Hardware
Dell Japan plans to increase the number of supermarkets and electronics mass merchandisers offering its personal computers by 20% to 600 this year as part of efforts to bolster PC sales to individuals. The company has increased its domestic market share via an online sales model that allows customers to select their own PC specifications, but most sales have been to corporate customers. To increase sales to consumers, the company plans to boost the percentage of sales achieved through retailers to 50% in fiscal 2009 from 10% at present. Dell will create a structure that enables customers who have purchased PCs online to get technical support and repairs via electronics mass merchandisers.
Toshiba Corporation has announced a new line-up of 1.8-inch hard disk drives (HDD), adopting a serial ATA interface, including the industry's first drive of this type with a capacity of 160 gigabytes. The new 160GB drive and an 80GB drive will enter mass production in August. ToshibaÆs new 1.8-inch HDDs boost interface speed to 1.5Gbps and offer a rotation speed of 5,400 rpm, faster than the current generation of Toshiba 1.8-inch HDD.
Mobile/wireless
Japanese mobile phone venture Emobile has unveiled two new handsets as it aims to achieve greater presence in the domestic mobile phone market, following its launch of wireless voice services in March. The H11HW handset, made by ChinaÆs Huawei Technologies, is scheduled to go on sale at Emobile outlets and online, while the ''Emonster lite'', made by TaiwanÆs High Tech Computer Corp, is planned to be released in late July. Both models boast high-speed data communication services. Among other features, the Emonster lite has a touch-panel slide screen with a keyboard and at a thickness of only 15.8mm it is the slimmest model in Japan.
Shipments of cellular phones and PHS (personal handyphone system) handsets within Japan sank 21.1% to 3.29 million units in April. The decline is blamed on flagging subscriber growth and lackluster replacement demand due to new plans introduced by various cell phone providers that require customers to use the same handset for two years. Shipments have now fallen for three straight months on a year-on-year basis. Total shipments fell 5% in the January-April period to 17.21 million units.
Telecommunications
NTT DoCoMo will cut its monthly fees to match rivals KDDI Corp and Softbank Corp, further intensifying an ongoing price war in the mature Japanese market. DoCoMo, which holds about half of Japan's mobile phone market, will lower its cheapest price plan by nearly 7% percent to Ñ980 ($9.10) a month from July. Second-ranked KDDI started offering a Ñ980-a-month plan at the beginning of June to better compete with No. 3 carrier Softbank, which has won more new subscribers than its bigger rivals on a net basis for the past 13 months thanks to a low-price strategy and aggressive marketing.
Semiconductors
Japan's Elpida said it is open to a share swap or the acquisition of a stake in Infineon's Qimonda. The remarks gave new hope to investors that Infineon could finally find a buyer for its struggling chips business and sent its shares more than 5% higher. Earlier this year, Germany-based Infineon wrote down its stake in Qimonda by Eur1 billion in preparation for a sale as the memory chipmaker dipped into the red and prepared to slash jobs. Infineon has failed to find a buyer its 77% stake in Qimonda after carving out and listing the unit in 2006 in the hope of cutting exposure to the volatile memory chip market.
Korea
Telecommunications
SK Telecom denied market talk that it was seeking to buy local set-top box maker Humax. Founded in 1989 and listed on the Korean stock exchange, Humax exports digital satellite set top boxes to more than 90 countries worldwide. The company's international headquarters and R&D facility are based in Korea and Poland and it also has offices in Dubai, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US.
South Korea plans to increase subsidies of mobile phone fees for people in the low income bracket to help them cope with mounting inflation. The government will pay up to 50% of all mobile phone calls, up from the current 35%, and all minimum monthly fees for the underprivileged. It will also simplify subsidy application paperwork. South Korea's consumer inflation hit a seven-year high of 4.9% in May, breaching the Bank of Korea's 2.5%-3.5% target for the sixth straight month.
Mobile/wireless
Samsung Electronics unveiled its full-touch screen phone ôOMNIA(SGH-i900)ö, sporting a user-friendly Haptics UI and similar in function to a PC. The new phone incorporates leading mobile handset technologies and features for more enhanced convenience and powerful functions. OMINA is said to be the first of its kind, allowing users to enjoy both the innovative Haptics UI and Windows Mobile 6.1.
LG Electronics plans to launch its latest premium handset model in Central and South America and will hold a launch ceremony for its LG-KF755 model, nicknamed "Secret," in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The 11.8 millimetre-thin handset with a built-in five-megapixel camera made its overseas debut in Europe in late May, where it sold 200,000 units in just two weeks. The handset will be sold through various mobile carriers in the region, including Vivo, Claro of Brazil and Movistar in Venezuela. Sales of LG Electronics handsets in Central and South America have posted 70% growth in the past few years, thanks to the popularity of its "Black Label", "Chocolate" and "Shine" models that were released in 2006 and 2007.
Hardware
Following the lead of Samsung Electronics, LG Display will begin mass-producing embedded touch screen LCD panels this year. Centered on mobile phones and small- and medium-sized mobile devices, demand for touch screens has surged and companies are turning to touch screen embedded LCD panels that can increase production efficiency at cheaper cost. Samsung Electronics began mass-producing touch screen embedded LCD panels for mobile devices like mobile phones early this year. By end of 2008, LG Display plans to mass-produce seven-inch LCD panels for navigation devices. It has been producing 3.5-inch and 4.3-inch small size panels for touch screens since late last year but not the embedded style.
Samsung Electronics remained dominant in the world LCD market in the first quarter. In particular, Samsung ranked first with a 22.2% market share by value and 19.6% by quantity in the fiercely competitive LCD TV market, broadening the gap to number two player Sony. According to Displaysearch, a market survey agency, Sony had an 18.1% share of the LCD TV market by value in January-March (13.3% by volume), Sharp had 10.1% (9.1% by volume), LG Electronics 9.7% (10.5% by volume) and Philips 7.8% (8.7% by volume). Samsung Electronics sold 4.136 million units in the global LCD TV market, up more than 70% from 2.357 million units in the first quarter of last year, and occupied the No.1 spot by quantity for the seventh quarter in a row.
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