Softbank Corp. said its fiscal third-quarter net profit jumped 41% year-on-year, driven by strong sales of the Apple iPhone at its wireless division. Softbank Mobile’s strong performance helped the group expand in the country’s cutthroat but profitable mobile market.
DoCoMo said Friday its group net profit for the fiscal third quarter jumped 48% from a year earlier thanks to earlier-than-expected amortization in its second-generation mobile phone business. Net profit for the three months ended December rose to 135 billion yen ($1.5 billion) from 91 billion yen. Operating profit for the period rose 28% to 217.4 billion yen from 169.8 billion yen according to WSJ.
On the same afternoon that DoCoMo rolled their latest offering of 19 new models, across town SoftBank Mobile was also pitching their upcoming series of devices. Not only on the same day and time but SBM also introduced 19 new handsets for their winter 2009/10 lineup with 7 units coming from Sharp, 5 by Panasonic, 3 NEC’s, 2 Samsung and 1 by Toshiba. While Wi-Fi is certainly their keyword, taking advantage of the existing Yahoo BB network, the mystery Android handset marked for arrival in spring 2010 is getting all the buzz. Described only as a high spec. unit running a “Snapdragon” 1Ghz CPU with a 3.7-inch organic EL liquid crystal display – sounds like this Toshiba – and various new related services. Check-out the fancy Flash Gallery or watch the full 1:40 minute video presentation with English voice-over for all the details.
We made our way to the DoCoMo press conference held at the Tokyo Forum here yesterday afternoon to witness the wraps-off event of their Fall & Winter handset series. Under the tag line “Version Up” the lineup featured a total of 19 new designs on offer, with 5 Sharp units, 4 models by Fujitsu, 3 from each LG, NEC and Panasonic plus 1 Samsung. Considering the range of new devices – along with service announcements such as Auto-GPS for i-concier, MyArea Femtocell with exclusive AV contents for the home plus several Blu-ray capable units – there should, at least hopefully, be something appealing here for everybody. Check-out this Flash Gallery or see the full 80-minute presentation Video Here.
According to this report via Bloomberg, DoCoMo aims to rely on dividend payments and strategic investments to raise its share price from record lows. “The dividend is our top policy choice, followed by investments in growth areas; buying back shares comes after that,” Tsubouchi said in an interview today. “The share price is just too low.” Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said.
DoCoMo has announced that beginning December 1st it will reduce the monthly maximum charge for wireless data charged by tethering a handset with PC or other device under their Pake-hodai double flat-rate data service to 5,985 yen, down from 13,650 yen (from approx. $150 to $65), via selected Internet access points.
