DoCoMo Update:
Palm, DoCoMo to Offer Palm.Net Internet Service (Update1)
9/4/00 2:00:00 AM
Source: Bloomberg News
URL: cnetinvestor.com
Tokyo, Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Palm Inc., the No.1 maker of electronic organizers, will ally with NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone operator, to offer Palm's Internet access service in Japan.
The Santa Clara, California-based company plans to start an Internet access service called Palm.Net in Japan by using DoCoMo's network as early as January, said Kazuki Furuya, a marketing officer of Palm Computing K.K., Palm's Japanese arm.
The alliance could link Palm with DoCoMo's subscriber base of more than 30 million mobile phone users, many of who are already Internet friendly through the Japanese company's i-mode service. More than one third of DoCoMo's subscribers use the company's mobile Internet service to trade stocks, make bank transfers and browse home pages on their cellular phones.
''Palm certainly wants to form alliances with DoCoMo in Japan,'' said Hironori Tanaka, analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Japan Ltd. ''And having Palm as a partner is a positive move for DoCoMo, which is trying to expand data transmission on cellular phones,''
Palm.Net is an Internet access service available through Palm's Palm Vll organizer, which has a built-in wireless modem. Palm Vll users can browse about 400 contents specially designed for Palm, including news and on-line shopping.
DoCoMo declined to confirm the alliance.
Data
DoCoMo is counting, in part, on data transmission to grow because expansion of the Tokyo-based company's voice traffic is being limited by rate cuts and increasing competition. DoCoMo in May will be one of the first in the world to introduce a new generation of wireless services designed to send data at high speeds and in greater capacity.
The company in February 1999 started the i-mode mobile Internet service, which is gaining subscribers at a much faster pace than the company had expected.
Shares in NTT DoCoMo rose 3.2 percent to 2.89 million yen. The tie-up was reported by the Nihon Keizai newspaper on Sunday. |
