Wireless News
Wireless News

Wireless News

TOKYOPOP – Manga to Go

TOKYOPOP Inc., has teamed up with uclick, LLC, a leader in mobile entertainment, to bring “TOKYOPOP Mobile Manga” to mobile phone users worldwide. This unique, downloadable manga application plays manga titles in their original multi-panel format on mobile phones. uclick has developed a new JAVA and BREW subscription application that offers new manga content every day. With a clean, rich graphic presentation coupled with a simple user interface, the manga application puts this popular Japanese art form into the hands of dedicated fans looking for that dose of manga on the go.

Toshiba Wins Hynix Suit

The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Toshiba in the Japanese electronics maker’s patent infringement suit against the Japanese unit of South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor over its flash memory-related patents. The court ordered Hynix Semiconductor Japan to discontinue the sale of products in violation and pay 7.8 million yen ($67,000) in damages.

NEC Looking for Global Partner

According to a story in the Daily Yomiuri, NEC’s next president Kaoru Yano told a recent press conference that “It’s bizarre that there are more than 10 cell phone makers in Japan. We’ll definitely go for a tie-up”, showing his enthusiasm for a rearrangement plan. Following the Nokia-Sanyo announcement and as mentioned in our Predictions for 2006, we are not surprised to hear about his plans for consolidation in the Japanese OEM market.

Dentsu Enters FIFA Broadcast JV

According to a recent press release, FIFA has announced its decision on the distribution for the Asian broadcast rights to the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup and all FIFA Events between 2007 and 2014 following a tender process that was started in the autumn 2005. It has appointed a newly-formed joint venture established between two of its long-term partners, Infront Sports & Media, the international sports marketing company, and Dentsu, the Japan-based advertising company. The rights included in the appointment are in the categories of television, radio, broadband internet and mobile broadcasting in key Asian territories.

UFJ and Visa Announce Mobile JV

UFJ Nicos, the core credit card division of UFJ Mitsubishi Financial Group and Visa International have agreed to offer mobile phone IC payment services. Under the deal announced UFJ will give Visa the right to use it’s “Smart Plus” settlement technology. The two companies will set up a new firm to oversee the service according to the report.

Vodafone sells Japan unit to Softbank for $11.9 bn

The news just hit the wires: Vodafone Group has agreed to sell its stake in its struggling Japanese unit to Softbank Corp. for $11.87 billion in cash. The deal announced on Friday values Vodafone Japan at around 1.8 trillion yen ($15.30 billion) including debt and will allow Vodafone to return 6 billion pounds to shareholders.

Editor’s note: This news will be all over the Web in a few minutes. What a sad end to what could have been a highly valuable synergistic move into the world’s most advanced 3G market! Defeated by fickle consumers, the lack of a low-end tier in the segment, and the challenge of coordinating terminals and technologies across borders, Vodafone is heading home. The price of the deal, a whopping 15 billion bucks, proves that Vodafone KK is a valuable commodity — in the right hands. — Eds.