DoCoMo
DoCoMo

DoCoMo

DoCoMo Plans New Offices in APAC

NTT DoCoMo has announced the company will establish offices in Shanghai and Singapore in January 2005. The company said it aims to “enhance its information-gathering capabilities, as well as raise its profile and strengthen relationships with government officials and corporate managers, in these two important markets.” The carrier also stated that, “Yoshimune Ishii will head the Shanghai office and Haruki Yamashita will head the Singapore office, both of which will have about four employees.”

DoCoMo Releases N506is Handset

Yesterday, NTT DoCoMo announced the 2G N506iS by NEC [.jpg], which the company says is the world’s first mobile phone featuring a flat-panel display that also functions as a speaker. The flat-panel speaker emits sound by sending vibrations throughout the entire display panel. A user can hear the person on the other end by placing an ear anywhere on the panel. DoCoMo says that this makes audiovisual content more vivid than conventional handsets, whose speakers are located on the side of the display.

New Year Gadget Shopping: Cell Phones that Look Like iPods

One of the best things about having a few days off over the holiday season in Tokyo is having time to wander casually through Akihabara and check out the latest gadgets. 2005 is shaping up as a showdown year for music-enabled portable devices and I couldn’t help but notice how DoCoMo’s new 3G handset, the SH901ic by Sharp, really does seem to have at least a slight style similarity to the iPod. As the network speed increases — and with flat-rate packet costs and improved handset technology — critical mass adoption by mainstream users buying even more data seems to be at hand. As competition increases, how will carriers, handset makers and content providers adapt their offerings over the coming year?

While it remains to be seen exactly what kind of applications and services will hit the streets, it has become increasingly clear that a race is on. Having both KDDI and Vodafone launch fixed-line access to content for mobile devices in Q42004 shows, at least in the mid-term, they are ramping up the business model to deliver larger-size files to end users. A little crystal-ball gazing for the coming year — and some very cool Akiba gadget photos — after the jump.

Korean Wireless Broadband Confusion

Following last week’s announcement that a number of companies in the space were working on so-called Super 3G, both Samsung and LG spoke up against the group, suggesting it was really an attempt by NTT DoCoMo to do an end run around efforts to settle on a 4G standard. Ed’s Note: Interesting that Samsung’s comment ignored Vodafone which was also one of the 26 companies on this group announcement.

Super 3G Global Standard

According to the Nikkei, the world’s 26 major mobile phone operators and handset makers have agreed to work on a global standard for a super-fast mobile transmission technology. The group includes NTT DoCoMo and NEC of Japan, Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC, US cell-phone carrier Cingular Wireless, Alcatel of France and Siemens AG of Germany. Super 3G can boost mobile transmission speeds to between 30 and 100 megabits per second to match existing land-line fiber-optic telecom technology.

DoCoMo to Acquire Stake in DMG

NTT DoCoMo said today that the company will invest $4.2 million in newly issued stock for an equity stake in Digital Media Group Co., Ltd., which owns Beijing Eastlong Technology Development Co., Ltd., a company that produces and distributes digital advertisements, content and services for the subway stations and trains in Shanghai. The investment will take place in January 2005. Through Eastlong Technology, DMG is planning to expand its digital media business using the latest wireless technologies, starting from transportation ads in trains and at subway and monorail stations throughout China.