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

OKI and Huawei Collaborate for WiMAX

Oki Electric and Huawei Technologies today announced an agreement to collaborate in the mobile WiMAX business to the telecom carriers in Japan. OKI will provide Huawei’s mobile WiMAX Series products to telecom carriers in Japan starting in the fiscal year ending March 2008. OKI will also provide its products globally with the support of Huawei. OKI has been conducting business in China from the early 1980s, and has been working with Huawei in various areas including optical components. Huawei provides wireless products worldwide, including mobile WiMAX and 3G mobile phone systems.

Kyocera Showcases at ITU 2006

Kyocera Corporation and its group companies are exhibiting at the ITU 2006, held from December 4 to 8 in Hong Kong, with the focus on a display of CDMA mobile handsets. The products in the booth have been selected to present Kyocera’s ‘design concept’ towards the mobile communication terminals. Two of the terminals offered by Kyocera this year feature slim, lightweight designs in response to user preferences, while being equipped with enriched functions and wide, easy-to-read displays. The A5521K model released this spring is squeezed into a form factor just 18 mm thick, while the brand-new W44K boasts a thickness of just 15 mm.

NEC Launches PASOLINK NEO

NEC announced that it has introduced to the global marketplace a new gigabit Ethernet interface (GbE) for its PASOLINK NEO point-to-point wireless access system designed to enable broadband, IP-based networks with advanced functionality, high speed and superior expandability. This new offering in the PASOLINK series provides a gigabit Ethernet interface for the first time, and using a proprietary transmission scheme, enables throughput of over 150 Mbps in the 28 MHz band.

Panasonic Develops New Mobile LSI

Panasonic announced that it has developed a new system LSI for mobile phones by applying its second-generation Integrated Platform for Digital Appliances. The new LSI MN2CS0035 model can greatly improve the playing time of SD audio and the graphic processing performance on mobile handsets. The use of LSI technology enables the existence of multiple functioning on a single chip in cellular phones such as long time music and movie playback, high-performance 3D graphics, and mobile DTV (ISDB-T) viewing. The company will commence shipping product samples in December 2006.

ACCESS to Exhibit at Telecom World

ACCESS announced today that it will exhibit and demonstrate its latest mobile software solutions at ITU Telecom World 2006 to be held in Hong Kong from December 4 through 8, 2006. In addition to showcasing solutions and success stories developed to support Chinese handset makers’ global strategies, ACCESS will demonstrate server solutions developed jointly by its Beijing-based group companies, RedZero and ACCESS Media Solutions. ACCESS will also exhibit a variety of cutting edge technologies — including its IMS Solution for businesses that integrate Internet viewing and messaging environments as well as audio and visual media — for global telecommunications carriers.

Panasonic WLAN Prototypes

Panasonic Mobile announced today that it has developed two prototypes of mobile phones equipped with wireless LAN 802.11b/g module. Using wireless LAN module, the handset could be utilized as high quality IP TV phone or as player, server, and controller to enjoy rich digital contents wirelessly with DLNA compliant products at home. These two prototypes will be exhibited at its booth at the ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006 to be held in Hong Kong, China from December 4 to 8.

Japan Mobile Music 3Q Results

The Record Industry Association of Japan just announced their Q3 numbers, reporting period 1 July – 30 September 2006, with mobile music sales showing strong year-on-year growth. Considering the wider range of enabled handsets, and agressive marketing by all three carriers in this space, it should come as no surprise to industry watchers that full-track downloads posted a sales value increase of 201% when compared to the same period last year. Full details after the jump.

DCMX Posts Strong 1H Growth

DoCoMo made an announcement recently regarding the performance of their new DCMX m-commerce product [WWJ video here], which launched 28 April 2006. Noting the claim that the number of contracts exceeded 1 million as of 12 November – just over six months – with 30 handset models now on the market, we decided to dig a little a little deeper and see how the intial 1H growth for DCMX compared with DoCoMo’s flag-ship i-mode portal six months after it debuted in February 1999.

Japan's 1st Mobile Phone Novel Awards

An Osaka woman who wrote of a pure love story between a schoolgirl prostitute and a host club gigolo was Tuesday awarded the grand prize in the first Japan Mobile Phone Novel Awards at a ceremony in the Mainichi’s Tokyo headquarters. Towa, the pen name of the author, received 1 million yen and the right to publish “Kurianesu,” her story about unlikely love.

DoCoMo and Kadokawa to Form Alliance

Kadokawa Holdings, comprising group companies engaged mainly in publishing or movie content, and DoCoMo have announced that they will form a comprehensive alliance through a capital tie-up. The parties will develop mobile content related with Kadokawa movies and animation, including original video content developed initially for the mobile environment, prior to release via other media. Also, Kadokawa will increase the range of content it distributes through some 40 sites it has on the i-mode portal.