panasonic
panasonic

panasonic

Huawei 3G – Made in China

According to Huawei spokesman Fu Jun, Huawei has already begun producing handsets for use with mobile systems that use the CDMA-1X standard backed by US-based Qualcomm Corp. Fu said Huawei is also developing handsets for W-CDMA, which is the European standard Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd is using in its 3G service now on offer in Britain and Italy. He added new 3G handsets are being designed in various partnerships with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co’s Panasonic, NEC Corp and Infineon Technologies AG. The company made headlines in December when it signed agreements with Emirates Telecommunications Corp and Hong Kong’s Sunday on the deployment of W-CDMA networks for the two telecom operators.

Mobile TV Solution Coming?

On top of launching full-scale digital-satellite-to-mobile-terminal broadcasting services on July 1, Mobile Broadcasting Corp. (MBCO) and its main technology backer Toshiba Corp. are making a strong, and they believe attractive, push to generate digital broadcasting revenue streams for Japan’s wireless carriers in April 2006 when DoCoMo, KDDI, and perhaps Vodafone K.K. will unleash mobiles with digital TV tuners on them. Talking to Shigekazu Hori, vice president and general manger of Toshiba Corp.’s Network Services & Contents Control Center last week, the planets could finally be aligning for a tailor-made revenue model that will finally convince Japan’s carriers to equip mobile phones with television. And, of course, as mentioned by DoCoMo’s Keiji Tachikawa last week, the fact that MPEG-4 standards have been settled and H.264 is coming doesn’t hurt either.

Survey of Japan's Wireless Market

Survey of Japan's Wireless MarketResearch house and consumer survey firm INFO PLANT recently held a seminar on the main themes and directions of Japan’s wireless market in 2004. INFO PLANT’s C-News editor-in-chief Tomoki Sakaino began with some interesting comparisons between the Korea and Japan markets before offering unique insights into the prospects for FOMA and FeliCa this year; he also reviewed studies into attitudes about DoCoMo’s new 900i-series 3G handsets and TV broadcast content for mobile devices. Full Program Run-time 19:28

Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Forge 3G Handset Alliance

Here’s one for the books: Symbian OS proponent Fujitsu and Mitsubishi (which makes decent handsets for the domestic market but is unknown outside of Japan) have announced that they are getting together to develop new FOMA handsets. The press release today appears to be dressed up in terms of Fujitsu offering its expertise to Mitsubishi with Symbian, but it also hints that the two will combine on hardware development too. Given the fact that Fujitsu is a leading proponent of Symbian, and that DoCoMo president Keiji Tachikawa hinted that Symbian will be the OS of choice, the announcement looks as if Mitsubishi has figured the lay of the land and jumped on the bandwagon.

Panasonic Introduces the X300 Cell Phone to Europe

Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., introduces the unique X300 to the European market. Designed with a one-push pop-up screen, the X300 is the first phone of its kind. The tri-band phone also features a 65K colour screen, video record and playback capability, polyphonic ring tones, Multimedia Messaging (MMS) and built-in camera. Mr Masatoshi Kitade, Managing Director, Panasonic Mobile Communications Europe, comments: “The X300 is an exciting addition to Panasonic’s product line up. Its innovative, pop-up screen design transforms a high-quality mobile phone into a digital camera. With the capability to shoot short video clips as well as still shots, the X300 is at the cutting-edge of mobile technology. We are proud to be the first to offer a phone of this design, continuing our tradition as pioneers in the industry.”

Micro-Browser and Java Module Selected for Panasonic's European i-mode Handset

ACCESS, a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced that its Compact NetFront Plus micro-browser and JV-LiteTM 2 Wireless Edition, a Sun authorized JVM that complies with the J2METM standard, have been selected by Panasonic for deployment in its first European i-mode(R) handset, the P341i. Panasonic also selected ACCESS’ AVETM-SSL encryption module for this deployment. Panasonic’s decision to use Compact NetFront adds to the millions of i-mode devices that already rely on ACCESS browser technology to power their Internet functionality.