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DoCoMo Unveils New FOMA 900is

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries today unveiled three highly advanced handsets that will bring unprecedented functionality to the 3G FOMA® 900i series. The release date for each model will be announced soon. The companies also announced that the number of FOMA service subscribers surpassed the four million mark yesterday, just two months after reaching three million. The coming release of three new 900i handsets is expected to stimulate continued rapid growth of the FOMA subscriber base.

Vodafone Enacts Voluntary Retirement

Vodafone K.K. announced today that its Board of Directors passed a resolution to enact a voluntary retirement program. The program includes a special allowance in addition to the normal retirement allowance as well as job placement support. Some 600 employees are eligible for the program. The announcement comes as no surprise in light of the massive losses announced earlier.

Vodafone Holdings K.K. Plunges to 100 billion yen Loss

The Vodafone badge is deep red and Vodafone’s Japan arm is heamorraging yen; but, somewhat ironically, the flow isn’t quite as bad as the company thought. Today Vodafone Holdings K.K. announced it had lost 100 billion yen ($887 million!) in the financial year to 31 March 2004 compared to a proft of 79.5 billion yen in 2003 (when the company was still J-Phone). CEO Darryl Green had expected a loss of 114 billion yen, which would have been a super uncool $1 billion bucks at this week’s exchange rates, so it wasn’t quite as big a bloodbath as expected. Vodafone experienced revenue growth of 3.3%, but the company suffered operating, ordinary, and net income deficiencies due to increases in 3G depreciation costs, handset inventory provision, and retention initiatives. The skinny: operating revenues were down 7.9%, 0.3% worse than forecast at 1,665 billion yen against 1,797 billion yen last year. Within this, Vodafone K.K.’s operating revenues were 1,509 billion yen, up 3.3% compared to last year. Operating income plunged 32.9% to 185 billion yen from 275 billion yen last year.

Vodafone K.K. Announces Merger/ Buyout

Ahead of this afternoon’s press release, Vodafone Holdings K.K. and Vodafone K.K. put out a press statement saying they “jointly announce today that their respective boards have agreed to merge the two companies.” According to the statement, Vodafone Holdings K.K. will be the surviving entity and will be renamed Vodafone K.K. after the merger completes [sic]. In a separate announcement, Vodafone Group PLC announced Vodafone International Holdings B.V. (Vodafone International) will launch a 513-billion yen offer for shares in Vodafone Holdings K.K. and Vodafone K.K. Putting good money after bad?

DoCoMo Pins 3G Hopes on New Handsets

DoCoMo will seek to revitalise lacklustre sales of its FOMA service with the launch of three new handsets. From next month DoCoMo will start receiving an estimated 6m 3G handsets from NEC, Panasonic and Fujitsu in a bid to increase its 3G customer base to 10.6m. In conjunction with the new handsets, DoCoMo has earmarked Y120bn ($1.1bn) of tariff cuts during the current financial year.

DoCoMo President-Elect Nakamura: A Man with a Mission

In an intervew with Nikkei BP, NTT DoCoMo’s new president Masao Nakamura has said he has three major goals; increase 3G FOMA subscribers, dig out new revenue sources such as mobile e-commerce and enhance customer satisfaction. After posting its highest ever operating profit of 1, 103 billion yen in the year to March 2004, it certainly looks as if Nakamura has his work cut out for him, especially as — on the surface of it at least — KDDI au seems to have consistently knocked the socks off DoCoMo in terms of gleaning 3G subs.