Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest mobile-phone maker, will supply handsets for NTT DoCoMo Inc's latest service in Japan, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The move could allow Nokia to expand its tiny share of the country's US$73 billion annual market for mobile phones and services.
Nokia handsets will be offered on Tokyo-based DoCoMo's FOMA service, the newspaper said. FOMA features easier access to e-mails, music and video through its so-called third generation network. DoCoMo spokeswoman Mariko Hanaoka did not confirm the report, saying nothing had been decided. Shinko Osada, a spokeswoman for Nokia in Tokyo, declined to comment. Nokia is based in Espoo, Finland.
DoCoMo, the world's second-largest mobile-phone operator, buys its FOMA handsets from Japanese makers such as NEC Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, with most priced at a premium to older service models. Sourcing from Nokia, which will offer handsets for similar so-called third-generation services around the world, may allow DoCoMo to reduce its purchasing costs and offer a lower-priced handset range.
"DoCoMo's biggest aim is to lower the procurement price," said Shinji Moriyuki, a senior analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd, who has a "outperform" rating on DoCoMo shares.
"DoCoMo will eventually have more users for FOMA than for its older networks, so lower-priced handsets will definitely be needed."
Nokia and closest rival Motorola Inc control a combined 48 percent of global mobile-phone sales, yet have almost no presence in Japan, largely because the country has employed its own wireless standards in the past. Introduction of so-called third-generation wideband code-division multiple access technology globally means the two can more easily offer handsets compatible with DoCoMo's network.
Nokia already sells handsets that can be used on Vodafone Group Plc's third-generation network in Japan.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS