NTT DoCoMo will start selling Nokia Oyj phones as early as October, getting its second foreign handset maker after Motorola Inc. for its high-speed network. Nokia, the world’s largest mobile-phone maker, will produce a model for DoCoMo’s 3G network, which allows users to download music and video clips and access the Internet at a faster rate than older phones, Chief Financial Officer Yoshiaki Ugaki said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday.
Panasonic unveiled its ultra-small low-power wireless module by incorporating a radio circuit and a microcomputer onto a single CMOS LSI chip, the world’s first in 400-MHz band low-power wireless technology. The tiny high-speed wireless module is suitable for a wide range of home and industrial applications. Panasonic has applied for 78 patents on the new module in Japan, of which 11 have so far been granted, and two patents overseas.
Kyocera Corp. will from the end of the month start outsourcing production of mobile phones sold in the US market to Singaporean firm Flextronics International Ltd., the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without identifying its sources. Earlier this year, Kyocera moved production of its phone handsets to Mexico from the US in a bid to improve profitability. But with the group handset business still suffering a 14.9 bn yen loss for the year ended 31 March, Kyocera decided to go one step further and move production to an outside company, the financial daily said.
The V603SH mobile phone (manufactured by Sharp of Japan) released by Vodafone KK in mid-February 2005 can be operated by shaking or tilting. With the menu screen displayed, the case can be tilted left-right or up-down, just like rolling a ball on your palm, to move the cursor in four or eight directions. By shaking the case in a preset fashion, the user can open specified menus or launch applications.
Renesas Technology Corp. and BenQ Corporation today announced that Renesas Technology’s industry-leading SH-Mobile application processor will be incorporated into BenQ’s latest models of 2.5G multimedia GSM mobile phones. With the first launch of Z2 in April, followed by another model in June, both models will be available in Mainland China, Taiwan, Europe and other Asian areas. Mr. Dai Hirasawa, Chairman & CEO of Renesas Technology Taiwan Co., Ltd. said: “We are pleased to provide our SH-Mobile solution to BenQ, one of the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers. With this successful collaboration and promising business relationship in the future, I believe we will bring mobile phones powered by SH-Mobile to market faster and further increase our share in the mobile phone market.”
ACCESS announced the immediate availability of its NetFront for Series 60 702NK edition mobile browser for Vodafone K.K. 702NK (Nokia 6630) smartphone users. NetFront for Series 60 702NK edition mobile browser retails for 2,500 and can be purchased for download from Vodafone K.K.’s Vodafone live! site in Japan.
