Japan Computer Industry Scan articles from July 2003

Japan Computer Industry Scan archives from July 2003

Fujitsu, Nokia tie up on mobile phone corporate info systems.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo Fujitsu Ltd. said Monday it has tied up with Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. in the development of corporate information systems making use of mobile phones. The two companies plan to start providing the...

Noritake raises stake in Toshiba Ceramics Furnace to 51%.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo Ceramic tableware maker Noritake Co. has raised its stake in Toshiba Ceramics Furnace Co. (TCF) to 51% from 16.9% through acquisition of a 34.1% interest from Toshiba Ceramics Co., Noritake and Toshiba Ceramics said...

Yahoo Japan, Nihon Unisys to tie up in enterprise info. portals.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo Yahoo Japan Corp. and Nihon Unisys Ltd. said Monday they have agreed on a comprehensive tie-up to develop enterprise information portals (EIPs) for companies and local governments. The tie-up is designed to combine...

JVC to release 26-inch LCD TV on Aug. 1.(LT-26LC4 )(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo Victor Co. of Japan (JVC) said Monday it will release a 26-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) TV set on Aug. 1. The LT-26LC4 is the first 26-inch flat-screen TV and offers high-definition images made possible by...

8 firms eye commercial application of 2nd-generation Web tech.(called the IPv6)(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo NEC Corp., NTT Communications Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and five other firms said Monday they will form a consortium in July to realize the commercial application of second-generation Internet...

No. of Internet users in Japan tops 56 mil. in Feb.(Impress Corp. survey)(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 1 Kyodo The number of Internet users in Japan totaled 56.45 million at the end of February, up from 46.20 million a year earlier, and the number is expected to reach 61.24 million at the end of this year, publisher Impress...

Matsushita, Sony join 8-member Linux group for home appliances.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 1 Kyodo Eight electronics makers, including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sony Corp., said Tuesday they formed an alliance to enhance the Linux open-source computer operating system so it can be used more widely in...

Hitachi to offer Digital Pen Solutions service.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 2 Kyodo Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it will offer Digital Pen Solutions services from Thursday enabling anything written with a digital pen on digital paper to be sent directly to a computer. The first service of its kind...

KDDI suspends 200 mobile phone lines over spam complaints.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 2 Kyodo KDDI Corp., a major telecommunications carrier, suspended more than 200 mobile phone lines after determining they were used to send unsolicited e-mail messages to mobile phones of competitor NTT DoCoMo Inc., company...

Sharp, SAP to tie up in PDA system development, sales.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... OSAKA, July 3 Kyodo Sharp Corp. said Thursday it will tie up with German software company SAP AG in personal digital assistant (PDA) system development and sales for corporate users. Sharp's PDA Zaurus and SAP's systems on client...

NEC unit devises LCD panel with speaker function.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 3 Kyodo Authentic Ltd., an NEC Corp. subsidiary, said Thursday it has developed a small liquid crystal display (LCD) panel that also works as a speaker. The panel, which is 4 centimeters long, 8 millimeters wide and 5 mm...

Softbank to open portal site for hundreds of online games.
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 3 Kyodo Softbank Corp. and two of its group companies said Thursday they will open July 25 a portal site that will eventually enable online game enthusiasts to play hundreds of games by accessing the single site. The site...

Sharp, Texas Instruments tie up in camera cell phone parts.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 7 Kyodo Sharp Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. of the United States said Monday they have agreed to tie up in the business of semiconductor components for mobile phone handsets equipped with a camera. Under the alliance,...

23 firms set up council to promote broadband service.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 7 Kyodo Twenty-three firms set up a council on Monday to promote broadband services in Japan, an initiative proposed by Softbank BB Corp., provider of the Yahoo BB high-speed Internet access service. The council will...

Otsuka sets up subsidiary in Shanghai to sell computer systems.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... TOKYO, July 7 Kyodo Otsuka Corp., a Tokyo-based vendor of information technology-related products, said Monday it has established a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai to sell computer systems in China. Founded in April, the new...

POWEREDCOM to seek tie-ups with Net content providers.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 14 Kyodo POWEREDCOM Inc., a telecom firm affiliated with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), will seek tie-ups with Internet content providers to improve the quality of its Net services, its president said in a recent interview...

Rakuten to absorb units Infoseek Japan, Lycos Japan.
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 14 Kyodo Rakuten Inc., operator of Japan's biggest online shopping site Rakuten Ichiba, said Monday it will absorb its search-engine subsidiaries Infoseek Japan K.K. and Lycos Japan Inc. on Sept. 1 and combine them under...

KDDI's e-mail service suffers trouble, affecting 15,600 firms.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 14 Kyodo KDDI Corp.'s DION Internet access service suffered technical trouble over the weekend, making it impossible for 15,600 corporate users to send and receive e-mail messages for nearly three days, company officials said...

CORRECTED: KDDI's e-mail service suffers trouble...(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 14 Kyodo KDDI Corp.'s KDDI Internet access service suffered technical trouble over the weekend, making it impossible for 15,600 corporate users to send and receive e-mail messages for nearly three days, company officials said...

Fujitsu, AMD announce new flash memory joint venture.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 15 Kyodo Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Fujitsu Ltd. announced Monday to set up a joint venture in California for flash memory semiconductors. The company, FASL LLC, was formed through the integration of the flash...

DoCoMo AOL begins service to find lost cell phones.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 15 Kyodo Internet access service provider DoCoMo AOL Inc. has launched a service to help mobile phone users find their handsets when they lost them, company officials said Tuesday. The new service requires users to register...

Sony Ericsson net loss widens to 88 mil. euros in April-June.(2003)(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... LONDON, July 15 Kyodo Mobile phone producer Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB said Tuesday its net loss for the April-June quarter widened to 88 million euros (11.6 billion yen) from 83 million euros a year earlier. However,...

Fuji Photo Film develops new digital camera prototype.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 16 Kyodo Fuji Photo Film Co. has developed a digital camera prototype that gives users easier access to printers and personal computers through wireless local area networks (LANs). The prototype, displayed Wednesday at...

Daikin to release highly effective air purifier.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... OSAKA, July 16 Kyodo Air-conditioner maker Daikin Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it has developed a technology to attach to filters a synthetic chemical substance to absorb almost all the viruses and germs exposed to it. With the...

Sony develops 4-color filter CCD for consumer digital cameras.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 16 Kyodo Sony Corp. said Wednesday it has developed what it calls is the world's first charge-coupled device (CCD) with a four-color filter for use in consumer digital cameras. The new CCD makes it possible to reproduce...

Matsushita to release remote-control appliance system.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... OSAKA, July 16 Kyodo Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Wednesday it will release a networked home appliances and housekeeping system to enable users to operate consumer electronics from remote locations with mobile phones. The...

KDDI develops mobile-phone GPS for pedestrians.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 16 Kyodo KDDI Corp. will begin providing a mobile phone service involving voice messages and maps to help guide pedestrians to their destinations by the end of this year, its president said Wednesday. ''We have developed...

Sony's AIBO robots able to send images to cell phones.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo A system enabling Sony Corp.'s AIBO robot pets to transmit images to mobile phones is being demonstrated at ''Wireless Japan 2003,'' an information technology exhibition in Tokyo running through Friday. The...

Global PC shipments up 7.6% in April-June.(International Data Corp. report)
July 22, 2003... NEW YORK, July 16 Kyodo Global shipments of personal computers (PCs) in April-June this year rose 7.6% from a year earlier to 33.2 million units, marking the fourth straight quarterly increase, a U.S. research and consulting firm said...

NTT DoCoMo eyeing 5-fold rise in 3G phone speed.(HSDPA method for its FOMA service )(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to adopt a communications method in 2005 to raise the data transmission speed of its FOMA third-generation (3G) mobile phone service by more than five times, President Keiji Tachikawa said...

Sony Marketing unveils new Net-capable, palm-sized PDA.(CLIE PEG-UX50 )(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo Sony Marketing (Japan) Inc. on Thursday took the wraps off a new Internet-savvy, palm-sized personal digital assistant (PDA) whose horizontal color screen and keyboard fold like those of a notebook computer. The...

Omron to begin full-scale operations at Shanghai unit.(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... KYOTO, July 17 Kyodo Automated control equipment maker Omron Corp. said Thursday its new unit in Shanghai will be officially inaugurated next Monday after a delay caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome. The new firm, Omron...

LEAD: TEPCO to launch wireless fiber-optic service.(Tokyo Electric Power Co.)(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATING WITH FRESH INFO) Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) plans to launch a fiber-optic communications service using high-speed wireless access in the Tokyo metropolitan area later this year, company...

Mitsui Fudosan housing site created, launched by Yahoo Japan.(31sumai.com )(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 18 Kyodo Yahoo Japan Corp. said Friday it has created a new Internet housing site for clients of Mitsui Fudosan Co., which the real estate developer launched the same day. Yahoo, Japan's leading Internet portal, said the...

Gov't to bridge urban-rural 'digital divide'.(Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications )(Brief Article)
July 22, 2003... TOKYO, July 18 Kyodo The telecom ministry plans to promote the use of wireless high-speed communications networks in rural areas in a bid to bridge the ''digital divide'' between them and cities, officials said Friday. The Ministry of...

NEC buying back used PCs from consumers.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo NEC Corp. said Tuesday it has begun buying back from consumers used personal computers (PCs) of its own brand and reviving them for resale. NEC is the first domestic manufacturer to buy back PCs of its own make...

NEC to reenter U.S. mobile phone market.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... NEW YORK, July 22 Kyodo NEC Corp. said Tuesday it will reenter the U.S. mobile phone market with the July 28 launch of an Internet-capable handset that has a color liquid crystal display. The major Japanese electronics company said...

Shopping system based on camera-equipped mobile phones devised.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 23 Kyodo Venture business Mediastick Inc. said Wednesday it has developed a system enabling users of camera-equipped mobile phones to place orders for merchandise whose ads they see on TV screens or newspapers by merely...

Japan mobile handset sales up 33.7% in Jan.-March.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo Domestic sales of mobile phone handsets in Japan totaled 11.9 million units in the January-March quarter, up 33.7% from a year earlier for the second consecutive quarterly rise, Gartner Japan Ltd. said Wednesday. ...

Japan mobile handset sales up 33.7% in January-March.(Gartner Japan report)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo Sales of mobile phone handsets in Japan totaled 11.9 million units from January to March, up 33.7% from a year earlier for the second consecutive quarterly rise, Gartner Japan Ltd. said Wednesday. Handset sales...

E-book market in Japan soars to 1 bil. yen in 2002.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo The Japanese market for eBooks soared to 1 billion yen in 2002, publishing house Impress Corp. said Thursday. The market is expanding at an annual rate of 40-60%, Impress said in a press release accompanying a...

Ministry calls for developing networked robots.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo Japan should develop basic technologies by 2008 for creating robots connected to information networks, such as a robot operated by remote control to work at disaster sites, the government said in a report compiled...

Domestic PC shipment volume up 4% in April-June.(Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association )(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo Shipments of personal computers (PCs) in Japan came to 2,524,000 units in the April-June quarter this year, up 4% from the same period last year for the first rise in two years, an industry association said Thursday....

Showa Denko to grant 80-gigabyte hard disk tech to Taiwan firm.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 24 Kyodo Showa Denko K.K. said Thursday it will transfer its manufacturing technology for 80-gigabyte hard disks used as computer memory storage to Trace Storage Technology Corp. of Taiwan. The technology involves...

Toshiba obtains license from Honeywell for LCD driver patents.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 25 Kyodo Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has obtained a license from Honeywell International Inc. to use two Honeywell U.S. patents relating to liquid crystal displays (LCDs) found in a wide variety of electronic consumer and...

Rakuten clinches No. 2 slot among Japan's portal sites: survey.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... TOKYO, July 25 Kyodo Rakuten Inc., operator of Japan's biggest online shopping site Rakuten Ichiba, has clinched the No. 2 spot among Japanese-language Internet portal sites, a research agency on Net-related businesses said in a survey...