Japan's leading mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc, trying to fight off resurgent competitors, will tie up with US search-engine giant Google Inc to upgrade its services, a report said yesterday.
DoCoMo will incorporate Google's search and e-mail features into its popular "i-mode" Internet service as part of a broader alliance that may lead to the development of new functions and handsets, the Nikkei Shimbun business daily said.
The mobile phone giant decided on the deal as its subscribers are demanding ever-more sophisticated Internet functions on their mobile phones, said the newspaper, which did not identify its sources.
Starting as early as the spring, DoCoMo users will be able to access Google search, scheduling, e-mail and photo features through the i-mode service, the Nikkei said. Company officials did not offer immediate comment.
DoCoMo, while remaining a dominant force in the domestic mobile market, has lost subscribers to rivals in the past year after a rule change allowed users to switch carriers without changing their phone numbers.
Meanwhile, Google has remained behind Yahoo Japan Corp in the Japanese search engine market.
By teaming up with DoCoMo and gaining better access to mobile users, Google seeks to bolster its services and advertising operations in the cellular segment, the Nikkei said.
NTT DoCoMo shares rose sharply on news of the report, gaining ¥6,000 (US$52.56) or 3.3 percent to ¥190,000 at the end of the morning session, outpacing the 1.79 percent rise on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
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
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,
RSS