Matsushita to sell dual-mode phones next year - report
totaltele.com
By Total Telecom staff
26 February 2002
Japanese handset vendor Matsushita is aiming outside Japan with plans to introduce a dual-mode handset for GSM and W-CDMA networks next year, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
Matsushita president Yasuo Katsura said in an interview with Bloomberg that his company wanted to grab a double-digit share of the world 3G handset market within the next two years, a goal some investors and analysts doubt can be achieved.
"The company sounds too optimistic," Kazuaki Otsuka, a fund manager with ING Mutual Funds Management Co. (Japan) Ltd., told Bloomberg. "I doubt the overall pie will grow. The company should limit models to those that really produce profits."
The maker of Panasonic-brand phones, which last week widened its annual loss forecast by 47%, was overtaken by NEC last year as Japan's largest mobile phone manufacturer. The company is now trying to develop new models faster to regain market share both at home and abroad.
Matsushita and NEC both supply 3G phones to NTT DoCoMo, which began offering the world's first 3G service in October last year.
Matsushita Communication, which also makes base stations for DoCoMo's W-CDMA networks, wants to expand to sell the network equipment outside Japan, Katsura said. "Our first target [for base stations] is China," Katsura said.
Matsushita Communication agreed in October to cooperate with California-based UTStarcom, which makes 90% of its sales in China, to develop W-CDMA systems for China and elsewhere.
Katsura told Bloomberg that his company had no plans to develop a handset to run on both W-CDMA and Japan's second-generation PDC networks, because 3G networks in Japan will probably expand more quickly than in Europe.
In Europe, before introducing dual-mode phones, the company plans to sell handsets capable of using DoCoMo's i-mode wireless Internet services by the end of the year, Katsura said, using GPRS over GSM networks.
DoCoMo has licensed the i-mode service to German operator E-Plus, which will begin the service by April, and E-Plus's parent, KPN, which is to launch the service in the Netherlands and Belgium. DoCoMo holds 15% of KPN Mobile.
NEC has said it will supply i-mode phones for KPN Mobile's service in the three countries by as early as next month. |
