Telecommunications
ò Telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp has lowered its group pre-tax profit projection by 3.3% to Ñ406 billion ($58 billion) for 2007, citing an increase in sales promotion costs from an unexpected boost in its mobile phone subscriptions. Marketing costs increased after the number of contracts to KDDI's ''au'' mobile phone service climbed to 30.1 million as of March 31, due to new offers like free calls between family members. The number of subscriptions beat an earlier forecast of 30 million.
ò Softbank Mobile said a system glitch in its facilities disrupted communications for its third-generation mobile phones possibly affecting up to 870,000 subscribers to the service. The company noticed the problem when an alarm went off at a network centre in Tokyo. The glitch appeared to have developed in a part of the switching systems but the company has not yet determined where. The problem mostly affected Softbank Mobile's 3G series of phones and those made and sold by a Japanese unit of Britain's Vodafone, which was bought by the Softbank group in 2006.
Mobile/ Wireless
ò RCC Broadcasting will team with video delivery technology developer Aquacast Corp to stream live broadcasts of Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball games to cell phones. Unlike One-Seg digital terrestrial broadcasts, these streaming feeds over the Internet will show the entire game, even when the broadcast ends early. And viewers can watch the game from anywhere, whereas the One-Seg broadcasts are only regional in scope. RCC Broadcasting plans to stream around 20 home games this way. The games will be shown in their entirety except when games are shown on TV, in which case the stream to phones will only commence if the broadcast is cut off before the game ends.
ò The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and mobile phone services provider KDDI Corp will name the cellphone-based Internet bank they plan to establish jointly, ''jibun ginko'' , or self bank. The two firms will seek to obtain a banking license for the internet bank from the Financial Services Agency, possibly in June, with an eye to start operations in July. Jibun ginko will enable subscribers of KDDI's ''au'' mobile services to pay for goods and services they purchase with their mobile handsets, in addition to offering other banking services.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
ò NHK is going global with its NHK World English news and information channel, which provide English-language news from a Japanese perspective. NHK already has very successful Japanese news channels on air but these are premium services target at Japanese expatriates. NHK World English has just secured carriage space on Arabsat, and is now seeking European and African coverage.
Korea
Software
ò IBM Korea announced the launch of its new IBM Power System, which integrates its existing unix server products and integrated operation server products. Power System is a single server system based on IBM's Power 6 processor. It supports the unix, the linux as well as the IBM's application. The existing integrated operating system, i5/OS, is also renamed as i. Those existing customers who bought p and i series products can customise the components for OS, which would be either AIX or the Linux OS. IBM Korea rolled out the first package products of Power System, i Edition Express for Blade Center S, Power 250 Express and Power 550 Express.
Hardware
ò LG Display earned 717 billion won ($735 million) in the three months ending March 31, compared with a loss of 169 billion won ($174 million) in the same period last year. According to the company, panel prices stabilised and cost-cutting efforts were partly behind the handsome result. The $42 billion LCD industry, led by LG Display and its bigger rival Samsung Electronics, is enjoying strong demand for the slimmer televisions ahead of the Beijing Olympics this summer, analysts say. Together with the strong demand, the South Korean LCD makers are benefiting from the Korean currency's fall against the US dollar.
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
