Mobile/Wireless
ò NTT DoCoMo announced its plans to begin offering customers flat-rate unlimited wireless internet access for computers in a bid to stabilise its market. According to media sources, NTT DoCoMo has also introduced more features that enable subscribers to use their phones to pay for products and receive news to increase user spending. NTT DoCoMo said it is looking to increase its returns from services such as wireless internet in order to counter declining revenues from traditional voice call services. The company predicts that the average monthly bill from voice calls will register a 7.7 percent decline to 4,330 yen ($35) in the fiscal year ending March 2008, while sales from data services will post a 6.9 percent growth to 2,150 yen ($17) a month. NTT DoCoMo said it is looking to sign up a total of 53.9 million users by 2008, which indicates a 2.4 percent increase. To carry out this goal, the company said it is introducing GSM technology to its top-end phones this year to allow more people to make calls overseas. It also revealed that it is considering entering into an alliance with Apple to develop iPhone for the Japanese market.
ò Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announced that it is setting up a research and development unit for mobile phones in south India. Earlier this year, Sony Ericsson disclosed that it was outsourcing its manufacturing to the Chennai operations of Flextronics Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry, which uses the brand name Foxconn. The company said that by having R&D teams in India, it will be better able to tap into consumer behavior in local markets. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country has added 6.5 million mobile telephony subscribers in May this year, taking the total number of subscribers to 178 million. According to Sony Ericsson, this mobile telephony boom has brought about heavy demand for mobile phones, with more than 62 million handsets sold in India in the last 12 months. The company is targeting production of 10 million phones from India by 2009. The new facility will become part of Sony EricssonÆs global network of R&D units, which is presently found in China, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K.
Hardware
ò According to a company spokesperson, Matsushita Electric Industrial expects to double its production capacity for plasma display panels when a new plant begins production in western Japan in May 2009. The maker of Panasonic-branded electronics revealed its plans to manufacture 300,000 42-inch plasma display panels per month at a new plant to be built in the western Japanese city of Amagasaki. Together with a planned output increase at another Amagasaki plant that initiated operations this month, Matsushita declared that it will be able to turn out 1.3 million panels a month by May 2009, up from the current 640,000 panels. Construction of the new plant is expected to begin in November. The company currently has four plasma display panel plants in Japan and another one in Shanghai.
Ventures/Investments
ò Market sources indicate that consumer electronics maker JVC will likely merge with audio equipment maker Kenwood Corp. under a joint holding company as early as 2008. Under the deal, Matsushita, which has 52.4 percent stake in JVC, is expected to sell its shares in the firm to the holding company. The move is also seen as MatsushitaÆs way of removing the loss-making JVC off its consolidated accounts. Earlier reports indicate that Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has been trying to sell its JVC stake, valued at about 52.6 billion yen ($425 million). Under the preliminary integration plan, Kenwood will first buy 20 billion yen ($162.1 million) worth of new JVC shares through a third-party allocation, taking a stake of about 13 percent. The two companies will then set up a holding company as early as 2008, under which two firms will merge their operations. Spokesmen from Matsushita, JVC and Kenwood said that nothing has been decided. In a related earlier development, Matsushita said it has selected US private equity firm Texas Pacific Group as its preferred bidder for its JVC stake. These negotiations failed after banks have refused funding the acquisition because they were not sure TPG could turn around a company that has gone through four straight annual losses.
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