NTT DoCoMo to up sales goal for advanced mobile phones
.c Kyodo News Service
TOKYO, March 9 (Kyodo) - NTT DoCoMo Inc. is considering raising its initial-year sales projection for its next-generation mobile phone series to be released in May from 150,000 units to 200,000, company officials said Friday.
The company, belonging to telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), expects strong demand for the new series of mobile phones, whose chief new feature is speedier downloading of video game software onto compact color monitors, the officials said.
The company has enjoyed strong sales for downloading services launched recently for its conventional mobile phones, they said.
NTT DoCoMo's bullish sales target for the new handsets, which are based on the W-CDMA technology, comes just days after the rival J-Phone group put off the release of its own next-generation W-CDMA phones until June next year.
Industry analysts cautioned that competition could become even more difficult in the Japanese mobile phone market should NTT DoCoMo take the lead in next-generation phones to cement the dominant status of its Internet-capable ''i-mode'' service.
NTT DoCoMo's next-generation mobile phones will provide transmission speeds up to 40 times faster than any of the company's phones currently on the market, the officials said.
The handsets will make it easier to download moving color images and music as well as improve reception of i-mode services.
The high-end model of the new series will allow users to see moving images of his or her conversation partner while speaking, they said.
NTT DoCoMo initially set a cautious sales goal because at first it will only be able to offer the new download service in Tokyo's 23 wards and the densely populated adjacent cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, they said.
Both handset prices and communications rates are also higher than for the conventional models, they said.
But NTT DoCoMo's latest ''iappli'' N503i mobile phone, based on the current technology, which also enables users to download video game software, sold 50,000 units in the Kanto area alone and 100,000 units nationwide on the day of its debut on March 3, despite its higher price.
NTT DoCoMo envisages expanding the areas covered by the next-generation mobile phone service to within a 30-kilometer radius from downtown Tokyo this summer. It will expand to Osaka and Nagoya this fall and then to other major cities by next spring.
AP-NY-03-09-01 0435EST |
