WIRE REPORTS

KDDI gains net 376200 mobile-phone users in Jan. MarketWatch By Paul Baylis TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- KDDI Corp. said Xxxday it gained/lost a net xxxx subscribers to its mobile phone services in MONTH, the xxxxxx. Japan's No. 2 mobile phone carrier after NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it had about xxxxx million users at the ... and more » KDDI Gains Net 376200 Mobile Phone Users In Jan Wall Street Journal TOKYO (Dow Jones)--KDDI Corp. (9433.TO) said Xxxday it gained/lost a net xxxx subscribers to its mobile phone services in MONTH, the xxxxxx. Japan's No. 2 mobile phone carrier after NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it had about xxxxx million users at the end of ... and more » Smartphone Battle Squeezes Earnings At Wireless Carriers NIKKEI.com The firm sold 3.78 million cell phones in the quarter, a 45% gain that put it ahead of KDDI Corp. (9433) for the first time. Softbank and KDDI began offering Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S in October. Softbank introduced an incentive program for customers ... and more » Softbank Q3 profit halves on cost of keeping up with iPhone rival KDDI Total Telecom Softbank, Japan's third largest mobile carrier by subscriber numbers, was the country's only carrier of the iPhone until KDDI Corp., the second-largest carrier, began to sell the iPhone 4S when it was released in October. Speaking at a news conference, ... and more » KDDI INFOBAR C01 Android candybar smartphone makes its way to Japan Ubergizmo (blog) Adding to that list will be KDDI's INFOBAR C01, the latest addition to the carrier's designer INFOBAR series of Android smartphones. The KDDI INFOBAR C01 sports a candybar form factor and a keypad with alternating colors. The device will be running on ... and more » Phones Review KDDI Infobar C01 Japanese beauty releases tomorrow Phones Review We recently reported that the KDDI Infobar C01 Android smartphone would soon be seeing the light of day over in Japan, a candy-bar form factor handset that sports Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a heavily customised user interface, and word is the ... and more » Wall Street Journal Softbank Net Falls by Half on Sales Costs Wall Street Journal Softbank, Japan's third-largest mobile carrier by subscriber numbers, was the country's only carrier of the iPhone until KDDI Corp., the second-largest carrier, began to sell the iPhone 4S when it was released in October. Speaking at a news conference, ... and more » KDDI establishes venture capital fund Telecompaper (subscription) Japanese operator KDDI has established a corporate venture capital fund that will support promising start-up companies. The KDDI Open Innovation Fund will have a total investment of JPY 5 billion and will also support companies with service development ... Japanese Carrier KDDI Wants To Kiss And Make Up ? Removes Notification Ads ... Phandroid.com by Chris Chavez on February 1st, 2012 at 4:34 am Japanese carrier, KDDI, came under fire a few days ago when it was discovered that Japan's second largest network was pushing ads to customers' notification bars, a practice similar to an ad system ... and more » KDDI's INFOBAR C01 coming soon: ten keys and very Japanese (video) Engadget By Sharif Sakr posted Feb 1st 2012 2:05AM Many Japanese thumbs still love that classic ten-button keypad, so they should feel right at home on the newest model in KDDI's designer INFOBAR range. The 3.2-inch, 854 x 480 touchscreen shows off the same ... and more »

DAILY REPORTS

Jan 26 KDDI net profit falls 17% Japanese telecom operator KDDI said Thursday net profit for the December quarter fell 17 percent on falling income from voice calls but raised its full-year revenue outlook thanks to iPhone 4S sales. The country's number two telecom firm said its net profit for the fiscal third quarter dropped to 54.2 billion yen ($698 million) from 65.7 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. Operating profit for the quarter fell 5.4 percent to 117 billion yen from 124 billion yen a year earlier, it said. But it did say revenue for the three months increased 5.7 percent to 902 billion yen on the back of increased data traffic due to solid demand for smartphones. (AFP) Jan 26 Japan's KDDI debut's forced Android advertising For many of us around the world advertising in an unfortunate, but unavoidable fact of life. But Japan's au by KDDI network has taken obtrusive marketing one step further, by pushing advertising directly to its Android subscribers. Android users across Japan have complained about messages popping up in their in their notifications bar, complete with the usual vibration buzzing and noises that would normally indicate an otherwise innocent message. Sources in Japan believe the AU one market, a preloaded alternative to the Google official Android market is responsible for the promotional alerts. Japanese users on Twitter have been up in arms as KDDI have made it very difficult to remove the AU one market from their devices, doing so would invalidate their warranties. (totaltele.com) Jan 17 Samsung Galaxy S2 WiMAX announced for Japan It feels like Samsung isn't ever going to run out of Galaxy S2 phones to make. The company has announced just announced a new variant of the Galaxy S2, this time it's headed for Japan's KDDI au and it features WiMAX radios. The phone will be similar to the Galaxy S2 HD LTE except for the 4G radios. Other specs include a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 4.7″ Super AMOLED HD (1280 x 720) Display, 8-megapixel rear camera (1080p HD video capable), 2-megapixel front facing camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, microSD card slot, NFC support and 16GB of internal storage. Interesting how this phone doesn't seem to be packing a TV tuner like most Japanese phones these days. (ubergizmo.com) Nov 22 Has the iPhone 4S finally gained traction in Japan? The iPhone had a very lukewarm reception when it was initially brought over to Japan, and failed to gather much popularity. Unlike it's contemporaries it didn't have the multimedia focus, video camera or tv-tuner they were accustomed to with their own brands. The iPhone 4S has changed that trend completely, with record amounts of sales propelling the smartphone to the height of fashion and popularity. Even though there were a few hitches with the launch, the iPhone 4S has been a huge success for the two major networks that support it - Softbank, and KDDI - making them serious competitors for market leader NTT Docomo. (ZDNet) Nov 22 Gree, KDDI sue archrival DeNA Gree Inc. and KDDI Corp. are suing DeNA Co. for ¥1.05 billion in damages for allegedly instructing game developers not to offer their titles to Gree's social-networking platform. In a statement Monday, Gree said it is seeking ¥900 million of the total damages. DeNA, operator of the Mobage social networking site, allegedly stopped developers, carriers and ad agencies from offering their services to Gree, even after the Fair Trade Commission issued a cease and desist order in June, Gree said. The litigation indicates competition is intensifying in the smartphone game sector, said Hiroshi Naya, an analyst at Ichiyoshi Securities Co. (Japan Times) Nov 21 DoCoMo to spend on networks NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's biggest mobile-phone carrier by subscribers, aims to keep boosting operating profit by curbing overall spending as two smaller rivals add more customers by offering Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The company plans to maintain annual spending at about ¥700 billion in the four years starting next fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said in an interview Friday. More of that will be spent building faster networks to compete with KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., he said. (Japan Times) Nov 3 Smartphone sales cheer cell phone firms Buoyed by upbeat sales of smartphones, major mobile phone companies are expected to perform strongly in the second half of this fiscal year--but the eye-popping success of these products could also require some substantial expenditure down the road. Since KDDI Corp. began selling Apple Inc.'s iPhones, a price war has been intensifying between the company and SoftBank Mobile Corp., which had been the popular handset's exclusive distributor in Japan. NTT Docomo Inc., which reported earnings results for the first half of fiscal 2011 on Wednesday, saw its group operating profit fall because revisions to compensation services for handset malfunctions and other emergencies had raised its profit by about 55 billion yen last fiscal year. However, the nation's largest mobile phone service operator reported an increase in income from communications charges. (Yomiuri) Oct 24 KDDI quarterly profit rises on smartphone sales KDDI Corp. said Monday that its net profit for the three months through September gained 4.8% from a year earlier due to the benefits of cost cutbacks and an increase in revenue from sales of mobile phone handsets. Japan's second-biggest mobile carrier after NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.TO) said its net profit for the fiscal second quarter rose to Y68.19 billion from Y65.05 billion from the same period a year earlier. Operating profit for the July to September quarter rose 6.8% to Y126.65 billion from Y118.56 billion, while revenue increased 3.0% to Y878.32 billion from Y852.42 billion. (MarketWatch) Oct 14 Eight-block line forms outside Apple store in Tokyo for iPhone 4S Hundreds of Apple fans in Tokyo waited in a line that stretched eight blocks - that's eight blocks - outside Apple's Ginza store on Friday morning local time, eager to get their hands on the refreshed smartphone, which now sports a faster processor, better camera and the acclaimed Siri voice-activated personal assistant app. According to a Reuters report, many in the line were purchasing Apple's new device as a tribute to Steve Jobs, the comapny's co-founder who died last week after a long illness. The introduction of the iPhone 4S marks the end of exclusivity in Japan for mobile carrier Softbank. KDDI's 'au' mobile arm is now also selling the popular smartphone too, while the country's biggest mobile operator, NTT Docomo, still has no deal with Apple to sell the device. (Digital Trends) Oct 6 Smartphone wars heating up SoftBank Mobile Corp. will likely face a tough sales battle with KDDI Corp. over the iPhone 4S after failing to win exclusive domestic distribution rights for the new device. As both companies will sell the new iPhone, consumers will be able to purchase the new model after comparing prices and services, including the quality of reception. Apple Inc. announced Tuesday it would start selling the new iPhone 4S smartphone next Friday in seven countries, including Japan and the United States. KDDI, the operator of au cell phones, will sell the iPhone for the first time, breaking SoftBank's monopoly on the iPhone series. (Yomiuri) Oct 5 KDDI to sell new iPhone - Apple Japan's second-largest mobile carrier KDDI will sell Apple's new iPhone, the California-based company said, ending rival operator Softbank's highly profitable reign as the sole provider in Japan. Shares of Softbank fell 2.3 percent in morning trade, while KDDI fell 0.5 percent and market leader NTT Docomo slid 1.4 percent. That compared with a 0.8 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average . The market response may have been muted by the fact that the reception for the iPhone 4S, unveiled on Tuesday in California, was lukewarm compared with the rapturous welcome sparked by previous models. (Reuters) Sep 30 KDDI to recall 2 million cellphones KDDI Corp., operator of the au mobile phone service, said Friday it will recall about 2 million of its cellphones marketed since 2007 for free repairs after two reported cases of battery packs heating up. KDDI said it has confirmed a male user suffered a minor burn from the heat. The batteries in question were manufactured by a subsidiary of Sony Corp. In a news conference held in Tokyo, KDDI Vice President Toshio Maki said one of the two cases occurred last October. (Japan Times) Sep 26 KDDI goes WiMAX with new handsets Aiming to differentiate itself from its smartphone rivals, KDDI Corp. unveiled a new handset lineup Monday that features models compatible with the high-speed WiMAX network. WiMAX is a high-speed communications network operated by KDDI affiliate UQ Communications Inc. Its capacity for uploading and downloading data is several times bigger than the 3G network, the cellphone industry's main network. With the rapid spread of smartphones, the mobile Internet experience is becoming more popular in Japan. People with smartphones are on the Internet three times as much as their standard cellphone counterparts, said KDDI President Takashi Tanaka, citing recent research. (Japan Times) Sep 22 Softbank faces setback in Japan iPhone 5 shakeup Softbank Corp's (9984.T) lucrative gig as the sole iPhone vendor in Japan faces trouble as rival KDDI (9433.T) hammers out a deal with Apple, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, while worries of lost sales sent Softbank shares sliding 12 percent. The deal could be a boon to Apple (AAPL.O), whose customers would end up with a better network, but is expected to trigger a huge shake-up in the domestic mobile phone market over the next six to 12 months. "Softbank may cut prices to prevent users who are unhappy about its network quality from fleeing to bigger KDDI, which could in turn lower rates," said Michito Kimura, a senior market analyst at IDC Japan. (Reuters) Sep 22 KDDI to sell iPhone 5 in Japan KDDI Corp, Japan's second-largest mobile carrier by subscribers, has snagged the rights to sell Apple's iPhone 5, a report said Thursday, in a blow to its rival Softbank. Threatening the market dominance enjoyed by Softbank as Apple's only partner in Japan, the US computer giant and KDDI have already agreed on a sales deal for the highly-anticipated phone, the Nikkei business newspaper reported in its online edition, citing unnamed sources. (AFP) Sep 5 Smart phone fever threatens to overload mobile phone networks Japanese consumers have taken to smart phones with relish. However, the rapid escalation of use of the devices capable of handling data volumes on a par with PCs threatens to overload the country's mobile phone network, according to cell phone companies. Cell phone companies are taking steps to control communication volumes and come up with plans to stop users from literally blowing up the market by overloading networks. Smart phones are capable of handling large volumes of data up to 20 times the average users' level of existing mobile phone. KDDI Corp. estimates that smart phone proliferation will send data communication volume levels in 2015 to 18 times higher than what they had been last year. (majirox news) Aug 18 Smartphone operators eye user fee hikes The growing popularity of smartphones has energized Japan's information technology sector, but the surge in data traffic is starting to become a problem for cellphone networks. The spread of advanced handsets, which process substantial volumes of data, is threatening to overwhelm the capacity of current third-generation cellphone service networks within several years. A smartphone - which offers a wide range of applications besides regular phone and texting functions - handles 10 to 20 times more data than a conventional cellphone, according to mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. (Japan Times) Jul 27 KDDI to launch Windows Phone in Japan in September KDDI Corp. said Wednesday it will launch in early September or later a new smartphone based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone 7.5 operating system for the first time in Japan. Manufactured by Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications Ltd., the water and dust-proof Windows Phone IS12T is equipped with a 13.2-megapixel camera, said KDDI, the provider of "au" mobile phone services. With the launch of the new model, Microsoft aims to capture new customers in Japan, where Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android-based smartphones are gaining popularity, while KDDI aims to enhance its lineup of smartphones. (Kyodo) Jul 21 KDDI to launch cellphone that allows elderly to notify kin of problem KDDI Corp., the provider of "au" mobile phone services, said Thursday it will launch in mid-September a cellphone that enables an elderly user to notify pre-registered family members of an emergency by pulling on a cord to automatically send them e-mails. The "Mi-Look" cellphone may also be used to regularly transmit information, such as pedometer readings, when the handset user goes for a walk. The cellphone is equipped with a global positioning system that makes it possible to check where the user is on a map via a personal computer or similar device. (Kyodo) [ More... ]