According to Reuters, India has approved the offer made by DoCoMo in Novemeber 2008 to acquire a 27.3 percent stake in the country’s sixth-largest mobile operator Tata Teleservices on Monday. The deal will result in foreign direct investment of 129.24 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) and the decision also allowed DoCoMo to acquire up to 20.25 percent in Tata Tele’s listed unit Tata Teleservices.
According to this announcement, SoftBank Corp. booked a 37% decrease for YoY net profits in the third quarter to Dec. 31st 2008. Net sales in the mobile communications segment dipped 5.7% while operating income in that category was off by 8.8%. For their fiscal year ending March 31st, the company kept the profit forecast unchanged at 340 billion yen, or approx. $3.7Bn, which would reflect a nearly 5% gain on the previous year. More details after the jump..
The KDDI led consortia, UQ Communications, is geared up for commercial launch later this month in all 23 Tokyo wards, Yokohama and Kawasaki with Nagoya and Osaka coming online in June. The monthly flat-rate access fee is noted at 4,480jpy, or about $40, and will be available for free until June 30th. They also indicate that “UQ Wi-Fi” service will be made freely available on the Shinkansen for some commercial clients as of March and all customers as of September. The group, including Intel, JR East, Kyocera and several banks, formed in September 2007 and gained official approval from the ministry for the 2.5GHz spectrum a few months later.
KDDI has introduced their Walkman Phone, the Xmini produced by Sony Ericsson, ready for a late December debut. This extremely small handset (w44mm x h75mm x t18mm) naturally packs full music functionality, including maximum storage capacity of 4GB, capable of holding around 2,300 full-song tracks and incorporates a touch sensor for control even when the device is closed.
Apparently the super-thin model, tipping the scales at only 75g, does not have an on-board camera or 1Seg digital-tv tuner, or even external memory slot for that matter, but thankfully it will be available in several colors; Green & blue, purple & pink, white & Tarcoiz and good old black on black. Also noted, the Xmini model ships compatible with the ‘EZ Chaku Uta Full Plus’ service, which is also expected to come online in the latter part of December, making it possible to download and play-back AAC 320kbps tracks ‘for customers who want to be able to enjoy high quality audio content’.
Coach and KDDI have announced they will offer limited edition COACH branded handsets – 1,941 units available, based on the company being founded in 1941 – from December. These models are produced by SonyEricsson using the Full-Change skin styling features with a focus not only on exterior but also the main menu and standby screen. It should also be noted that – at least from what we can tell – the retail price of, not suprisingly, 19,041jpy (about $200usd) is only for the accessories. So clients will need to buy the main handset – at open market price – as well thank-you very much. Here’s to betting they sell-out in a heartbeat!
The initial board members of the Symbian Foundation welcomed the latest supporters of the initiative at the interim Steering Group meeting in Tokyo this week. This announcement [pdf] includes support for the Symbian Foundation plans from 7 more companies; Borqs, Comarch, HiQ, Kanrikougaku Kenkyusho Ltd. (K3), L&T Infotech, Renesas Technology Corp. and SoftBank Mobile Corp. who add their endorsements to the 52 other companies already announced.
DoCoMo is gearing up for launch of the Google phone in 2009 according to company officials. The Nikkei said Wednesday South Korea’s KT Freetel is also involved in the DoCoMo-Google project but the official said nothing had been decided on potential partners. DoCoMo has a 10 percent stake in KT Freetel. The daily also said the new Google phone would come with a keyboard and a touch-panel display and be some 20 percent cheaper than currently available cellphones.
With all guns blazing market leader NTT DoCoMo took the wraps off their next-generation series of handsets at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon, watch the full event video (in English) and/or review the individual offerings via the press release . The company has officially marked it’s shift from the legacy lineup of mainly 90xi and 70xi series handsets – currently 906i and 706i – in an effort to achieve new growth, as was recently outlined. The introduction of a new, although still somewhat confusing, 0xA-series numbering scheme has models targeted at four main consumer segments.
With (hopefully) something for everyone bundled into this latest line-up, including the introduction of i-Conceirge and i-Widgets, the first wave starts hitting the store shelves in December with several models coming along in the first few months of 2009. Meanwhile, you can always check-out the fancy Flash Gallery for all the imagery. What a week, between the three main operators we have seen a total of 45 new handset models for the coming season!
SoftBank Mobile opened a floodgate of new handsets for the year-end season with an impressive presser in Tokyo on Thursday. While the Omnia from Samsung with it’s TouchWiz UI was turning alot of heads here, it’s likely a new TV-tuner for the iPhone will pick up more attention from people overseas. The add-on device also works as a battery pack, very handy considering the surprisingly limited power which everyone is complaining about, it will apparently use an external antenna for access to 1Seg digital TV broadcasts as well. You can watch the complete event video, in English, streaming online Here.
KDDI has introduced seven new handsets for it’s fall and winter season. This new lineup has three stand-out models; the Wooo W63H from Hitachi has a first in the world, as of this announcement, 3.1 inch organic EL display with wide VGA liquid crystal, Sharps AQUOS W64SH has a full 3.5 inch LCD, which is said to be offering the best display specifications available to-date and the EXILIM W63CA by Casio is touting an 8.1M camera with face-detection auto-focus. The Panasonic W62P and Kyocera W65K are both waterproof 1Seg digital TV enabled and all devices have Global Passport roaming capabilities along with Felica e-wallets and GPS of course. The Flash Gallery is Here.
