With today’s launch of the new 902/802/702-series of 3G cellys, No. 3 carrier Vodafone has upped the stakes significantly in a major (some would say desperate) bid to re-capture market share. The phones, from Sharp, Sony Ericcson, NEC, Motorola, and Nokia, are all (except 802N) dual-mode W-CDMA/tri-band GSM and represent the first major incursion of foreign-made models into Japan’s 3G battleground. English press release here.
ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced the immediate availability of its new i-mode Global Profile, an integrated software solution that is optimized for the i-mode services deployed NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode alliance partners. i-mode Global Profile is a new profile that forms part of ACCESS’ NetFront Mobile Client Suite. i-mode Global Profile includes ACCESS’ market-leading NetFront technology as well as a Multi-Media Messaging Client, Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and an SSL encryption module. All technologies comprising i-mode Global Profile were developed by ACCESS and offer tight integration and functionality optimized specifically for i-mode.
KDDI has just announced a new 3G handset, the A1403K by Kyocera [.jpg image], which will be available in Japan at the end of October. Touted as a “Friendly oval form which is comfortable to hold,” it was designed by Ichiro Iwasaki. We have a quick peek on video of what looks like an early prototype of this model at CEATEC 2002. See the press release [in Japanese] Here.
Vodafone’s cut-price mobile phone calls and its 680,000 SIM card giveaway in Brisbane last month have combined to give the company a back-office headache. Vodafone Australia chief executive Grahame Maher said the company had been unprepared for the popularity of its $79 and $149 capped price monthly call plans. One Vodafone dealer said: “Before the caps we were losing three customers a day. Now we are gaining an extra six.”
French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel is nearing a deal with a Chinese peer on cooperating to build 3G mobile phone networks using the Chinese TD-SCDMA standard, a senior executive said. Alcatel’s position in China has also been bolstered by gains in market share, Christian Reinaudo, the company’s head of Asia Pacific operations, said on Monday. “We’re in very serious talks with local Chinese firms to do something together,” Reinaudo said at the Reuters Asia Technology Summit.
Han Lian, chief executive officer of mobile game software maker BBMF Corp., said entering the Japanese market made him feel like an alien landing on a new world. BBMF, which stands for Big Blue Magic Fire, was founded in 2002 by Lian and a friend, Antony Yip. The Japan unit will be set up in the coming months and 10 titles are scheduled to be offered on KDDI and Vodafone handsets.
