Varioptic to Set up Production Facility in China
Huawei to Enter Japan's Mobile WiMAX Market
Home Electronics Controlled by Cellular Phones
Softbank to Launch HSDPA
Sony Announces Pocket Size IM + Music Device
SK Telecom Launches New Brand T
SKT and China Unicom Procure Handsets Together
Pantech Supplies Handsets to Chile

Varioptic, a French developer of liquid lenses, is going to expand its production capacity drastically by setting up a manufacturing facility within Taiwanese Creative Sensor Inc.'s factory before the end of 2006. Creative Sensor is a leading manufacturer of contact image sensors for scanners and copiers. It supplies components to Hewlett-Packard and Seiko Epson.

Varioptic has given a license for manufacturing liquid lenses to Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. of South Korea. Samsung Electro-Mechanics will retain the right but will not sell liquid lenses. Creative Sensor will manufacture Varioptic's sensors, which can be sold on the open market.

A mass production line will be installed in the factory Creative Sensor owns in Wuxi, China. The line is expected to produce 100,000 liquid lenses a month originally, with production expansion planed for later. At the end of 2006, Creative Sensor plans to produce the ARCTIC 416, which features auto focus function on the new line. The ARCTIC 416 is complaint with the camera module standard, SMIA (Standard Mobile Imaging Architecture), which is supported by Nokia and others. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

The Japanese branch of Huawei Technologies, China's largest communication equipment supplier, announced in August 2006 that the company is preparing to enter Japan's mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) market. A representative of Huawei's Japanese operation unveiled that the company is talking to an operator planning to receive a WiMAX license. Huawei is interested in entering the Japanese WiMAX market through collaboration with Japanese vendors.

In China, Huawei has been developing mobile WiMAX base stations that are based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. The company has already completed development of a prototype. Huawei set up representation in Japan in November 2005. The company employs 70 people in Japan. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, three Japanese wireless service carriers, and home electronics manufacturers are going to standardize communication technology to control home electronics remotely with cellular phones. Regardless of cellular service companies or handset manufacturers, users will be able to control TVs and air conditioners with a cellular phone away from home. The companies will conduct evaluations soon and will develop prototype cellular phones and home electronics for the specification.

NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Vodafone (soon to be renamed as Softbank), Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, Hewlett-Packard Japan, and Seiko Epson will participate in standardization. The companies will develop standardization technology, which will interface between cellular phone network, Internet, Wireless LAN and IrDA by October 2006.

If the standardization technology is established, users can turn on air conditioner and start recording programs on the TV away from home. Users can also send pictures taken on a cellular phone to home and display them on the TV screen or transfer them to the printer. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Mr. Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank, unveiled details of the company's HSDPA strategy on August 8, 2006. Vodafone's Japanese operation will change its name to Softbank Mobile in October 2006. HSDPA enables about 10 times faster data communication speed of the 3G wireless protocol. Mr. Son says that its 6,500 base stations will be compatible with HSDPA by October 1, 2006. The company plans to expand the number of HSDPA compatible base stations to 9,200 before winter 2006. Softbank's subscribers will be able to enjoy HSDPA in major cities across Japan. The company plans to leverage its abundant content for its wireless service.

Softbank plans to roll out HSDPA handsets in fall 2006. Softbank is also going to beef up the number of 3G wireless base stations to 46,000 before the end of 2006, trying to catch up with NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. HSDPA achieves 3.6Mbps data transfer speed. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Sony Electronics, the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese electronics and home entertainment heavyweight, announced a new portable device featuring Wi-Fi communication capability and entertainment features, the mylo, on August 7, 2006.

The mylo stands for "my life online". The mylo is meant for users whose primary communication means is instant messaging.

The mylo is pocket-sized, housing a 2.4-inch color LCD display and slide style QWERTY board. It supports 802.11b wireless LAN and is offered in two color variations, white and black.

The mylo is complaint with Google Talk, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger and supports a full browser. It can store up to 90 avatars on its What's Up screen, letting users know who is online. The device allows users to listen to audio files on the memory card while chatting or net surfing. The mylo supports MP3, ATRAC and WMA audio files. It can play MPG-4 video after transferring the file through a USB cable or on a Memory Stick Duo.

The mylo is going to be available in September 2006 for $350. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

South Korea's largest wireless service operator, SK Telecom (SKT), launched a new brand representing its services, the T on August 1, 2006. T stands is the first letter of Telecom, Technology, Top and Trust. The name of all the SKT services will include the new brand, T. Its existing brand 3G+ has been changed to T3G+.

Along with launch of the T brand, SKT will shift its focus to quality, utilizing its advanced technology and differentiated service competitiveness instead of competing on cost. Its strategy in focusing on quality will go together with its commercial HSDPA service, the 3G+, which the company started offering in May. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

SK Telecom (SKT) of South Korea and China Unicom of China are going to introduce handsets they procured together during the first half 2007 in South Korea and China simultaneously. The companies sent an RFP (Request For Proposal) to Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Pantech & Curitel and Motorola recently and began joint handset procurement.

SKT and China Unicom signed an exclusive agreement to collaborate in six areas including joint handset procurement in June 2006. The RFP includes the handset that SKT and China Unicom will jointly procure and mid-to high-end handsets.

Those handsets will feature the same functions and specifications besides having different frequency property. Those handsets may support WIPI, South Korean-made wireless Internet platform.

The vendors, who received RFPs are considering whether or not to respond to them. Pantech responded saying that they will agree to develop the models limited to the South Korean market. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will decide whether to develop a handset requested by the RFP by September 2006. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Pantech Group of South Korea began supplying handsets to Chile, Digital Times reported on August 8, 2006.

Patech Gourp signed a contract with Smartcom of Chile recently. Smartcom is also known as Claro. Pantech agreed to supply two models of GSM phones under its own brand name to Smartcom, the third largest Chilean wireless service operator and a unit of America Moviles, a Mexican wireless service company.

Pantech Group forayed into the Mexican wireless market in 2004. It also forayed into Brazil and Argentina. Pantech now has a presence in four of the five major Central and South American markets consisting of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

Pantech began delivery of the PG3210 and the PG1410 to Smartcom. They are the representative models that Pantech mass-produces for multiple countries.

Pantech plans to begin supplying handsets to Colombia and Paraguay in the second half of 2006. The company's goal is to ship 3 million handsets to Central and South America in 2006. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]