Vodafone Group Plc of the UK plans to boost its business in Japan by launching competitively priced 3G cellular phones around autumn and developing more market-focused services. Vodafone Group President Arun Sarin said that in the October-December quarter the company will begin volume sales of its global-model 3G cell phones, which are also used in the group’s 3G services in other countries.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. President Masao Nakamura will seek an alliance with a UK partner that doesn’t require an equity investment to promote its i-mode wireless Internet technology, after selling its stake in Hutchison 3G UK. Note that this approach tightly mirrors DoCoMo’s earlier move into France (where i-mode has become a quiet success) and more recently into Australia. Big D no longer has to wave their cash club — they just have to offer a conduit to made-in-Japan 3G cellys.
Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB), Alcatel’s joint venture in Shanghai, is close to wrapping up a deal with a domestic company to develop TD-SCDMA, the Chinese homegrown 3G standard, according to Monday’s China Daily. The company signed an agreement with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) last week in Shanghai to jointly develop video applications. “Multimedia services will be a key element for the success of 3G. The co-operation with SMG will strengthen our leading position in that particular area,” said Gerard Dega, president of ASB.
On Monday, 21 June, NTT DoCoMo’s newly minted President & CEO Masao Nakamura held his first press conference in Tokyo. Previously, Nakamura was an official of NTT Corp. in charge of personnel management. He was appointed as a managing director of NTT DoCoMo in 1998, and became the company’s senior executive vice president in 2002. He also held other prominent positions, such as executive manager of the Accounts and Finance Department, senior executive manager of the Mobile Multimedia Division and managing director of the Marketing Division. WWJ subscribers can view the entire 30-minute Q&A session and please note — in the spirit of these changing times — we have upgraded our video codecs in the hope of delivering an even better product to WWJ subscribers. Wow, all the recent mobile kaizen must be contagious! Full Program Run-time 34:16, also available in Real Player and Quick-Time formats.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today the July 1 nationwide release of the premini, [image] the smallest i-mode handset ever released, weighing just 69g and measuring only 90mm (height), 40mm (width) and 19.8mm (thickness). Prior to the launch, premini handsets will be displayed at four shops in Tokyo and Osaka from June 26 to 30. Get a peek at this tiny unit in our our video coverage of the Tokyo Business Show.
A group of mobile operators announced yesterday their intention to define widely accepted requirements for an open mobile terminal platform (“OMTP”). The founding members of this initiative are mmO2, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SMART Communications, Telefónica Móviles, TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), T-Mobile and Vodafone. These members will establish a new company based in London, OMTP Limited (“the OMTP group”), to achieve their goals. It’s about time.
