Sanyo has decided to sell its mobile phone business as part of its effort to improve group-wide profitability, with an agreement expected by the end of the year, according to a web report on Saturday by public broadcaster NHK. Sanyo is said to be negotiating separately with Sharp and Kyocera according to this article on The Japan Times. The exit rumor surfaced late last year.
IDC released a report earlier this month which identified InnoPath as the strongest MDM (Mobile Device Management) vendor in its ability to gain market share and alignment with market opportunities. Of the top eleven MDM providers, InnoPath was favorably positioned with its ability to leverage market trends, its growth potential, as well as its ability to gain market share.
Kyocera Wireless has announced a free firmware update for its KR1 Mobile Router to support a variety of EV-DO Rev.A devices. The KR1 Mobile Router is a universal accessory that is compatible with most EV-DO PCMCIA cards, ExpressCards as well as USB-enabled devices and EV-DO handsets.
According to PC World, Cellular South in Jackson, Miss., joined USA Technologies in Malvern, Pa., this week to announce a two-city consumer trial of WirelessWallet, a service that will let consumers make m-commerce payments from a cell phone. They will use handsets from Kyocera that will act as a digital credit card enabling customers to tap & go their phone on a NFC terminal to make purchases.
Mark May 22 on your calendar under Tokyo mobile madness. In the space of a few hours we had an avalanche of new handset models – 27 in all – announced by both KDDI au and (see our previous post) SoftBank Mobile. The Okura hotel was swarming at 10am as the wraps came off au’s Summer 2007 lineup and of course they have their usual dedicated, and slick, Flash site online Here. It will take us a little while to plow through the complete details of each model, available in Japanese, meanwhile we have compiled a quick overview for you after the jump.
The annual CTIA event is underway – like spring break for telco geeks – this week in Orlando and the PR is flowing. While there is predictable hype surrounding mobile tv and m-commerce, it’s satisfying to see that indeed the industry over-seas is beginning to embrace the functions and services we have seen developed and deployed here in Japan over the last few years. Now of the course the trick is, after the chatter, what happens next. As they say “the devil’s in the details” so time will tell, but it really does seem that things are warming up under the Florida sun!
Kyocera Wireless and PCTEL Inc. announced their collaboration on a Voice Call Continuity (VCC) solution for dual-mode Wi-Fi/CDMA handsets. The solution, which incorporates PCTEL’s Roaming Client – Voice Enabled (VE), is being demonstrated on a prototype Kyocera handset. VCC technology allows a dual-mode handset to make seamless handoffs of active calls while moving between Wi-Fi and CDMA air interfaces. The new VCC solution integrates Kyocera’s CDMA voice, user interface and SMS features with PCTEL’s VoIP, SMS Over IP, single-number roaming and active-call handover functionality.
Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Runcom Technologies disclosed a development agreement aimed at leveraging Kyocera’s expertise in wireless device development and Runcom’s leading chipset technologies. The companies are working closely to develop exciting new consumer electronic devices employing the latest in broadband Mobile WiMAX technology. Kyocera and Runcom worked closely over the last several months in the early development of multiple classes of Mobile WiMAX terminals.
KDDI announced their spring 2007 handset line-up this week with ten new 3G models focused on form and function. The latest addition to their Au Design Project, the Media Skin concept by Tokujin Yoshioka, was introduced along with this announcement that it will go on display with earlier offerings – the Infobar, Talby and Neon – at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The other models on deck are coming from Toshiba (W51T and W52T), Casio (W51CA), Sanyo (W51SA), Kyocera (W51K), Hitachi (W51H), Sony Ericsson (W51S), the second-ever model from Sharp (W51SH) – a popular design originally introduced by Vodafone in spring 2006 (and also recently available from DoCoMo) – plus a first-time offer by top-tier maker Panasonic (W51P).
The W52T, a candybar slider with a wide VGA 480×800 resolution 3-inch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera and 1GB of on-board memory [.jpg image] stood out as quite impressive during our quick test drive. An immediate and interesting observation is that eight of the ten handsets are 1 Seg digital-TV enabled, which should clearly signal (pardon the pun) that KDDI is bullish on broadcast TV content and services. Otherwise, most have the FeliCa mobile wallet function and the usual goodies such as GPS, PC Site Viewer, Hello Messenger and – of course – all units are running on BREW and come with the EZ suite of mobile content (books, games, auctions etc.) and are LISMO music ready.
The carriers and handset makers are pumping full blast with mobile number portability pushing everyone to improve and deliver better product offering. DoCoMo also announced ten new phones this week while SoftBank is expected to introduce their line-up soon as well. March is traditionally the busiest handset replacement month of the year in Japan, as the new academic and fiscal year begins April 1st; we’ll be looking forward to the official TCA subscriber results.
Kyocera Corporation and its group companies are exhibiting at the ITU 2006, held from December 4 to 8 in Hong Kong, with the focus on a display of CDMA mobile handsets. The products in the booth have been selected to present Kyocera’s ‘design concept’ towards the mobile communication terminals. Two of the terminals offered by Kyocera this year feature slim, lightweight designs in response to user preferences, while being equipped with enriched functions and wide, easy-to-read displays. The A5521K model released this spring is squeezed into a form factor just 18 mm thick, while the brand-new W44K boasts a thickness of just 15 mm.
