TOKYO—NEC, the largest telecom vendor in Japan, announced it will expand its procurement of mobile handsets from China to 200 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) in fiscal 2002. NEC is going to launch General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) handsets targeting the European market in fiscal year 2002, and the vendor will produce the GPRS handsets at EMS in China.
NEC is the largest handset manufacturer in Japan. NEC’s folding-type i-mode handsets are winning popularity among Japanese mobile users. However, partly due to the economic slowdown and partly due to the saturation of the Japanese mobile market, NEC is expecting handset sales for fiscal 2002 to decrease by 10 percent from fiscal 2001. In 2001, it sold 12.5 million handsets.
On the other hand, NEC is expecting its overseas sales for handsets will be up and will occupy 10 percent to 15 percent of the firm’s total sales in fiscal 2002. Due to gloomy optical-related equipment and device sales, NEC is also expecting its network infrastructure sales will drop 10 percent in fiscal 2002 from a year ago.
