Seven leading Asia-Pacific mobile operators, including Ayala-owned Globe Telecom, are investing $30 to $40 million over three years to form the region’s largest joint venture mobile company, with a potential customer base of over 300 million. The regional mobile alliance, Bridge Mobile, will be the commercial vehicle in which the seven operators jointly invest to build and establish a regional mobile infrastructure and common service platform.
Hong Kong’s SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings announced Tuesday it will roll out its 3G mobile phone network in December, making it the territory’s second provider of 3G services. “It is clear indication of our commitment … to deliver seamless, advanced and faster multimedia services,” SmarTone Chief Executive Douglas Li said at a news conference to announce the December launch of 3G services.
Beijing DG Telecom, a mobile applications and infrastructure provider, has announced an agreement with TruVideo, a Berkeley, California, based company specializing in mobile video solutions, to provide mobile video applications for the greater Chinese mobile market. Freeverse Partners, a Tokyo based company specializing in assisting foreign companies in Asian mobile business development and strategy, facilitated the partnership.
MontaVista Software and NEC Electronics Corporation have announced a strategic partnership to integrate and optimize MontaVista Linux for NEC Electronics’ embedded hardware platforms. Through the partnership, MontaVista will provide MontaVista Linux platforms to NEC Electronics for use in its mobile phone, digital consumer and car navigation solutions. The integration of technologies will enable device manufacturers to build high quality products, with lower total development costs and reduced time-to-market.
Korea’s Samsung Electronics has raised the bar on high-resolution camera phones so far that other handset makers are going to need a ladder to scramble over. The company’s new SCH-S250 handset boasts five (Count ’em: 5!) megapixels. To date, three megapixels has been the industry top — and available in only a very few Korean and Japanese handsets (which hit retail shelves just several short months ago).
Samsung Electronics will market the world’s first 5-megapixel camera phone [.jpg image]. The company said Wednesday that its new cell phone handsets equipped with a 5-megapixel camera will be sold through SK Telecom beginning late this month.
