Huawei to Produce Smartphone
Sumitomo 3M to Commercialize Palm-Size Projector
King Jim Releases Pomera Digital Memo
Sharp to Cut Output of LCD Panels
DoCoMo Invests 264B Yen into Indian Carrier
Japanese Fast-Food Chains Advertise Directly to Cell Phones
Kyocera Wireless to Develop Android Handset
Dell Cancels MP3 Player Plan

Huawei of China plans to begin releasing smartphones based on the Android and Symbian open-source operating systems in the first half of 2009, reported Searchina.net in November 2008.

The company recently sold equity in its handset operation to U.S. investment firms. According to Huawei’s CEO, the company needed to raise funds to take advantage of perceived opportunities in the global market. Although Huawei will be a late entrant in the high-end handset market, its CEO thinks the time is ripe for investment while rivals, affected by the recent bleak economy, are holding back.

Huawei will supply smartphones under various carrier brands and not its own brand; nor does it plan to offer content or value-added services like Nokia. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Sumitomo 3M of Japan will launch the MPro110, a palm-size mobile projector, in late November 2008, reported Yahoo! Japan.

The MPro110 will retail for 56,490 yen ($584.48 @ yen 96.65/$US 1) and be available from the company’s online store. It is ideal for on-the-go presentations, information sharing, and projecting video camera content for family fun.

The diminutive projector measures only 115mm x 50mm x 22mm (about the size of a pack of cigarettes). It uses a LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) chip that renders VGA (640 x 480) resolution and has an aspect ratio of 4:3. The optical engine uses 3M's proprietary LCD display brightness-enhancement film technology and reportedly yields excellent color images. It supports both analog RGB input and composite input and has a 1/4-inch screw hole for attaching a tripod.

The MPro110 has a fixed-focus lens and can project an image of 203–1219 mm (8–48 in.). The recommended projection distance is 305–1800 mm (12–70 in.). According to a review on Gizmodo.com, the MPro110 supports up to 1024 x 768 resolution input, but can't display at resolutions greater than 640 x 480. It uses an LED light source and has a product life of roughly 10,000 hours. The built-in Li-ion battery has a capacity of 1050mAh and a battery life of up to 1 hour. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

King Jim, a Japanese maker of office products, has released a digital memo device called the Pomera (http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/index.html), which consists of a 4-inch, monochrome VGA display and foldable, notebook-size keyboard, reported Yahoo! Japan in November 2008.

Available from King Jim, the Pomera sells for 26,000 yen ($269.01 @ yen 96.65/$US 1). When folded, the Pomera is the size of a paperback book (145 x 100 x 30 mm). With the keyboard fully deployed, it measures 250 x 100 mm. Keyboard pitch is 17mm, which is close to that of notebook computers. It weighs 370 grams (13 oz.), including the weight of two AAA batteries, which can power it for 20 hours. Though it has no OS of its own, the Pomera does support a text editor, allowing created text to be transferred to a PC via a USB cable or microSD card.

By concentrating on text input, King Jim was able to make the unit more compact and decrease bootup time to about 2 seconds. King Jim hopes those features will help the Pomera attract users frustrated with notebook computers, which though multifunctional are heavy and take a long time to boot up; and with cell phones and PDAs, which though very portable are difficult to use for inputting lengthy sentences. The Pomera is specifically targeted at businessmen in need of a handy device for creating documents and taking notes at meetings while away from the office. King Jim hopes to ship 30,000 units in the first year. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Sharp plans to sharply reduce its output of LCD panels in December 2008, reported Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun in November.

The Japanese LCD manufacturer is expected to lower production at its Kameyama Factory in Mie Prefecture by 20%. To control its increasing inventory of TV panels, Sharp plans to shut down the production line entirely around New Years. This is the first time the company’s flagship Kameyama Plant has had to reduce output since beginning operating in 2004. Sharp did not say how long it would maintain reduced output levels, but plans to return to normal output levels when demand picks up.

In a similar move, Panasonic, another Japanese panel maker, will reduce production by 10%. Even two South Korean LCD heavyweights, LG and Samsung, are planning to adjust their output levels as a result of the economic slowdown that's affecting sales of flat-panel displays worldwide. No doubt sales of related components will also be affected.

Sharp’s Kameyama No. 2 plant produces 90,000 8^th-generation mother glasses a month. Its Kameyama No. 1 plant produces 60,000 6^th-generation mother glasses a month at full capacity. Sharp had been preparing for Christmas sales in Japan, Europe, and North America as well as for the Chinese Lunar New Year. However, the company's panel inventory was greater than what it originally planned for. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading wireless service carrier, announced in mid-November 2008 that it would invest 264 billion yen ($2.72 billion @ yen 96.65/$US 1) into TTSL of India and acquire 26% of the company, reported asahi.com.

Given that the Japanese wireless market is now saturated and there's little high-growth potential left to tap, DoCoMo wants to establish a foothold in the growing Indian wireless market.

TTSL, which belongs to the Tata group, currently has 30 million subscribers (as of September 2008) and is the sixth largest carrier in the Indian wireless market, which is estimated to have some 300 million subscribers. That makes it the second largest wireless market in the world after China.

DoCoMo’s investment in TTSL consists of 20% newly issued stock and 6% stock purchased from other shareholders. In India, shareholders with 25% or larger equity stakes have veto power on items of importance, and DoCoMo plans to directly participate in the operation of TTSL. With the move, DoCoMo hopes to raise its overseas sales from the current level of 2% to 10%. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Mos Food Service, owner of the Mos Burger fast-food chain in Japan, is planning to reduce the number of its TV commercials dramatically and reallocate its advertising resources toward direct mail to cell phones, reported J-Cast News in November 2008.

The company sees such sales advertisements to cell phones to be more advantageous than its old strategy, which by comparison is more costly and not as well targeted. The food industry has been taken by surprise by Mos Food’s new approach. However, Lotteria, a rival Asian fast-food chain, is now also planning to emphasize sales promotion targeting cell phones. So the idea is apparently catching on, with the value of cell-phone advertising being recognized by more and more businesses of all kinds.

At a recent press conference to announce its third-quarter performance, Atsushi Sakurada, CEO of Mos Food Service, said the company would gradually phase out nationwide TV commercials altogether. Instead, it will concentrate on storefront advertising and wireless information distribution. Mos Food Service has been distributing "mail magazines" to cell phones since March 2008. It currently distributes them to some 1.3 million recipients who have opted in to the service. The "magazines" include information on new menu items as well as coupons. They are a form of micro-marketing that can distribute region-specific information and target specific consumer populations. So far, Mos Food Service is pleased with the results.

Mos Burger’s rival Lotteria has also converted to sales promotion methods that do not depend on TV commercials. The fast-food chain recently deployed Lotteria Communication to distribute information and member-only coupons. It also offers coupons at its cell-phone web site. A representative of Lotteria noted that coupons and menu information offered via cell phones don't cost as much as traditional paper advertising but still reach lots of people. What's more, the use of mobile coupons has grown dramatically in the past few years. Cell phones are now seen as an excellent and efficient medium for promoting sales. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Kyocera Wireless, a U.S. subsidiary of Japanese Kyocera, is developing a handset based on Android, Google’s new open-source OS for cell phones, reported CNET Japan in October 2008.

Wind River Systems announced in October 2008 that it was offering engineering services to Kyocera Wireless to foster the integration of Android into a handset. Wind River Systems has been increasing its staff to help vendors incorporate the OS into their next-generation handsets.

Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which consists of 34 members, including cell-phone manufacturers HTC, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, and LG Electronics. Kyocera’s adoption of Android means that the OS is now being adopted by companies beyond the original supporting members.

Wind River offers original commercial Linux for Android. The company also partners with Texas Instruments, NEC Electronics, and STMicroelectronics to provide hardware support. Although Kyocera did not reveal when it will market its Android-based handset, Wind River’s Android software will be available in the first half of 2009. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

U.S. computer manufacturer Dell has decided not to roll out a digital music player in time for Christmas sales, reported ITmedia in November 2008 (quoting the Wall Street Journal).

Dell was testing a small Zing-based MP3 player loaded with entertainment software earlier this year, with the intention of releasing it later in the fall. The device is described as a digital music player that synchronizes with online entertainment software. In the end, Dell decided to postpone sales of the device indefinitely, opting instead to offer Zing software on its PCs as music and video management software.

Amid the current economic downturn, and with rival Apple always one step ahead in the innovation department, Dell’s decision of shelving Zing looks to be a strategic move to head off a money-losing effort. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]