"Through a tie-up with Qualcomm Inc, J-Phone will equip all of its 3G mobile phones with the US company's system chips" wirelessweek.com;
How about this? Nokia´s WCDMA phones for J-Phone "will appear in stores as early as December! The phone will be launched on September the 26th, and it will be available (at least in Japan) in December. They´re not talking about volumes though, but now we have another deadline...
quote.bloomberg.com
Nokia Plans to Supply Dual-Mode Handsets to Spur Japan Sales
By Kyoko Suzuki
Tokyo, Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nokia Oyj will supply Vodafone Group Plc's J-Phone Co. unit with handsets for its new high-speed Internet service, part of a bid by the mobile-phone maker to expand a market share that stands at about 1 percent.
The handsets will be capable of working on existing and advanced networks, Heikki Tenhunen, president of Nokia's Japan unit, said in an interview. Users will also be able to make and receive calls in as many as 160 countries in Europe and Asia.
While Nokia is the world's largest mobile-phone maker, the company's handsets are a rarity in Japan, which is dominated by local manufacturers such as NEC Corp. At the end of last year, seven years after establishing a unit in Tokyo, the Finland-based company had just 1 percent of Japan's 40.6 million-unit handset market, according to researcher Gartner Japan Ltd.
``(The new handsets) will be quite an interesting opportunity for opening up the Japanese market to growth,'' Tenhunen said. By ``developing a phone for global use, you have to be able to test it almost everywhere.''
Nokia, which sold about 35.1 million handsets globally in the second quarter alone, expects to benefit from its global reach to test the new technology, Tenhunen said. Financial terms were not disclosed nor were details about the number of phones J-Phone will order from Nokia.
J-Phone plans to begin full commercial high-speed wireless Internet services based on so-called third-generation technology in December, a year behind its original schedule.
Barriers to Entry
Handset makers such as Espoo, Finland-based Nokia and U.S.- based Motorola Inc. have had little success in cracking the mobile- phone market in Japan, where the most common operating standard is unique to the country.
With strong growth elsewhere, investing in Japan made little sense. Sanyo Corp., the world's largest maker of mobile-phone batteries, makes phones for Nokia in Japan as the company's original equipment manufacturer.
The nature of the relationship between handset makers and cellular-phone operators in Japan has also tempered foreigners' enthusiasm. In the past, most handsets in Japan were sold under an operators' brand, making it difficult for foreign companies to compete with locals and the stronger relationship they shared with service providers.
Only in recent years have mobile phones sold in Japan worn the name of their makers. Even now, operators' names are given prominence over the brand name of the handset maker.
Nokia faces other challenges in Asia. In China, the world's biggest mobile-phone market, Nokia's share in the first half declined to 26 percent from 31 percent a year ago. Nokia's share is shrinking as local producers rush into the market, according to Beijing-based Norson Telecom Consulting.
Domestic manufacturers such as Ningbo Bird Co., Hisense Electric Co. and TCL Communication Equipment Co. will have more than 20 percent of the market this year and 30 percent in 2003, the industry researcher forecast.
Roadblocks
Design and brand recognition are the biggest obstacles blocking Nokia from gaining in Japan, analysts and investors said. Traditionally, operators in Japan specify the functions to be included in the handsets for their services, limiting how handset makers can compete, investors say.
``It's the design'' that makes the difference, said Nobuaki Murayama, who helps manage 65 billion yen ($548 million) in assets at Cigna International Investment Advisors Co.
Relying on a well-known brand to attract users puts Nokia at a disadvantage in Japan where consumers are more familiar with domestic players, which also make television sets, personal computers or other consumer electronics.
``The (Nokia) name is barely known'' to the general public in Japan, said Nahoko Mitsuyama, an analyst at Gartner Japan.
International roaming -- the ability to use the same phone in many countries -- may not be enough to offset the disadvantages Nokia has in the Japanese market, Mitsuyama said.
Moreover, adding new functions may result in bulkier handsets that are likely to be spurned by Japanese users more accustomed to sleeker, lightweight models.
``That wouldn't be acceptable for the Japanese,'' Cigna International's Murayama said.
Camera Phones in Europe
The new model for J-Phone, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group, will be delivered at the end of September for testing. The handsets will be made in Nokia's factory in Europe and will appear in stores as early as December, Tenhunen said.
The handsets will be in addition to Nokia's line-up of camera phones, which the company expects to drive growth in Europe. In June, Nokia began shipping the ``7650'' model for Europe and Asia, its first model for the region with a camera.
The dual-mode handsets for J-Phone, which will feature a color screen, will be introduced in Europe and Asia around the same time as Japan, Tenhunen said.
The handsets will run on the networks of operators that have international roaming agreements with J-Phone, such as Vodafone, the world's second-largest operator by users, and SFR, the mobile- phone operator controlled by Vivendi Universal SA.
The phone's software will initially be in English only. Some consumers in Japan may want to wait for the Japanese version, which the company will introduce at a later date.
The handsets will use the Global System for Mobile Communications and Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access standards.
J-Phone plans to offer roaming services in 50 countries when it begins the new high-speed service. |
