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Korean 3G Phone Finally Hits Japan Market

Korean 3G Phone Finally Hits Japan MarketKDDI/au has announced the roll-out of their A1405PT, made by Pantech & Curitel, will begin today in the Hokkaido region and throughout all areas of Japan over the weekend. The phone was jointly developed with KDDI and marks the first entry of a Korean maker’s handset into the Japanese market. Touted, at 98 grams, as the ‘lightest 3G handset’ available in the market, it comes with a limited set of features (only a VGA camera, for example), but it does have an organic EL “Stream Screen” sub-display and has a built-in crime prevention buzzer function, a feature which was also just introduced by DoCoMo (for good reason).

WWJ has been tracking rumours and hints on the entry of Korean terminals for some time now but this is hard fact on the ground. We have seen Sanyo and Casio pushing into the U.S. market along with Sharp and NEC making moves in Europe. It’s clearly becoming a two-way street with the recent launch of Motorola’s M-1000 with DoCoMo, who have also indicated that LG and Nokia models are in the pipeline.

Vodafone Launches Worldwide Mobile TV

In one of the biggest moves yet to push new mobile TV services to a global audience, Vodafone Group PLC will begin this month to offer a mix of world TV brands, European sports coverage and entertainment programs across its international markets. Under its new global mobile TV channel offering, Vodafone will provide popular programs that are easy to view on small mobile phone screens, the operator said Tuesday.

Note: This story appears to be based on Vodafone Group’s 6 December press release. Big V’s new mobile TV service is, we think, not unrelated to an earlier media service & technology rolled out a year ago and quietly test-marketed in Japan. WWJ hopes to bring you a detailed report shortly once we get confirmation from the carrier. — Ed.

Phones Require Smarter Solutions for Security

NTT DoCoMo Press Center; When businessman Hideki Suzuki lost his beloved mobile phone, a 3G FOMA smart phone equipped for electronic wallet and other e-commerce applications, he was naturally concerned. If someone were to use his phone maliciously to make purchases, transfer funds or view confidential data, or if the problem somehow impacted his business contacts, it could have been a disaster. But Suzuki did not panic. He simply went to a pay phone booth, dialed his number and let the phone ring a preset number of times. Then Suzuki smiled, because he had just locked his phone’s buttons and smart card features — remotely, automatically and immediately.

Willcom Sees Strong Initial Sales

Willcom Sees Strong Initial Sales“Despite the high prices, there were huge line-ups waiting to buy the new Willcom PHSes,” said my Kiwi pal in an email last night. It looks like some of Willcom’s PHS phones appear to be selling well on the strength of flat-rate voice and data and handsets that are at least comparable to the high-end 3G cellular models from the Big Three carriers. Is this a hint of price destruction to come when the new licensees jump into the market in 2006?

“It normally takes about 20 minutes to get a new phone, but the wait for the new Willcom models on the first day of sales was over an hour and a half. A day or two later and the long lines have vanished,” added Keith Wilkinson, a long-time Japan hand and a keen watcher of all things electronic.

He was referring to the WX300K, WX310K and WX310SA, from Kyocera and Sanyo, as initially reported by WWJ in October, the first in a new series of PHS models. PHS is the shorter-range, non-cellular standard that has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity due to lower costs of usage and flat-rate pricing. According to Willcom, phones could be reserved starting on 11 November, and became or will become available in shops on the 18th (WX300K, silver and ochre), the 25th (WX310K, silver & pink; WX310SA, silver & red) and the 30th (WX310K, other color).

DoCoMo Announces New Investments

DoCoMo has announced plans to invest approx. $234 million in Japanese handset software companies Access and Aplix. Firming it’s position as the second largest investor in Access, DoCoMo will increase their current 7% holding to just over 11% for an estimated cost of $124 million. DoCoMo uses the company’s NetFront browser in most of its 3G FOMA handsets and Access recently acquired PalmSource. Another $110 million investment in Aplix will give DoCoMo the top shareholder in that software developer with nearly 18 percent. Applix is working with Sun Microsystems on the so-called Star Project to improve Java software control systems for mobile devices.

Texas Instruments and DoCoMo JV

Fulfilling a commitment made last year to jointly develop 3G solutions with NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments Inc. today announced it has sampled a cost-competitive, multi-mode UMTS chipset developed with NTT DoCoMo to serve the worldwide 3G handset market. Part of TI’s OMAP-Vox architecture, the new OMAPV2230 solution is an integrated UMTS dual-mode digital baseband processor and advanced applications processor based on TI’s high-performance OMAP 2 architecture, TI’s proven GSM/GPRS technology, and NTT DoCoMo’s established WCDMA technology.