U.S Market
U.S Market

U.S Market

Amp'd Mobile Acquires NINJA's BREW

Amp’d Mobile announced its acquisition of NINJA Mobile’s development division, which will become a part of Amp’d Mobile while NINJA focuses on expanding its mobile publishing business. The acquisition includes NINJA’s esteemed United States and Japanese development teams and NINJA’s “Rope Platform” technology. NINJA’s Rope Platform is the base upon which the Amp’d community, blogging, dating, commerce, multiplayer gaming, location-based and additional server-driven applications, are being built.

Amp'd Announces Kyocera Handset

Amp’d Mobile and Kyocera Wireless Corp. today announced the Jet, an affordable high-speed EV-DO handset for rapid downloading of Amp’d’s unique 3G content launching later this year. Jet marks the first EV-DO mobile phone for Kyocera Wireless, a leading global manufacturer of CDMA wireless phones and devices, and will be the lowest-priced handset at Amp’d Mobile, the first fully integrated 3G mobile entertainment company for youth/young adults.

Cybird Expands Overseas

Cybird Co., a Japanese provider of games, ring tones and other content for mobile phones, agreed to pay $60 million for a majority stake in closely held Airborne Entertainment Inc. to expand in North America. Cybird announced the acquisition in a release to the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the close of regular trading on Japanese markets. It plans to sign a contract on June 23, and receive the shares on June 30.

Mobile Tetris No. 1 on Verizon

Verizon Wireless is giving classic arcade games new mobile life with Get It Now and the getGAMES shopping aisle. A virtual software store on customers’ wireless phones, Get It Now offers customers a selection of more than 500 games, productivity tools, information services, ring tone providers, wallpaper providers, an IM chat client — Mobile IM — that includes access to Yahoo! Messenger, MSN(R) Messenger, or AOL(R) IM (AIM), and more right at their fingertips. Looking at the most popular game titles from Verizon Wireless, it’s no surprise that the most widely played and famous computer game of all time leads both the top 10 games and top classic games categories. Namco’s Tetris(R) by JAMDAT Mobile gives addicts longing for video game action the freedom to play the game virtually anytime, virtually anywhere. Available on Verizon’s select Get It Now-enabled phones for $2.99 monthly access or $6.99 for unlimited use purchase.

DoCoMo Capital Headed for the U.S

NTT DoCoMo, Inc., announced today that it will establish a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, named DoCoMo Capital, Inc., to invest in venture companies that develop advanced mobile communication technologies. The subsidiary will take stakes in venture companies, mainly in the United States, to support their development of innovative technologies. Based in San Jose, California, the subsidiary is scheduled to begin operating on 1 July 2005.

Sprint and Sanyo Introduce the MM-5600 Mobile Phone

Sprint and Sanyo announced today the Sprint PCS Vision(SM) Multimedia Phone MM-5600 by Sanyo at this year’s Photo Marketing Association Annual Convention and Trade Show. The MM-5600 by Sanyo allows customers to listen to stereo-quality music; take, share and print quality photos; and view the latest video content from nationally recognized brands in the news and entertainment industry at up to 15 frames per second with the built-in media player, all from a single device.

Sprint Launches Sanyo Handset

US carrier Sprint has started offering the new Sanyo MM-7400 [.jpg image] as part of a new breed of phones with the ability to stream video over the Sprint network. The streaming video service offers a “basic cable” package for mobile handsets which includes a variety of content from NBC Universal, FOX Sports, ABC News Now, Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, Comedy Time, and more. Other premium channels are also available, but you’ll have to shell out extra for them.

DoCoMo's 3G Alliance with Cingular

NTT DoCoMo Inc. will tie up with Cingular Wireless LLC, the second-largest U.S. cellphone service company, in a bid to unify the technical specifications of 3G cellphones and services, a Japanese business daily reported Thursday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that DoCoMo and Cingular have already entered into negotiations on forging an alliance which would become the world’s second-largest cellphone service provider with some 90 million customers after Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc.

Static over RFID Patents

A key patent holder’s demand for royalties has triggered concerns that promising RFID technology could become embroiled in an intellectual-property battle. The protocol is likely to contain certain patented technology from RFID equipment maker Intermec Technologies. The Everett, Wash., company recently demanded royalties for the use of the patents and is suing Matrics, a rival, for allegedly infringing on some of them.

NEC's 525 HDM Leads GoWireless

NEC America, Inc. and Vuico, LLC, announced the availability of Vuico’s GoWireless PRO solution for NEC’s 525 High Definition Mobile (HDM) phones. The program was developed to provide a compelling solution for mobile users and includes free cell phones (after rebates) with the purchase of wireless and data services. The 525 HDM model is a GSM/GPRS quad band mobile handset, allowing individuals to access their email when traveling internationally.