re: DoCoMo FOMA
"It will ... be the year for FOMA" - Keiji Tachikawa -
"We have about 16 models on order, and we have four out right now. We'll have more coming out in April and May"
- DoCoMo will roll out newer mobile phones and services and put more effort into developing its third-generation offerings ...
- DoCoMo only reached 89,000 3G subscribers by the end of 2001/02, compared to its goal of 150,000.
- 3G phones already on sale would be upgraded later in the year to double battery life from the current 55 standby hours.
- Tachikawa declined to give a target for 3G growth for this business year, but reiterated DoCoMo's target for six million 3G users by March 2003.
>> DoCoMo to Boost Services, 3G, As Growth Slows
Reed Stevenson
Tokyo,
Reuters
April 9, 2001
NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's top mobile phone operator, said on Tuesday it expects to add some 30 percent fewer new users in the business year that began on April 1 as growth slows in the world's number two mobile market.
"I expect our net subscriber growth this year to be about 70 percent compared to the previous year," Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa told Reuters in an interview.
That would translate into about 3.3 million new users, based on figures showing that 4.76 million new customers signed up for DoCoMo's services during the 2001/02 business year to March 31.
Analysts said that would be a respectable achievement, given that growth is slowing as Japan's mobile phone market nears saturation. In 2000/01, DoCoMo added 6.7 million new users.
"Now that we have entered a slower growth era we will concentrate on profits for this business year," he said.
"It will also be the year for FOMA," he said, referring to DoCoMo's brand name for 3G, which stands for Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access.
Tachikawa said DoCoMo would roll out newer mobile phones and services and put more effort into developing its third-generation offerings, whose fast speeds enable features like video conferencing and music downloads.
While many analysts shrugged off the fact that DoCoMo only reached 89,000 3G subscribers by the end of 2001/02, compared to its goal of 150,000, Tachikawa admitted that more had to be done.
Efforts Focused On 3G, Handsets
DoCoMo became the world's first mobile operator to offer 3G when it launched commercial services in October of last year.
"We have about 16 models on order, and we have four out right now. We'll have more coming out in April and May," he said.
One of those, he said, would be a personal digital assistant-style, hand-held 3G computer/phone made by Sharp Corp (6753) that has a small, stick-like handset for talking that works with Bluetooth wireless technology that allows small devices to work with each other without cables.
He said that the 3G phones already on sale would be upgraded later in the year to double battery life from the current 55 standby hours.
Tachikawa declined to give a target for 3G growth for this business year, but reiterated DoCoMo's target for six million 3G users by March 2003.
Operational forecasts for 2002/03 would be released on or around May 8, when results for the just-ended year are released.
Tachikawa said that DoCoMo would also introduce new models for current-generation mobile services, which are still going strong on the strength of i-mode, the Internet-access service that has become a runaway hit with 32 million users.
"Handsets are extremely important," he said.
DoCoMo is planning to introduce in a few months a new "251" series of camera-equipped mobile phones, a product pioneered by J-Phone Co Ltd, which managed to climb to the number two spot in Japan's mobile market in March on the strength of it. <<
- Eric - |
