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PSP Mobile Phone Rumor Season

We’ve always wondered when, not if, the PSP would finally have voice functionality added and the rumors are heating up again as a result of a recent FT article quoting Sony Ericsson President Hideki Komiyama. While it would seem clear the company will roll out the PSP2 model – without the UMD drive – at E3 in LA next month, his comments were somewhat less clear “could happen” regarding the PlayStation mobile phone. We hope they make the splash here – Again – at TGS in September instead!

DoCoMo Ready to Launch Android

The web is blazing with speculation that DoCoMo will introduce their first Android device, HT-03A or better know as the HTC Magic, along with an expected soon upcoming summer 2009 handset series announcement. While we would not be at all surprised, naturally nobody who really knows is prepared to confirm the scoop for us.. wink-wink. Meanwhile, there are even more tongues wagging about big D rolling an iPhone! Now that would be interesting, and even odds-on possible, but again we’re sadly only in a position to speculate along with the masses – including the Nikkei – on that one as well.

Japan Prepares for 4G networks

According to the Nikkei, via Bloomberg, all four major Japanese telcos are moving one step closer to building out their 4G networks, with infrastructure investments pegged at $10 billion. DoCoMo alone is said to have budgeted nearly half of that amount, to enable data delivery at near fiber speeds, with service launch expected in fiscal 2010 with the others set to follow by 2012.

Japan Trials Pandemic Tracking via Mobile

According to this post on the Asahi Shimbun, the Ministry of Affairs and Communications (MIC) has a proposal to run an experiment later this year, across the country using 2,000 cellphone volunteers, to record potential encounters between people infected with a contagious disease. From what we can tell, the proposed trial will track and collect GPS data for time and location so if someone is found later to be infected the agency, with some help from the telecom operators, would be able to identify and notify people who had may have had recent contact.

NEC and Renesas in Merger Talks

NEC Electronics and Renesas have entered talks to strike a merger deal to create a new entity which would become the largest semiconductor company in Japan, and number three globally behind Intel and Samsung with leading market share in micro-controllers and system-on-chip products for cars and mobile devices, capable of generating roughly $13 billion in combined yearly sales.

CTIA Wireless Event in Las Vegas

CTIA in Vegas - Video ReportWe’re finally back, and fully recovered, from the the annual CTIA Wireless event held last month in Las Vegas. As you might imagine living large on the strip for almost a whole week took a certain degree of – ahem – stamina, but we did manage to spend some valuable time the show floor, had several meetings in the VIP lounge, some interviews in the media room and a few ‘interesting’ connections in Caesars Palace.

While it’s only be fair to expect, considering the current economic times, that YoY attendance would be down as was the case during Mobile World Congress in February. That being said, the trade exhibitors – and delegates in general – seemed plenty up-beat with both Samsung and LG front and center in full force with along with all the usual suspects taking hefty square footage at LVCC. Of course there were a few Japanese players represented with DoCoMo, Fujitsu and Kyocera, who had an entire section of Sanyo handsets, both taking space to demo their products and services.

WiMax in Japan Looking Down on 3G

According to this report filed from the recent WiMAX Forum Congress Asia event in Singapore, Takeshi Tanaka – president of UQ Communications – is quoted; “People are beginning to think that cellular internet is fake.. the browser is limited, the content and performance are limited, and so are the screen sizes. This is our opportunity to differentiate from the 3G style”. So, the gloves are off!

Nico Nico Douga App for iPhone

Nico Nico Douga, the popular Japanese video sharing site known it’s original interface where users can add comments on video in realtime, has finally released their iPhone app – for free! – according to this article on cNet Japan. The design was based on the companies mobile edition, which was done on Java, launched in 2007, however, Iphone apps need to be coded in C and this apparently caused some real challenges for coding the delivery of certain functions such as commenting.

DoCoMo Annual Results – Future Plans

DoCoMo has just released it’s unaudited results [.PDF Here] for the full 2008 fiscal year, which closed on 31 March. While operating revenues were down 5.6% YoY – with operating expenses trimmed by 7.3% – the bottom line net income was off 3.9% compared to 2007. The company has also announced a series of new initiatives, in several fields of interest, more details after the jump.

Peru Decides to Adopt 1Seg Standard

The Transport and Communications Minister of Peru, Enrique Cornejo, has announced the country will officially adopt ISDB-T, the Japanese terrestrial digital TV system of technology. Cornejo made the announcement after a meeting between the head of State, Alan García, and the Prime Minister of Japan envoy, Shunichi Yamaguchi, at the Government Palace. Japan will carry out several programs to assist in the implementation of digital television in Peru, such as human resource training and economic cooperation.