Categories: Telecom

In Electronics, Japan Still Matters

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 17

In the global technology industry's pecking order, Japanese consumer electronics companies long ago surrendered their top spot to more nimble competitors like Samsung Electronics and Apple. Many of the country's...

China's Huawei Overcomes Opposition in India

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on September 07

In the U.S., Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies is encountering new opposition from Republican senators. Huawei has had its share of political problems in India, too, with New Delhi...

No iPhone Boost for Apple's Chinese Partner

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 26

Apple's in a bind in China. It has teamed up with China Unicom, the perennial also-ran in the country. Unicom has exclusive rights to the iPhone in the world's biggest...

GOP Senators Go After China's Huawei

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 23

China's biggest maker of telecom equipment is the subject of a new campaign by a group of Republican senators demanding the Obama administration investigate the company, which wants to sell...

Got A Cell Phone? I'll E-Mail You Money

Posted by: Kenji Hall on November 15

My BusinessWeek colleague, Amy Feldman, wrote in this week's issue about a service that will soon be available in the U.S.: emailing money to friends and family. In Japan,...

Apple, China Unicom to Announce iPhone Deal?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 27

The long wait of China's iPhone fans may finally be over. Mike Kent at SciTechToday writes that China Unicom is having a media briefing on Friday and is expected to...

China Mobile and HTC Make Smartphone Alliance

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 24

Apple vs. Google. Apple vs. Microsoft. Apple vs. RIM. Add another company to the list of Apple antagonists: Apple vs. China Mobile. The largest Chinese cellular operator (and the largest...

Did June 4 Crackdown Put China behind India in Telecom?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 05

Not often that you see someone comparing China’s telecom sector unfavorably to India’s. China has the world’s largest cellular market and, in China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular operator. India...

ZTE Gets Another Boost as it Targets Motorola

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 22

A few weeks ago I wrote in the magazine about ZTE, the Chinese telecom equipment maker that has come from nowhere to gain the No. 6 spot in the global...

China's Huawei is Number One

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 15

Here's some news that should bring smiles to the faces of China's leaders. Huawei Technologies, the Shenzhen-based company that is the largest maker of telecom equipment in China, has now...

China Scores Major Coup in Satellite Space Race

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on March 23

The first time I blogged about China’s satellite rocket launch business, certain readers pointed out to me that I had strayed woefully out of my depth. And were it not...

Google Gains on Apple in China with Android Win

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on December 10

In the race to win acceptance for its smart phone worldwide, Google is gaining ground on Apple. Steve Jobs and Co. still don't have the iPhone in China, after talks...

Talking Points: the iPhone's Impact in Japan

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 13

When the iPhone arrived in Japan, skeptics said it would be a disappointment because Japanese handsets were already as good as Apple's offering, while Mac-philes predicted it would spur Japanese phone makers to come up with fancier designs. They were both wrong.

LG Poised to Edge Past Motorola in Handsets

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on July 21

With no tangible signs Motorola is turning around its mobile phone business, South Korea’s LG Electronics must have overtaken America’s once-iconic wireless brand as the world’s No. 3 handset maker...

Softbank's iPhone Coup

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 11

NTT DoCoMo’s top brass must be kicking themselves right about now. Japan’s top mobile operator lost out to Softbank in the contest to sell Apple’s iPhone 3G, allowing the third-largest...

And the Winner of Japan's iPhone Sweepstakes is...

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 04

Softbank scored a major coup today with its announcement that it has signed on to sell Apple’s iPhone in Japan. The deal gives the country's third-largest wireless operator the kind...

China Unicom: Free at Last

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 02

China Unicom, the country’s also-ran cellular player, has always had to operate with a major handicap. Back in the 1990s, Zhu Rongji, the economic czar who later became premier, wanted...

Huawei rumors

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 09

Lots of speculation flying around that Huawei is looking to sell a stake in its handset, router and data-card businesses to a foreign investor. The Journal first reported this on...

Virgin's big India move

Posted by: Manjeet Krpalani on March 02

On Sunday, May 2, after gratifying everyone with one of his usual gimmicks - he climbed up the face of the Hilton Towers in Bombay - Richard Branson climbed down...

Huawei's 3Com Deal Flops

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on February 21

This isn’t exactly a shocker: Huawei has suffered a major setback* in its bid to buy a stake in 3Com. The Chinese telecom-equipment company has been trying for months to...

Who Needs China's New 3G Technology?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on January 18

Nobody, according to ABI Research. At least, nobody who’s boss isn’t a Chinese government official. While at least one of China's state-controlled telecom operators is sure to offer service using...

Strange Bedfellows: Google and NTT DoCoMo

Posted by: Kenji Hall on December 26

Openness isn't a word you'd normally associate with NTT DoCoMo. Japan's No. 1 wireless carrier is, after all, a stalwart defender of the vertical integration model. That's another way of...

Can Samsung Emulate Nokia?

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on November 28

Could Samsung Electronics follow the footsteps of Nokia? The Korean company certainly hopes so at least in emerging markets, where the Finnish company is making handsome profits by selling cheap...

Turning up the heat on Huawei

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 15

Opposition on the anti-Communist right is building to the proposed investment in 3Com by Huawei Techologies, the Chinese network equipment maker run by a former officer in the People’s Liberation...

Why Huawei Wants a Part of 3Com

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 03

When it comes to big overseas acquisitions, the Chinese track record is pretty spotty. There have been some big flops – TCL’s deals with Thomson and Alcatel, for instance. Some,...

ZTE and the Philippine Scandal

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on September 26

Gloria Arroyo, the Philippine president, has cancelled a controversial $330 million deal that would have called for Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE to supply equipment to the government’s planned broadband...

Taiwan's HTC Beats Apple's iPhone To Japan...

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 30

HTC couldn't have picked a better time to fire up the marketing machine. Today, Taiwanese tech company unveiled a Windows Mobile-based, touch-screen handset that will work on NTT DoCoMo's 3G...

Is Google teaming up with HTC?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 14

Is Microsoft's most important Taiwanese partner about to switch teams? High Tech Computer (HTC) is the world's No. 1 maker of smart phones using the Windows operating system, and for...

Brand new Taiwanese

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on May 11

Another electronics manufacturer from Taiwan trying to break out of the commoditization trap. As I wrote here yesterday for BW, smart phone pioneer High Tech Computer Corp. is switching strategies...

Samsung Makes Strides in Mobile Phone Sales

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on April 23

Mobile phone makers’ first quarter shipments have typically been weak because of a drop in demand following a year-end shopping spree. Yet Samsung Electronics, the world’s No. 3 cell phone...

LG to offer Google Search through its phones

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on March 28

Global handset manufacturers have sought various means to make their products stand out in a world flooded with mobile phones. In a renewed attempt to reach out to consumers with...

Wired Nation Goes Wireless

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on February 28

South Korea’s mobile carrier KTF on March 1 launched the world’s first “nationwide” network enabling seamless video conferencing on the go. The network, using the technology called High-Speed Downlink Packet...

Rush hour for China's cellular operators

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on February 20

By now just about everybody who cares knows that China is the world’s biggest cellular market. Every once and a while, it’s useful to step back and think about just...

India Blows by China in Mobile Phone Market Growth

Posted by: Brian Bremner on January 30

At the start of the decade, India was pretty much a telecom backwater. No more. Last year it actually grew at a faster rate than China for the first time...

Super 3G's Big Promise

Posted by: Kenji Hall on January 03

Mention fiber-optic connections to many Netizens, and you'll likely get their adrenaline pumping. At speeds of 100 megabits per second, fiber-optic technology promises to eliminate the wait for Web pages...

Samsung’s Answer to Wireless Broadband Era

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on December 04

At the ITU Telecom World 2006 forum in Hong Kong, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics unveiled three new thin phones to brace itself up for a fast approaching era of...

Team Iran at ITU Telecom World 2006

Posted by: Brian Bremner on December 04

They may not boast the star power of established tech titans such as Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard or emerging telecom players like China’s Huawei Technologies or ZTE. Yet a handful...

PCCW's Father and Son Melodrama

Posted by: Brian Bremner on November 30

The father and son drama at PCCW (Hong Kong’s biggest telecom player) has taken yet another unusual plot twist. On Nov. 30, shareholders of Pacific Century Regional Development voted against...

Chinese companies not welcome in India? - An update

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on November 24

Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about the problems that Chinese telecom equipment makers were having trying to sell in India. (Here’s the item from Asiatech.) State-controlled telco BSNL...

Softbank's PR Debacle

Posted by: Kenji Hall on November 01

It's been one helluva bad week for Softbank, the smallest of Japan's wireless carriers. Ever since the company launched a pricing war with a massive ad campaign on Oct....

Softbank CEO: Taunts One Day, Haunted The Next

Posted by: Kenji Hall on October 30

A week ago, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son practically taunted his bigger rivals in the wireless telecom biz. Now, he's eating crow. On Oct. 30, Son acknowledged that he was a...

Masayoshi Son vs. the Wireless Establishment...Round 1

Posted by: Kenji Hall on October 23

Masayoshi Son, Softbank's feisty CEO, has declared war on the wireless Establishment. On Oct. 23, Son said Softbank, the smallest of Japan's three wireless providers, would undercut the rates of...

Chinese companies not welcome in India?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 18

It’s one thing for India to roll out the welcome map for Western multinationals looking to take advantage of Indian talent. But what happens when the companies that want to...

Introducing the Lexus phone

Posted by: Ian Rowley on October 16

Will a branded mobile phone help Lexus ring up more sales in Japan? According to reports in the Japanese media, Toyota is working with telephone company KDDI to produce a...

Why can’t Chinese build global brands?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 04

The Japanese did it. The Koreans did it. Even the Indians are managing to do it now. So why can’t companies from Greater China have more success building global brands?...

SK Markets Phone with Pop-up Display

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on September 19

Mobile TV’s growing popularity in Korea is spawning new handsets designed to improve viewing footage on small screens. In the latest of such moves, SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile...

Truth or Dare ... the cell phone version

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on August 23

In countries where nearly everybody already talks on cell phones, mobile carriers have been in a race to offer services that do everything from finding restaurants to trading stocks and...

Motorola's Ming Smart Phone Rocks China

Posted by: Brian Bremner on August 01

In China’s hotly competitive mobile phone space, Motorola has staged a remarkable comeback in 2006. Its market share of the overall mainland cell phone market has jumped from 12% in...

Motorola bets on Huawei

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 25

While Motorola has been on a roll in many other parts of the world, the company has still been struggling in China. A few years ago, Nokia grabbed the No....

Time's up for watch sales in Japan

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 12

Spare a thought for Japan's watchmakers. According to a new survey by Seiko Watches, the proportion of Japanese aged between 16-49 wearing wristwatches has plummeted from 70% in 1997...

PCCW Will Stay Under Chinese Control

Posted by: Brian Bremner on July 11

If you need more evidence that Beijing is pulling the welcome mat on foreign companies trying to buy Chinese corporate assets, consider the outcome of the bidding war for PCCW,...

What's next for Richard Li?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 26

As the battle for PCCW's telecom and media assets heats up, lots of people are speculating about Richard Li’s next move. I wrote last week that Macquarie was interested, and...

Sanyo and Nokia part ways on CDMA

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 22

How will the CDMA standard fare after Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, and Japan's Sanyo Electric dissolved their joint venture to develop CDMA phones? It's anyone's guess. Qualcomm...

SK Telecom’s China Bet

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on June 22

South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom’s agreement to invest $1 billion in China Unicom for a foothold in the world’s biggest mobile market is not a welcome move for many...

Drinking to 3G in Japan

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 20

NTT DoCoMo's stock price might be tanking--it reached a 12 month low on June 15--but its 3G subscriber base continues to grow. On June 19, DoCoMo revealed that more than...

Nortel-Huawei, RIP

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 14

There was always something a bit puzzling about the partnership between Nortel and Huawei. The two longtime rivals last year agreed to team up in a joint venture to sell...

BlackBerry in Japan

Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 08

At long last the BlackBerry is coming to Japan. Today, DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier, announced it's done a deal with RIM to sell the devices to corporate customers...

Risky move for Microsoft's Taiwan partner

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 05

High Tech Computer, the Taiwanese ODM that has long been the world's leading developer of Windows smart phones, announced on Friday that it is taking control of one of...

The Big Game on the Smallest Screen

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on May 23

It isn’t just flat-panel TVs that could score big from next month’s World Cup soccer tournament. In South Korea at least, hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are snapping up...

Softbank isn't small fry

Posted by: Ian Rowley on May 21

One more thing on Softbank. In last week's story on the Apple and Softbank iPod phone rumors, we mentioned that ex-Apple sources thought it unusual for Apple to tie-up with...

More mobile music in Japan

Posted by: Ian Rowley on May 21

Last Monday, Kenji Hall and I wrote about reports in Japan that Apple and Softbank were planning an iPod phone for release later this year. If it happens, it...

Softbank dumps Vodafone brand

Posted by: Ian Rowley on May 18

Among the numerous missteps made by Vodafone in Japan after its acquisition of J-Phone in 2001 was the undue haste with which it installed the global Vodafone brand. Most Japanese...

The Red and the Black

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on April 16

With Chinese President Hu Jintao traveling at the end of the month to the U.S. for a much-anticipated summit with President Bush, China is supposed to be defusing trade tensions,...

Is WiMAX the new battlefield for cellular operators?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on March 29

A battle over WiMAX is shaping up between Japan's No. 1 and No. 2 cell phone operators. DoCoMo has just applied to the Japanese government to conduct a one-year trial...

NTT DoCoMo trailblazing in 4G

Posted by: Kenji Hall on February 23

And you thought 3G was fast. Japan's No. 1 cell phone service operator, NTT DoCoMo, says today that it successfully completed a field experiment, in Yokosuka, west of Tokyo, with...

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