Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones, could be preparing to enter the crowded Netbook market.
According to the Economic Times, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters at a press event Wednesday in India, that "the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge." He said Nokia sees a lot of opportunity in this convergence and he added that the company is "looking at the Netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there."
It shouldn't come as a big surprise that Nokia might push further into the computing space. The company has been marketing its new smartphone, the N97, as a "mobile computer." And the company has also been selling its mobile Internet devices, or N-series Tablets.
These devices, which are geared toward early adopters and gadget lovers, typically start at around $300 to $400. They don't incorporate a traditional cell phone, but they come with a full QWERTY keypad and access to the Internet via Wi-Fi or through a Bluetooth-connected phone.
Netbooks appeal to a wider audience than mobile Internet devices, which could help Nokia diversify its business. Netbooks, which once were seen as "companion devices" for accessing cloud-based services like Gmail or social-networking sites like Facebook, are now being used as full-blown computers.
Their low cost (around $299) has driven big sales of these devices. About 16 million Netbooks were sold in North America in 2008. And because these devices often use Windows XP, a familiar operating system, most PC users already feel comfortable using them.
Nokia is likely hoping to cash in on Netbooks' popularity.
It's clear that consumers are looking to be more mobile and as carriers around the world build faster 4G wireless networks, demand for mobility will likely increase. What's more, Nokia and other handset makers will soon be facing competition from computer makers in the mobile phone market. Laptop maker Acer has already announced it is developing a smartphone. And there are reports that PC maker Dell is also working on a mobile phone.
Economic Times/Agencies
Showing posts with label cell phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cell phones. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
AT&T outlets to sell netbooks across USA
AT&T Inc plans to expand sales of netbook computers to all its stores in an effort to expand wireless services beyond cell
phones.
Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T's consumer business, said on Tuesday that the US phone company would directly sell netbooks from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd starting this summer.
Until now, only AT&T stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and consumer electronics retailers RadioShack Corp and Costco, have been selling the netbooks, which come with AT&T mobile data connections.
"We're taking broadband and really making it mobile," de la Vega said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
While sales of netbooks are expected to be boosted by promotions from carriers, some analysts have said that consumer enthusiasm could be muted by the requirement to sign up for two-year wireless service contracts and the $60-a-month data connection fees that come with the devices.
AT&T said in April it was testing a $40-per-month fee for 200 megabytes of data downloads to netbooks, or about 1/25th of the downloads allowed under the $60 service.
AT&T's bigger mobile rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, started selling netbook computers from Hewlett-Packard Co earlier this week.
Agencies
phones.
Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T's consumer business, said on Tuesday that the US phone company would directly sell netbooks from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd starting this summer.
Until now, only AT&T stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and consumer electronics retailers RadioShack Corp and Costco, have been selling the netbooks, which come with AT&T mobile data connections.
"We're taking broadband and really making it mobile," de la Vega said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
While sales of netbooks are expected to be boosted by promotions from carriers, some analysts have said that consumer enthusiasm could be muted by the requirement to sign up for two-year wireless service contracts and the $60-a-month data connection fees that come with the devices.
AT&T said in April it was testing a $40-per-month fee for 200 megabytes of data downloads to netbooks, or about 1/25th of the downloads allowed under the $60 service.
AT&T's bigger mobile rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, started selling netbook computers from Hewlett-Packard Co earlier this week.
Agencies
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Toshiba to take over 100 percent of Panasonic LCD JV
Japan's Toshiba Corp plans to take a 100 per cent stake in its struggling liquid crystal display (LCD) joint venture with Panasonic Corp, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, currently owned 60 per cent by Toshiba and 40 per cent by Panasonic, is the world's second-largest maker of small and midsized LCD panels used in cell phones, car navigation systems and other devices.
Toshiba has decided to buy Panasonic's 40 per cent stake for several billion yen, the source said, confirming an earlier report in the Nikkei business daily.
No one at Toshiba or Panasonic, formerly named Matsushita Electric Industrial, was immediately available for comment.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not yet been made public.
Hit by falling prices and sluggish demand, Toshiba Matsushita Display is expected to post an operating loss of 30 billion yen on sales of 270 billion yen for the financial year ending this month.
Despite the earnings downturn, Toshiba still views the small and midsize display business as an important business and taking a 100 per cent stake will allow it to accelerate decision-making and restructuring, the source said.
Toshiba is planning to cut costs by 300 billion yen in the next business year from April as it braces for its worst-ever annual loss in the year ending this month.
At the same time the deal should allow Panasonic, the world's top maker of plasma TVs, to focus more of its resources on large displays, though it will still hold 25 per cent in another small and midsized LCD venture majority-owned by Hitachi Ltd.
Toshiba Matsushita Display held 10.3 per cent of the global market for small and midsize LCDs in 2008, second only to Sharp Corp's 20.2 per cent share, the Nikkei said, citing figures from research firm DisplaySearch.
The move will mark the latest realignment of the LCD sector.
Earlier this month NEC Corp said it would close a LCD plant in Japan while Sony Corp and Seiko Epson Corp announced that they were considering an alliance in small-sized LCDs.
After making the venture wholly-owned, Toshiba plans to scale back production of amorphous silicon panels, which have been hit hard by sliding prices, and focus on higher-end polycrystalline silicon panels, the Nikkei said.
Agencies
Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, currently owned 60 per cent by Toshiba and 40 per cent by Panasonic, is the world's second-largest maker of small and midsized LCD panels used in cell phones, car navigation systems and other devices.
Toshiba has decided to buy Panasonic's 40 per cent stake for several billion yen, the source said, confirming an earlier report in the Nikkei business daily.
No one at Toshiba or Panasonic, formerly named Matsushita Electric Industrial, was immediately available for comment.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not yet been made public.
Hit by falling prices and sluggish demand, Toshiba Matsushita Display is expected to post an operating loss of 30 billion yen on sales of 270 billion yen for the financial year ending this month.
Despite the earnings downturn, Toshiba still views the small and midsize display business as an important business and taking a 100 per cent stake will allow it to accelerate decision-making and restructuring, the source said.
Toshiba is planning to cut costs by 300 billion yen in the next business year from April as it braces for its worst-ever annual loss in the year ending this month.
At the same time the deal should allow Panasonic, the world's top maker of plasma TVs, to focus more of its resources on large displays, though it will still hold 25 per cent in another small and midsized LCD venture majority-owned by Hitachi Ltd.
Toshiba Matsushita Display held 10.3 per cent of the global market for small and midsize LCDs in 2008, second only to Sharp Corp's 20.2 per cent share, the Nikkei said, citing figures from research firm DisplaySearch.
The move will mark the latest realignment of the LCD sector.
Earlier this month NEC Corp said it would close a LCD plant in Japan while Sony Corp and Seiko Epson Corp announced that they were considering an alliance in small-sized LCDs.
After making the venture wholly-owned, Toshiba plans to scale back production of amorphous silicon panels, which have been hit hard by sliding prices, and focus on higher-end polycrystalline silicon panels, the Nikkei said.
Agencies
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Is Motorola planning more layoffs?
Motorola Inc is expected to make steep cost cuts, including more layoffs, at its mobile devices division as a broad slump in demand for cell phones exacerbates its own market share declines.
With even market leader Nokia warning about weakening phone demand, analysts say Motorola could miss Wall Street's already low expectations for phone sales in the fourth quarter and the current quarter. As a result, they expect Motorola to cut the size of its handset unit -- beyond the 3,000 layoffs the company announced in October, which were mostly in its handset unit and equivalent to 4.5 per cent of its workforce.
"Resizing is necessary beyond the 3,000," said Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton, who estimated that Motorola's phone unit could have roughly 28,000 employees after the previously announced layoffs.
Motorola declined to comment. The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company fell to fourth place in the global phone market in the third quarter of 2008, and said key new devices would be ready in the second half of 2009, which could mean deeper market share losses until then.
This was before Nokia said in December that it expected the phone market to shrink 5 per cent or more in 2009. Some analysts now expect sales to fall as much as 15 per cent from 2008. As a result of the deteriorating market, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff estimated that Motorola needed to cut costs by roughly another $650 million, on top of the $800 million reductions already announced.
"Their cost structure is too high for where they need to be in this environment given their market share," said Modoff, who sees Motorola reporting 22 million phone sales for the fourth quarter just ended, and 17 million for this quarter. He estimated that with its current cost structure Motorola could break even if it sold about 28 million phones per quarter, but said that this figure was too high for comfort in the weak economy.
"I think they need to be profitable below 20 million units," said Modoff. Analysts on average expect Nokia to report 121.5 million phone sales for the fourth quarter, with estimates ranging from 110 million to 135 million.
They expect Sony Ericsson, which overtook Motorola in the third quarter, to sell about 26.6 million phones. Phonescoop.com, a blog about the latest phones, said Motorola could lay off as many as 50 per cent of its mobile phone workers, but analysts said this would be a "drastic" move.
Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder said such a cut would mean giving up workers in research and development, and "dramatically" reducing the number of phones launched. But he said that such a move was not implausible.
"They're hemorrhaging cash. They have to cut the division," he said. But Deutsche Bank's Modoff said Motorola needs to be careful about where it makes cuts because it needs to be able to compete with popular devices such as Apple Inc's iPhone and phones based on Android, the operating system designed by Google Inc.
These phones have made the focus of industry competition more about innovative software and user interfaces than about phone hardware."They should keep (jobs) in software and chop them in hardware. The emphasis needs to be placed on low cost designs and operating systems," said Modoff. In the third quarter, Motorola's mobile unit revenue fell 31 per cent to $3.1 billion, and the unit's operating loss widened to $840 million from $248 million.
Agencies
With even market leader Nokia warning about weakening phone demand, analysts say Motorola could miss Wall Street's already low expectations for phone sales in the fourth quarter and the current quarter. As a result, they expect Motorola to cut the size of its handset unit -- beyond the 3,000 layoffs the company announced in October, which were mostly in its handset unit and equivalent to 4.5 per cent of its workforce.
"Resizing is necessary beyond the 3,000," said Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton, who estimated that Motorola's phone unit could have roughly 28,000 employees after the previously announced layoffs.
Motorola declined to comment. The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company fell to fourth place in the global phone market in the third quarter of 2008, and said key new devices would be ready in the second half of 2009, which could mean deeper market share losses until then.
This was before Nokia said in December that it expected the phone market to shrink 5 per cent or more in 2009. Some analysts now expect sales to fall as much as 15 per cent from 2008. As a result of the deteriorating market, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff estimated that Motorola needed to cut costs by roughly another $650 million, on top of the $800 million reductions already announced.
"Their cost structure is too high for where they need to be in this environment given their market share," said Modoff, who sees Motorola reporting 22 million phone sales for the fourth quarter just ended, and 17 million for this quarter. He estimated that with its current cost structure Motorola could break even if it sold about 28 million phones per quarter, but said that this figure was too high for comfort in the weak economy.
"I think they need to be profitable below 20 million units," said Modoff. Analysts on average expect Nokia to report 121.5 million phone sales for the fourth quarter, with estimates ranging from 110 million to 135 million.
They expect Sony Ericsson, which overtook Motorola in the third quarter, to sell about 26.6 million phones. Phonescoop.com, a blog about the latest phones, said Motorola could lay off as many as 50 per cent of its mobile phone workers, but analysts said this would be a "drastic" move.
Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder said such a cut would mean giving up workers in research and development, and "dramatically" reducing the number of phones launched. But he said that such a move was not implausible.
"They're hemorrhaging cash. They have to cut the division," he said. But Deutsche Bank's Modoff said Motorola needs to be careful about where it makes cuts because it needs to be able to compete with popular devices such as Apple Inc's iPhone and phones based on Android, the operating system designed by Google Inc.
These phones have made the focus of industry competition more about innovative software and user interfaces than about phone hardware."They should keep (jobs) in software and chop them in hardware. The emphasis needs to be placed on low cost designs and operating systems," said Modoff. In the third quarter, Motorola's mobile unit revenue fell 31 per cent to $3.1 billion, and the unit's operating loss widened to $840 million from $248 million.
Agencies
Monday, December 15, 2008
Qualcomm to launch Rs 10,000 laptop
San Diego-based wireless communications major Qualcomm will introduce its small laptop, Kayak, primarily used for accessing Internet services, in India priced at Rs 10,000 in the second half of next year.
"We will introduce Kayak Internet access platform in second half of next year and this device leverages 3G chipsets as well. The main USP is it can compute in low power scenario like India. It will cost about Rs 10, 000," Qualcomm Senior Vice-President and India head Kanwalinder Singh told reporters.
In Kayak prototype Qualcomm has designed a device capable of bringing the Internet over cell phone data networks to areas that may lack wired Internet service from cable and telephone providers.
The US-based firm, pioneer of CDMA technology, has already launched Kayak PC alternative globally.
Kayak is a reference design for building low-cost wireless-computing devices designed to fill the niche that exists between desktop PCs, which require landlines or separate accessories for connectivity and Internet-capable wireless devices.
Kayak uses Qualcomm's dual-core mobile station modem chipsets to provide both computing and connectivity, he said.
"We see developing markets like India seeking connectivity as inevitable and believe that concepts such as Kayak that leverage 3G wireless will be a key to success in helping these areas join the global online community, Singh added.
Qualcomm is pushing its phone processors into PC territories such as desktop computers after adding computing features like e-mail and web browsing onto cell phones.
Source: Economic Times
"We will introduce Kayak Internet access platform in second half of next year and this device leverages 3G chipsets as well. The main USP is it can compute in low power scenario like India. It will cost about Rs 10, 000," Qualcomm Senior Vice-President and India head Kanwalinder Singh told reporters.
In Kayak prototype Qualcomm has designed a device capable of bringing the Internet over cell phone data networks to areas that may lack wired Internet service from cable and telephone providers.
The US-based firm, pioneer of CDMA technology, has already launched Kayak PC alternative globally.
Kayak is a reference design for building low-cost wireless-computing devices designed to fill the niche that exists between desktop PCs, which require landlines or separate accessories for connectivity and Internet-capable wireless devices.
Kayak uses Qualcomm's dual-core mobile station modem chipsets to provide both computing and connectivity, he said.
"We see developing markets like India seeking connectivity as inevitable and believe that concepts such as Kayak that leverage 3G wireless will be a key to success in helping these areas join the global online community, Singh added.
Qualcomm is pushing its phone processors into PC territories such as desktop computers after adding computing features like e-mail and web browsing onto cell phones.
Source: Economic Times
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