A week in tech

Japan
Internet 
· Internet business developer Livedoor intends to acquire all outstanding shares in BestReserve, a net-based travel agency. The acquisition is said to be through a stock swap. Livedoor will issue about 3.1 million new shares, valued at 1.1 billion yen ($10.7 million), and exchange them for those held in BestReserve by Jafco, the largest shareholder in the travel firm, and others. BestReserve operates a website that allows users to make online reservations at more than 3,000 hotels nationwide. The company posted a pretax profit of 39 million yen ($380,000) for the year through March 204, on sales of 207 million yen ($2 million).
Telecommunications
· The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will introduce telecommuting, with six staffs to be assigned to the telecommuting shift at least one day a week until the end of February. The ministry expects this initiative, though small in scale, to build a momentum for the government’s goal of raising the ration telecommuters to all employed workers up to 20 percent by 2010. The six will work at such locations as homes, libraries or universities from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. In case of meetings, they will utilize teleconferencing and online chats. The ministry plans to expand telecommuting to cover some 500 employees by fiscal 2006. 
Hardware
· Hitachi said it will buy a 14.5% stake in Clarion Co. from HBK Master Fund, making it the largest shareholder in the Japanese automobile-use audio equipment maker. The Japanese electronics company said in a statement it has reached an agreement with the Texas-based fund to buy 40.7 million Clarion shares. Hitachi did no disclose the purchase price.
· JVC showed a prototype of a disc that combines standard DVD and new Blu-ray technology for a combined 33.5GB of capacity. Blu-ray is a new read-only optical disc technology that increases the amount of storage on a disc with the aim of allowing content producers to distribute high-definition movies. But analysts warn that competing technologies like Blu-ray and High-Definition DVD (HD DVD) could do more short-term harm than good by prolonging confusion in the market. A combined Blu-ray and standard DVD disc could help the situation. If content producers start distributing the combo discs, consumers might be more inclined to buy Blu-ray players. JVC said it hoped the combo disc would help spur more innovative content offerings and cut down on waste.
· Canon Inc., Nikon Corp. and other makers of digital cameras are working very hard to deal with proliferation of counterfeit batteries for their cameras, mostly in China. They fear that poor-quality counterfeits, which sometimes explode and injure users, will tarnish their brand image. The report also said that recently developed fake batteries were about to enter the Japanese market. While there is a chance that these illegal products will spread worldwide, digital camera companies have yet to work out ways to solve the problem. Nikon incorporated a “secret weapon” against such batteries in two new models of its Coolpix digital camera series. The technology makes it unable for users to operate a digital camera with other batteries than Nikon’s. The company has not disclosed much information about the technology. According to Japan Dry Battery Industries Association, there have been cases of people, mainly in China and Southeast Asian countries, which people have suffered  burns or other injuries caused by fake lithium-ion batteries.
· Toshiba plans to stop manufacturing and selling plasma display panel (PDP) TVs in Japan by next summer, and then discontinue the products in other markets after that. The company will instead focus on surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) TVs. The company plans to focus on SED TVs for the over-50-inch segment by cooperating with Canon, with the first product being introduced in August 2005. In addition, Toshiba has also shown great interest in the LCD-TV market and has set up and LCD-TV panel joint venture with Hitachi and Matsushita Electric Industrial. Toshiba is not the first Japanese vendor to announce its plan of phasing out it its PDP-TV production. In response to a report that Sony will exit the PDP-TV market, Sony admitted that it does plan to focus on the LCD-and rear-projection-TV (RPTV) markets but denied that it will stop producing PDP TVs.
Mobile/Wireless
· NEC said it was seeking to build third-generation (3G) mobile phone infrastructure in China in a bid to gain a foothold in the world’s biggest mobile market. NEC said it had been in talks with China Mobile Communication, China’s biggest mobile phone operator, and China Telecommunications to sell 3G equipment. Beijing was expected to allow local telecommunications firms to offer 3G services in 2005. Despite its success in Japan, 3G has yet to gain mass acceptance in most of the world, with questions raised about whether many consumers will pay a premium price for its high-tech features. NEC has set up a showroom for 3G ground stations and other equipment in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and plans to sell 3G-related equipment. The company aimed to achieve sales from 3G infrastructure and other related systems of 100 billion yen ($970 million) over the next three years.
· Online marketer Quin Land Co. announced it will start selling bar codes that direct cellular phones to specified web sites faster than black-and-white versions. The firm acquired the domestic marketing rights to color QR codes developed by a South Korean company. The square handset-readable codes, which measure about 1 cm on each side, will be sold to businesses and individuals through Quin Land’s portal site. The firm estimates sales of 300 million yen ($2.9 million) in the first year. The code comprises shapes, symbols and patterns in such colors as red, blue and green. When the image is read by cell phone, the handset is connected to a designated server, enabling the user to view web pages and images. The price of a single code for use by an individual for one year will be 1,000 yen ($9.7).
· NTT DoCoMo Inc. said that it will take stakes in two holding companies that have information service subsidiaries in China for a combined $8.2 million in order to provide its wireless telecommunications services to the rapidly growing country. Japan’s biggest mobile phone service company said that it will spend $4 million to take a stake in Emcore Technology Inc. which owns Chinese position information service firm Beijing Lingtu Spacecom Technology Co. DoCoMo will also buy $4.2 million stake in Digital Media Group which has its Beijing Eastlong Technology Development Co. subsidiary that offers digital advertisement services for subway stations and trains in Shanghai. The Japanese mobile phone service operator will take “minority” in the two companies in January.