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World Business Quick Take

■ Telecoms
Japan, China to work on 4G
Japan and China will join forces to develop a fourth-generation (4G) cellular telephone combining Japan's skill in technology with China's huge potential market, an official said yesterday. Representatives of the two governments will meet in Tokyo tomorrow to launch the project, said the official of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry in Tokyo. Fourth-generation cellular phones, expected to come into practical use around 2010, will be able to transmit data as quickly as optical fiber, dramatically improving the streaming of high-quality images. Japan has been at the forefront of third-generation (3G) telephones. Most of the world has been slower to catch on amid concern about the high price of 3G. Japanese mobile-phone makers' share of the Chinese market is small compared to European counterparts such as Nokia, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily.

■ Software
Asianux 2.0 debuts today
A partnership of companies from Japan, China and South Korea will unveil a new Linux-based operating system for local markets today in Beijing to challenge Microsoft Corp's dominance, a news report said yesterday. The new software, called Asianux 2.0, was developed by Japan-based Miracle Linux Corp, China's Red Flag Software Co (紅旗軟件) and Haansoft Inc of South Korea, the Nihon Keizai Shimbum said. The companies have been working on the system since last year with the aim of making a product that competes with the Windows operating system. Miracle Linux president Takeshi Sato said in January last year that the group hoped Asianux will be prevalent in server systems for regional businesses and governments within three years. Linux is a major threat to Microsoft's business, prompting the US giant to offer steep discounts to governments and schools around the world.

■ Automobiles
Hyundai union to strike
Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's biggest automaker, voted to go on strike for higher wages and greater say in management decisions, the union said yesterday. "We plan to have a partial walkout from tomorrow, but the extent of the industrial action will be decided in a union representatives' meeting scheduled later this morning," said Jang Kyu-ho, a union spokesman. Of Hyundai's 42,521 union members, 30,132 voted in favor of a walkout, the union said in a statement on its Web site. Hyundai has about 54,000 employees."We hope to reach a compromise with the management as soon as possible if the company provides reasonable suggestions," Jang said. In June, the union demanded an 8.48 percent increase in basic wages, incentive payments equivalent to 30 percent of Hyundai's net income and shorter working hours.

■ Telecoms
Motorola to help parents
Motorola Inc chairman Edward Zander said the company plans to make phones that would let parents monitor their children's whereabouts and censor obscene content. Phones that assuage parents' concerns are also to be matched by features to attract young consumers, like next month's planned release of a phone with iTunes, Apple Computer's popular media player, Zander said. "Mobile phones today are more like television when I was a kid," Zander said on Tuesday. But "there is a way to keep it secure," he said.

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