3G
3G

3G

FY2005 Mid-Term Demand Forecast for Telecommunication Equipment

CIAJ’s Research and Statistics Committee has compiled its annual mid-term demand forecast. A slowdown in new subscribers pulled the growth rate of cellular handsets down, a break in capital investments by fixed telecommunication carriers decreased demand for modems and central office switching systems, and the transition to multipurpose equipment had a negative impact on facsimiles for business-use. On the other hand, continued healthy growth was seen for business and personal multipurpose equipment, optic communication equipment and routers. Strong interest in security and contingency planning for disasters pushed demand up for fixed communication equipment and other consumer equipment, migration of public PHS users to new carriers, and PHS subscriber growth due to new services contributed to the CIAJ forecast of flat overall growth at 4,138.5 billion yen (negative growth of 0.4% over the previous year) for FY2005. The midterm outlook for the telecommunication equipment market from mid FY2006 onward expects steady market growth, with further migration from 2G to 3G mobile communications, the transition from ADSL to FTTH, the switch to IP, and the lasting popularity of multipurpose equipment.

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.

Mobile Cohesion and ubit Co-operate to Develop Mobile Content for Communities

Mobile Cohesion, the company that has pioneered the concept of partner, profit and performance focused relationship management solutions for the mobile industry, has announced a collaboration venture with leading content management company ubit from Japan. ubit has been focusing on the mobile internet since 1999 and its MS2 system is now serving more than 300 mobile sites worldwide, including Orange Group and Nikkei Business Press.

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.