TOKYO-Sharp, a leading mobile handset manufacturer in Japan, announced it will provide mobile handsets with built-in tiny cameras to China Mobile. Sharp has been providing mobile handsets with cameras to carriers in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Under its bilateral contract with Datang Telephone, a leading...
TOKYO-Japan Telecom and East Japan Railway are going to launch a demonstration experiment for high-speed wireless local area network (WLAN) service via mobile phones in mid-May, the firms jointly announced. Participants of the experiment can get access to the Internet once they are given...
TOKYO-Toshiba, via its local joint venture business in China, will launch a mobile video messaging handset in China in early March, Toshiba announced Thursday. The T618X handset will let users take both still pictures and up to 15 seconds of video with a built-in...
CALGARY, Alberta-Zi Corp., which makes software for text input on mobile phones, announced it scored a deal with Chinese device maker Legend Group Ltd."We chose Zi Corp. as our technology partner for our new line of mobile handsets because of the quality and depth...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Vodafone has unveiled the latest stage in its data strategy. Vodafone Live is a menu of services accessible from camera phones, which will allow customers to receive and send picture messages, downloads games and ring tones, and send and receive voice and text...
OSLO, Norway-Multimedia messaging service (MMS) competition is already warming up in Norway, with Telenor Mobile announcing it will charge only 68 U.S. cents for each MMS message sent, about 50 percent less than its original plan. The Norwegian operator had previously announced that it...
PARIS-Alcatel said it is establishing daily live third-generation UMTS mobile videophony communications between Asia and Europe. The company said it has been linking calls between its 3G Reality Centers in Europe and Asia during the past few months.All the calls were made using 3GPP-compliant...
CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J.-A new report from Probe Research identified several characteristics of next-generation broadband mobile terminals that are at odds with the current preferences expressed by consumers, and consequently make the design and marketing of advanced mobile terminals a challenge for vendors."Current voice-centric mobile...
BEIJING-China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) expects China to produce 95 million mobile handsets this year, of which 20 percent would be made by 12 domestic producers, up from 80 million last year, when 12 percent of total output was produced by 30 domestic...
TOKYO-Shipments of mobile phones with cameras surged from 6 million units in 2001 to 23 million units in 2003 in Japan, according to a survey conducted by a research institute.Mobile phones with cameras have become popular in Japan after J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company,...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African financial services companies are reported to be using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology as a key means of delivering products and services to customers. The technology is regarded as part of a mobile vision for both end users and...
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands—The GSM Association and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group Inc. say they are working together to educate their members on the applications that will accrue from interoperating both technologies."Short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth provide valuable consumer benefits that are expected to...
TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest operator in Japan, announced that in cooperation with SK Telecom in Korea it launched an image data transmission service between users of the two operators. It is the first international image data transmission service, according to KDDI.Users of the service, called...
TOKYO and DENVER, United States—Toshiba, a leading vendor in Japan, announced that it is going to launch Toshiba-branded mobile handsets in the U.S. market in 2003.As a first step for exploring the U.S. market, Toshiba will increase its stake in Audiovox Communications from its...
TOKYO—NEC Corp. said it received an order from Taiwan's KG Telecommunications for mobile handsets for KG Telecom's i-mode service. NEC said the delivery will make it the first supplier of i-mode handsets in Asia outside Japan.KG Telecom will be the first company in Asia...
TOKYO—NEC, the leading handset maker in Japan, announced that it shipped 2.5-generation (2.5G) handsets for China Mobile. China Mobile is the largest mobile carrier in China with 115 million subscribers.China Mobile launched data service based on General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology last week....
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...
BEIJING—China's Eastern Communications (Eastcom) announced it is halting its 123.08 million yuan (US$14.87 million) effort to develop its own proprietary mobile-phone technology to compete with foreign vendors.The company mentioned its efforts were just not good enough.Demand for Eastcom's mobile handsets was weak last year,...
TOKYO—Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba, two leading electronic manufacturers in Japan, partnered for third-generation (3G) handsets and will begin collaborating next month on the development of a new platform for multimedia-enabled, dual-mode mobile phones, both firms announced. Based on the agreement, both firms will jointly...
TOKYO—NEC will supply i-mode handsets to KPN Mobile, making it the first carrier outside Japan to offer i-mode when it introduces the service later this year.NEC will deliver its N21i mobile handsets to KPN Mobile's operations in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
BEIJING—China's top computer manufacturer Legend Holdings and Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company (Xoceco) agreed on 27 February to set up a joint venture to produce mobile handsets with chipset technology to be supplied by Texas Instruments. Legend is investing 90 million yuan (US$10.87 million)...
TOKYO—NEC, the leading handset manufacturer in Japan, is going to re-enter the U.S. mobile handset market by the end of March 2003.NEC in 2000 sold its mobile handset factories in Europe and Mexico and terminated manufacturing handsets targeting overseas markets except its Chinese factory....
