Nokia to cease sales in Japan (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it will stop selling mobile phones in Japan except for its luxury Vertu brand after struggling to expand its presence.

Finnish Nokia has previously said it will cut costs 'decisively', expecting global mobile phone sales to shrink next year amid an economic downturn.

Japan is the world's fourth largest mobile phone market after the United States, China and India. But it makes up only a tiny part of sales at Nokia, whose products have failed to lure customers away from more sophisticated Japanese ones.

Mobile phone companies also see limited scope for growth in Japan, where 109 million subscribers, or some 85 percent of the population, already own a mobile phone. In addition, a new sales model based on higher handset prices is expected to slash annual mobile phone sales in Japan by some 20 percent.

"In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localized products is no longer sustainable," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

He added that Nokia's Japanese business would concentrate on research, development and sourcing for the global market as well as specific projects such as the Vertu brand.

The quirks of Japan's mobile phone market have prevented foreign companies, including Nokia's rivals such as Samsung Electronics and LG, from successfully targeting Japanese consumers.

Most of the mobile phones used in Japan are part of third-generation networks and boast features such as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions.

This makes it tough for foreign manufacturers to compete with domestic handsets.

Foreign companies, excluding Sony Ericsson, only occupy around 5 percent of Japan's mobile phone market, according to IDC Japan, a research firm. Japanese manufacturers, in turn, have only a small presence outside their home market.

"Nokia is facing global earnings problems and many other issues, and this shows Japan was a low-priority market at a time when they are shoring up global operations, even though it may still be attractive," IDC Japan analyst Michito Kimura said.

"I'm not very surprised by the decision."

The move was still rather abrupt as NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, said just this month that it would sell a new Nokia smartphone as part of its product line-up for the winter shopping season.

Third-ranked Japanese operator Softbank Corp also sells Nokia phones.

Nokia, which has a nearly 40 percent global market share, had originally said it aimed to increase its market share in Japan to a double-digit figure. It took only around 0.3 percent of the Japanese market last business year, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Instead of a broad expansion, it will now focus on Vertu, its luxury unit.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday that Nokia plans to launch mobile phone services for Vertu customers in Japan, using DoCoMo's network.

Vertu, founded in 1998, sells gem-encrusted, hand-built mobile phones with prices ranging from 3,500 euros to over 100,000 euros.

Resource - Yahoo! Tech

Dell Launches the Inspiron Mini 12—In Japan

A larger version of the Mini 9, the Mini 12 is officially the first netbook to house a 12-inch widescreen.

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

When the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 launched a couple of months ago, it did little to differentiate itself from the sea of netbooks that were already out there. Evidently, the Mini 9 was only the first of two acts. On Sunday, the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, a larger version of the Mini 9, makes its debut—in Japan. Dell had reached an exclusive agreement with VIC Camera, Kojima, and SofMap—all Japanese retailers—to make the early announcement overseas. According to Dell, the Inspiron 12 will ship in the United States by mid-November.

The Mini 12 is officially the first netbook to house a 12-inch widescreen; the largest so far have been 10-inch models such as the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and the MSI Wind. The Mini 12 creates a new market for general-purpose users who are looking for more screen real estate but aren't ready to spend over a grand for it. The screen offers 1,280-by-800 resolution, higher than the typical 1,280-by-600 netbooks. Its shape is like a wedge, measuring 9.0-by-11.8-by-0.92 inches, becoming thicker towards the back. The weight starts at 2.7 pounds, with a 3-cell battery. A 6-cell battery will be available later on and will likely bring the weight over 3 pounds.

Like the S10 and the Wind, the Mini 12's feature set includes three USB ports, a multicard reader, Ethernet, VGA-Out, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. Hard drives aren't the meager solid state ones offered on the Mini 9; you have a choice of 40GB, 60GB, and 80GB spinning drives. Although it doesn't have the antenna infrastructure to support WWAN, an empty slot is available for it, like on the Mini 9. In the meantime, the Mini 12 has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in.

Like the Mini 9, the new Mini uses Intel's Atom platform: The 1.33-GHz Z520 and the 1.6-GHz Z530 Atom processor are both available come November. The Mini 12 is one of the few systems to run Windows Vista Basic, which will be the only choice for operating systems at this time. Windows XP will be available when the unit ships in the U.S., with an Ubuntu Linux configuration to follow at the end of the year. The Vista system starts at $550.

Resource - PC World

Dell readies small, cheap computer for small biz

Dell is preparing an all-black version of its Inspiron Mini 9 netbook, this one aimed at small businesses and set to ship as the Vostro A90.

Dell's Vostro A90: rebranded Inspiron Mini 9

The PC giant launched the machine in Japan today, and while you can't buy the A90 from its UK website yet, Dell has begun posting support documents for the not-quite-new Small, Cheap Computer.

Not new? No, because the A90 is the Mini 9 in different colours and with an alternative name on the box. The A90 has the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 as the Mini 9, and the same 8.9in, 1024 x 600 display, 1GB of memory, 8GB solid-state drive, portage and connectivity.

Big (price) in Japan

The UK pricing isn't yet known, but in Japan the Windows XP-only A90 will retail for ¥92,830 ($972/£606/€761), which is way more than the Mini 9 costs and certainly not what we'd expect a Vostro machine to go for. The Mini 9's £299 price tag is more realistic.Speaking of the Mini 9, while Dell did begin offering the cheaper, Linux version of the SCC earlier this month, readers report it's still taking the company around two weeks to ship orders. To be fair, the company warns buyers of the XP model that they face the same waiting period for their machines too.

Dell Latitude E6400 Review

Could it be all the Mini 9's are being taken by Vodafone, which is offering the machine for free with a two-year mobile broadband airtime package? Certainly, the carrier is currently promising delivery in just a few days - rather less than Dell's two weeks

Resource - RegHardware

Square Enix President Suggests "Japan Alliance" For Gaming

uring the Tokyo Game Show 2008, imperial hot Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada voiced concerns about how the West's gaming industry was surpassing Japan's. In an Nikkei Business article on the Japanese gaming "crisis", Wada further explains his position. The gaming industry in the West is growing faster, and developers and publishers have more capital than their Japanese counterparts.

To remain competitive, Wada says, "Therefore, we should consider some sort of 'Japan Alliance'." More medium to small-sized companies will need to realign — case in point, Tecmo and Koei. "Individuality is important," Wada adds. "It's not forcing everything into a single corporate brand. The ideal is a holding company under which several companies and brands can hang." Though, who would head up this alliance? Square Enix? Wada? He did come up with the idea...

Resource - Kotaku

Virus Alert: ASUS Recalls Eee Box PCs In Japan

Taiwan's ASUSTek Computer has announced a recall of its Eee Box PCs that were sold in Japan because they contain a virus.

The virus, known as recycled.exe, resides on the D drive of the machine and once opened, the virus will be activated and copy itself to the C drive as well as any other removable or USB drives. Affected by the virus, the running of the computer will become slow and it may download harmful malware programs from the Internet.

Li Yusheng, a representative from ASUS's public relations department, says that the virus entered the computers while they were downloading the Japanese version software to the computer. However, the anti-virus protections on Asus' other production lines are free from the bug and the software of Eee Box products sold to other countries are reportedly safe.

Li emphasizes that the build-in virus in Eee Box sold to Japan is an accident. The computer company has announced a recall of all these suspected Eee Box products and will impose stricter measures on production line management and software protection.

With a total shipment of 4,500, only about 300 Eee Box PCs have been sold in the Japanese market.

Resource - China Tech News