Nokia
Nokia

Nokia

Vodafone Hung Up on Nokia for 3G

Vodafone has placed orders for millions of next generation mobile phones for its new 3G services with Japanese manufacturers, in a snub to Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer. According to a senior Vodafone executive, Nokia did not yet have handheld devices with the functions he wanted. “Nokia is developing an elaborate system,” he said. “But they are behind the Japanese.” He would not name the Japanese recipients of the orders, claiming commercial sensitivity.

Wireless Watch at CEATEC; Next Stop Ubiquity

There was some real gold buried in the 2,460 booths and 505 companies that exhibited at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) 2003 last week, and a bunch of press releases over the last two weeks have induced us to write a comprehensive tech review of what’s new with mobile technology. At the show we managed to corner the chief designer of Mitsubishi Electric’s next generation keitais (NGKs?) on a new series of very cool modular phones they have developed for next year, Melco looks to have made a conceptual breakthrough with these prototype handsets. Suffice to say we think that series with plug-and-play games console, megapix camera, GPS and other modules that snap onto it’s sleek clamshell design, looks as if they will blow the competition (Sony Ericsson and Samsung versions) out of the water. We also took a ride on the new Sanyo TV-Phone coming out for KDDI and saw a few other goodies like ASIMO and fish feeding with FOMA! We’ll show you all these cool new keitai in action, so be on standby for our video program that’s coming soon. The central message we took from CEATEC was that there are plenty of outstanding innovations coming on stream in the next 18 months that will finally herald the dawn of “ubiquitous” communication. Ahh, ubiquity, the means-anything buzzword that launched a thousand PowerPoint presentations…

After J-Phone's Miserable Summer Vodafone KK is Born

With former J-Phone’s 3G rollout stalled and, it seems, little left in the goodies barrel to counter DoCoMo’s sleek summer-six 2G 505i rollout, and swelling 3G subscriber figures from both its rivals here in Japan, J-Phone needed to distract press attention from the company’s terrible summer. Last week, Darryl E. Green just did that. There was a strong sense of DeJaVu at WWJ when Green, eschewing fowl or game, pulled the NEC ‘tellycelly’ out of his corporate top hat at October 1’s inaugural Vodafone KK press conference. Remember Sha-mail? How fleet-footed J-Phone sidestepped DoCoMo and stole the hearts, or at least the images, of 10 million teenagers with cool keitai camera phones? It looks like the rebranded J-Phone-cum-Vodafone KK combo is going to leapfrog DoCoMo and KDDI again with Japan’s first TV-Phone this December. And, beyond that, Vodafone KK has a lot more up its wide sleeves with six new 3G phones, new business billing plans and bargain rates to fight back.

Vodafone Japan Launches TV Phone Surprise

Vodafone Japan Launches TV Phone SurpriseFlashback a few years when J-Phone stunned the competition, and started a global wireless trend, by rolling out their new camera phones; well they may have just done it again. J-Phone was officially renamed as Vodafone KK on Oct. 1st. We were on hand to see President and CEO Darryl E. Green announce the company’s strategy going forward. After his brief pep talk, and during the rather harsh question period from reporters on J-Phone’s recent performance, Green pulled out a shiny red metallic NEC handset. The cameras strobed and the room began to buzz as it became clear that Vodafone had scooped everyone yet again with Japan’s first TV-Phone, set to hit Tokyo streets just in time for New Years. Full Program Run-time 14:24

Sony Ericsson 3G Handset Delayed

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB has pushed back the launch of its first 3G mobile broadband phone in Europe and Asia by several weeks to early January as the Japanese-Swedish joint venture continues interoperability tests with wireless operators. The Z1010 will support 2G GSM and GPRS technologies, as well as the new 3G mobile broadband networks based on WCDMA technology.

Vodafone could snub Nokia for 3G

In an effective snub to top handset maker Nokia, the Financial Times reported that Vodafone was negotiating exclusive deals with Japan’s Sanyo and Samsung of South Korea for its new range of upgraded Vodafone Live! multimedia phones. ‘Vodafone is trialling a number of handsets to support its 3G service, which will be available before March 2004,’ the group stated. ‘Vodafone cannot confirm at this stage which manufacturers will be exclusive providers for Vodafone’s 3G services.’