DoCoMo has introduced the N900iG [.jpg image], the first 3G FOMA handset compatible in approximately 115 countries/regions. The handset goes on sale 25 December 2004. N900iG users who want to use the handset abroad must subscribe to DoCoMo’s World Wing 3G roaming service for i-mode packet communications, videophone, SMS and voice calls in other countries/regions.
WaveSat this week began shipping a chip that it says is the first to comply fully with the IEEE 802.16-2004 wireless broadband standard, commonly known as WiMax. The DM256 chip is now shipping in sample quantities and is expected to be available in volume in January, according to Francois Draper, vice president of sales and marketing at WaveSat, in Montreal. The chip will become a component of systems costing around $250 to $300 that should begin shipping in the second quarter of next year, he says.
Reuters is reporting that NTT DoCoMo is close to signing a deal with Russia’s mobile phone firm Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) to license i-mode, potentially boosting MTS’s revenues, sources close to the matter said to Reuters. A cooperation agreement between the two firms will be signed on Friday, a different source in Moscow had said, without giving further details.
Vodafone just announced the signing of a new Partner Network Agreement, which makes SmarTone Vodafone’s exclusive partner in Hong Kong. SmarTone will re-brand its business to SmarTone-Vodafone, bringing the Vodafone brand into Hong Kong’s (significant) mobile market. Under the agreement, both companies will co-operate in developing and offering products and services, through the SmarTone-Vodafone brand, to international travellers and domestic customers.
Toshiba Corporation and NEC Corporation today announced two key advancements toward development of a magnetoresistive random access memory, a technology seen as key to the development of future generations of high performance mobile equipment. Unveiling the latest fruits of a joint development program dating back to 2002, the two companies announced a new cell design that halves power consumption during data writes and cuts writing errors, and a novel MRAM architecture with high speed characteristics and a performance that will support development of high-density devices. Full details of the new technology were presented on December 14 at IEDM (International Electron Devices Meeting) 2004 in San Francisco, USA.
Vodafone Japan is back in Japan’s 3G data race with today’s launch of Vodafone live! BB, a fixed-line PC Web site [only in Japanese so far] that allows users to search and download content for use on mobile terminals. Vodafone live! BB will operate with Vodafone’s new 3G handsets and serve as a a sort of Mother-of-all-Mobile-Portals solution for getting biggie-sized files (think audio, music and video) onto phones. Anyone can download the content files to a PC or laptop, copy them onto miniSD memory cards, and transfer them to a phone, but only Vodafone customers with a spanking new 3G celly can receive a digital key (distributed over the air) to unlock the files for playback.
ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced that its products will be available within the initial handsets selected by Telstra for the launch of i-mode. The profile deployment includes ACCESS’ NetFront browser, messaging client, JV-Lite(TM)2 Wireless Edition (a Sun-authorized Java client), SSL client and TCP/IP protocol stack. Handsets available for Telstra’s new i-mode service include NEC’s N410i and Panasonic’s P342i, with additional handsets to follow.
In all things mobile and wireless it has been a year of consolidation, launches, wireless everywhere and some familiar battles between well-known standards and companies. But 2004 was also 12 months where some of us became a little more sophisticated in how we use mobile devices and even the higher-ups learned — sometimes the hard way — that this remains one of tech’s most exciting areas, one that can make a real difference to the bottom line.
Two new top-level domain names moved closer to approval this week, as the body charged with overseeing the Internet’s technical matters moved into negotiations with the companies applying to set up and run the “.mobi” and “.jobs” domains. .Mobi is sponsored by Microsoft, Nokia, and Vodafone Group, who hope to target the domain specifically at mobile content and service providers as well as mobile device manufacturers, vendors and individual companies.
After a quick check to make double sure this isn’t some twisted April Fool joke (guess not), it seems that the folks over at Sanrio have managed to license their famous Hello Kitty character to (gasp!) Nokia [.jpg image]. Apparently coming in mid-December for Cingular “Pay-as-you-Go” customers, this predictably pink handset touts exclusive games, wallpapers and ring-tones. We bet there will be a rush of Oba-san shoppers rushing around to get a hold of one here in Japan.
