed thinking and misguided strategies to which 3G license holders are addicted (helping cause the continued malaise). So widespread user apathy and risible revenues must prove that 3G’s a loser, right? Wrong. And to see why, you need look no further than Japan. Why have 3G carriers elsewhere in the world not realised: you don’t have to be DoCoMo to succeed like DoCoMo does.

WWJ paid subscribers: Log in for our 10-point rebuttal to the first IHT article (‘3G Hype’). Note: it’s a little long, so best to print out and read poolside!

Yamaha Announces Compass Chip

Yamaha Corp. announced that it has developed the YAS529 Three-Axis Geomagnetic Sensor IC Chip, the world’s smallest class of three-axis geomagnetic sensor for applications related to mobile phones and compact navigation systems. Most phones with GPS functions show the user’s current location on a map, but the services are thought to be difficult to use because the maps provided do not rotate in response to the user’s movements nor do they indicate the direction in which the users is moving. End users have expressed a growing desire for a geomagnetic sensor with an electronic compass function that keeps the map oriented in the direction of their movement. Plans call for beginning to market the chip in October 2006.

Access Aims for 30% Mobile OS Share

Access hopes to win 30 percent of the market for mobile device operating systems by 2010, according to Tomihisa Kamada, chief technical officer and co-founder. Access hopes to achieve greater marketshare by integrating its application software with the Linux-based mobile phone operating system being developed by PalmSource. This would result in a mobile phone software stack capable of competing with Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS in terms of integration level.

Pantech's New 3G Model for KDDI

Pantech Group, South Korea’s No. 2 mobile phone maker, has signed an agreement to ship it’s second 3G model to KDDI in a deal pegged at $110 million. The A1406PT handset will be available in September targeting middle-aged and elderly Japanese consumers, Pantech said in a statement. The agreement comes six months after Pantech offered its A1405PT model, the first shipment to Japan by a Korean cellphone maker.

Tokyo Game Show 2006: Update

CESA, organisers for The Tokyo Game Show, have just issued a media update on this years event scheduled for Sept. 22 – 24. The theme is “New Excitement. New Sensations. A New Generation” as they celebrate the 10th year anniversary since its launch in 1996. It is also the year in which the latest in computer entertainment, from next generation systems, to home platform software, online games and mobile applications come together under one roof at Makuhari Messe.

Radvision's PC-to-Mobile 3G Solution

Radvision announced today the availability of its new PC-to-Mobile 3G solution. The solution transforms PCs into mobile handsets by opening a bi-directional channel for visual communication between 3G mobile devices and desktops. The PC-to-Mobile solution exponentially increases the 3G subscriber base to include PCs – immediately expanding 3G video call possibilities. “The PC-to-Mobile solution leverages the power of both PCs and 3G mobile devices to fuel 3G proliferation and enable subscribers to use any PC with a broadband Internet connection as an extension of their 3G mobile handsets, subscriptions and accounts.” said Alon Barnea, General Manager of Radvision’s Mobility and Service Provider Business Unit.

KDDI Joins WiMAX Forum Board of Directors

The WiMAX Forum, a non-profit organization comprised of almost 400 companies committed to the open interoperability of products delivering broadband wireless services, today named Dr. Hideo Okinaka of KDDI Corporation to its Board of Directors. As a strong contributor to the WiMAX Forum, KDDI’s addition to the board of directors is indicative of the overwhelming support from operators and wireless market leaders around the globe that WiMAX is the next evolution for delivering personal broadband services.