Nokia To Launch MVNO In Japan

The cell phone manufacturing giant is hoping to boost its miniscule market share in Japan with a high-end mobile phone service.

By Marin Perez
InformationWeek
November 24, 2008 01:22 PM

Nokia is the world's largest handset maker, but it holds less than 1% of the Japanese market. In order to address this, the cell phone manufacturing giant is planning to launch its own wireless phone service in the country, according to a report in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.

The company will reportedly lease network time and bandwidth from Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo and become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). In order to develop a strong brand, Nokia is expected to debut the service with high-end handsets.

Japan may be a tough market to crack, as it is full of strong homegrown competitors like Matsushita, NEC, and Sharp. Japan is widely considered the most advanced handset market, as customers are accustomed to being able to use their mobile phones to pay for products, read comics, watch television, and other services.

Additionally, the recent history of MVNOs isn't very promising. In the United States, a slew of MVNOs targeting specific demographics have been introduced and failed in the last few years. Small companies like Amp'd and Voce may have been doomed from the start, but even companies with high brand awareness like ESPN failed in the cell phone service business. Virgin Mobile has been a success with its low-cost service though, and it recently purchased defunct MVNO Helio for $39 million.

If Nokia does launch a wireless service, it will be the latest example of the company expanding beyond just making cell phones. CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told InformationWeek the company is branching out to offer additional services such as multimedia, navigation, and gaming in order to draw more customers to Nokia handsets.

The Palm Treo 500v, a 3G smartphone running on Windows Mobile 6 Standard. The device has its design redone and offers enhanced communication and multimedia capabilities. In Treo 500v, Palm has for the first time given up the square touchscreen display and stylus, choosing a standard QVGA TFT 65k display instead. The Treo 500v comes dressed in glacier white and charcoal grey and has undergone several changes. The key ones are the rounded casing, the large call and end keys and the comfortable D-pad.

Unlocking Nokia phones

Have you ever created a password for your cell phone so that you can lock it and nobody can open it but you? If so then you are like the majority of cell phone users out there. We all like our privacy so it is completely normal to get a new cell phone, set a pass code, and then lock the cell phone when necessary. However, on some occasions if you lock your phone and have a password created that you can’t remember then you find yourself in big trouble! If you simply lock your cell phone and have not set a specific pass code then you may use the default pass code to gain entry into your phone. This is usually 0000 or 1234. If you have not set a pass code and the default code is not one of the two mentioned above then customer support can help you. But, what do you do if you have set a pass code, locked your phone, and then forget the code to get back in? If this happens to you, or has happened to you, then you know what a major pain it can be.

HTC Touch Pro Smartphone Launches for Verizon Wireless

Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:54 pm

Verizon Wireless today launched the HTC Touch Pro, a compact smartphone with a touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Touch Pro combines HTC's interface with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Customers can use either the classic Windows Mobile interface or HTC's TouchFLO 3D graphical interface. Users can browse the web or access their email, contacts and calendars with Microsoft Outlook. The Touch Pro also opens and edits Microsoft Word and Excel documents and shares Microsoft Powe... [Continue reading HTC Touch Pro Smartphone Launches for Verizon Wireless]