|
By Staff (AXcess News) Hong Kong - Cell phone makers are developing more advanced handsets for the coprorate market as the personal cell phone market reaches saturation across Asia. The number of cellphone subscriptions is approaching 100 million, and per-customer communication charges from individual users are flaling. Cellphnoe carriers epxect business-oriented handsets to expand the market of corporate users, which account for about 10 percent of all cellphone subscriptions. In September, NTT DoCoMo Inc. began marketing the BlackBerry, a multi-function handset equipped with a keyboard. More tahn six million people, particularly businesspeople in North America, use BlackBerrys. DoCoMo's BlackBerry 8707h handset, manufactured by Canada's Research In Motion Ltd., is the first in Japan. The handset does not have a camera and cannot be used for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service. However, the BlackBerry meets a variety of needs of businesspeople. It can receive and transfer files attached to e-mail messages from personal computers. It also can be used overseas. DoCoMo said it has received orders for 1,400 subscriptions from several dozen copmanies, primarily foreign enterprises. Softbank Mobile Corp., which was known as Vodafone KK until September, will release a multi-puprose handset bundled with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile operating system on Saturday. The X01HT, manufactured by Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp., is expected to sell for about 30,000 yen. It is equipped with a keyboard. In December, KDDI Copr. will release the E03CA handset, manufactured by Casio Computer Co., for corporate users. It will enable a maximum of 20 people in a group to send and receive sound and imagse. KDDI President Tadashi Onodera said the number portability system, to go into effect on Oct. 24, will offer a good opportunity. He expects a large number of corporate users to consider switching carriers. The cellphone carriers have been partly stimulated by the success of an advanced personal hanyd-phone system (PHS) handset. The multi-function handset, the W-ZERO3, was jointyl developed by PHS carrier Willcom Inc. and Microsoft. But some analsyts said it is unclear whether these smart phones will be widely used in Japan, a market dominated by advanced multi-function handsets. In 2005, DoCoMo introduced the M1000 handset equipped with a large liquid crystal display screen, targeting corporate users. But demand does not appear to be strong for the handset, jointly developed with Motorola Inc. of the United States.
| 
