Some startling news coming from electronics maker NEC in Japan, who reportedly said yesterday that it will be cutting 10,000 jobs from its workforce, with most of those coming from its mobile unit. A report from Reuters cites competition from foreign players in the smartphone space, including Apple’s iPhone, negatively impacting NEC’s business in Japan. The report went on to say that NEC has cut its annual projected sales by almost a quarter to five million phones, and that the company would post a net loss of 100 billion yen (or ...
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Jan 26 2012
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Nokia Launches Asha 300, Collaborates With Fellow Finns Rovio
At the Kempinski Ballroom in Jakarta yesterday, Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) launched its new addition to the Asha line with the new Asha 300, together with Angry Birds creator Rovio. Asha means 'hope' in Hindi, and this handset follows its predecessors the Asha 303, 200, and 201. With this new phone, Nokia has blurred the lines between feature phone and smartphone, with smartphone features that can be used on the cheaper mobile phones like the Asha series. The Asha 300, which is priced at just IDR 999,000 (US$ 110), boasts fast internet connections ...
Jan 26 2012
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Japanese Mobile Ad Company Mediba Continues Outward Growth With Korea Office
In 2011 we wrote quite a bit about Japanese internet companies expanding their businesses abroad, like GREE, DeNA, and CyberAgent, just to name a few. Mobile advertising company mediba is making a strong case to be counted among their ranks, with an office recently opened in Singapore, and now today, establishing an office in Korea. What all these companies have in common is that they are riding the worldwide growth of smartphones, and using platforms like Android and iOS to branch out. This latest move by mediba is intended to ...
Jan 19 2012
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Aliyun OS Updated to v2.0, Gets a Revamped, Renamed App Store
Alibaba has updated its Aliyun mobile OS to version 2.0, bringing a bunch of new features and refinements to take it into the new year. The update will eventually be given to users of its first phone, the K-Touch W700 which debuted with the OS last summer, and will come out-of-the-box on the newest W800 model. Aliyun 2.0 looks similar to its first iteration but brings new goodies such as an updated app store, now dubbed the Aliyun Mart (pictured above, on the right); folders for apps; more options for third-party ...
Jan 19 2012
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Rumor Suggests Sina Weibo Phone Being Prepped for 2012 Launch
Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) is prepping a ‘Weibo phone’ that runs a customized version of Android, according to rumors in the Chinese media. Due later this year, the phone reportedly exists only as a fully-formed design so far, and is awaiting approval to be pushed into reality. Plus, Sina has set up a dedicated team of 10 staffers which could increase to hundreds if this mobile venture takes off. It’s not clear which company might be the OEM for the device. The same source suggests that the Sina Weibo phone would be ...
Jan 13 2012
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Aliyun Phone Gets Its Own Android App Store
Alibaba has launched an app store for users of its Aliyun smartphone to browse and install Android apps. The Aliyun platform is not based on Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) mobile OS, though it is also Linux-based, and it can run Android games using a ‘virtual machine’ that’s built into the software. And so it has the advantages of being able to use both its own web apps as well as the huge catalog of stuff that’s on Android. (If only RIM had got a similar system working on its Playbook so quickly, ...
Jan 13 2012
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Twitter Ain’t No Thang: KakaoTalk Sends a Billion Messages in a Day
At the end of 2012 Naver Line, a free mobile messaging service, announced it reached 10 million downloads. Now, just two weeks later, the application's App Store page claims 12 million downloads. The fledgling service is clearly experiencing rapid growth. Hot on the heels of Naver's big announcement comes its rival, KakaoTalk, with even more impressive news. KakaoTalk rang in the New Year announcing it achieved one billion messages sent in a single day. In terms of growth, KakaoTalk was sending 600 million messages a day by the end of September last ...
Jan 6 2012
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China’s Xiaomi Phone Gets Cloned, But Probably an Online Scam
The Chinese startup Xiaomi seems to have hit the big-time - it now has its own local clone. Or, rather, it appears to have a clone called Dami, but it’s likely just an online scam and should be avoided totally. Promo images for the supposed ‘Dami phone’ are floating around the Chinese web, and are actually using pictures and graphics stolen from Xiaomi. All the scammers are doing is photoshopping the ‘Mi’ branding off of the Xiaomi phone, and changing the images’ logo a bit. Its probably non-existent phone claims all ...
Jan 5 2012
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2012: A Better Year for Startups in Indonesia?
2011 was a great year in many ways for Indonesia. But what will happen in 2012 for the country’s start-up ecosystem as a whole? Will we see more young entrepreneurs and companies take off? We have asked several key players in the Indonesia startup ecosystem for their educated predictions and outlooks for 2012: Natali Ardianto (#StartupLokal Initiator & COO of Tiket.com): With both domestic and foreign investments already coming in, and a lot of foreign startups and established IT companies setting up base right here in Indonesia, we can say ...
Jan 5 2012
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Will Weibo and Group-Messaging Apps Replace SMS During Chinese New Year?
For some watershed moments, you know what’s coming but just can’t pin down when exactly it will come to pass. And so it is with the sending of SMS in China, which reaches a peak during the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities. Will this year be the first time that the number of celebratory SMS be toppled by the welter of Weibos and gush of group-messages from apps such as Kik, Talkbox, Tencent’s (HKG:0700) Weixin, or Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMessage? It’s happening in other countries, as Forbes recently reported that the number ...
Jan 5 2012
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Nokia Reorganizes: Asia HQ Moves from Singapore to Beijing
A few days ago we reported that Nokia (HEL:NOK1V, NYSE:NOK) was bringing in Gustavo Eichelmann as its new chief executive in China, in an effort to help its operations in the country. And now the company is announcing that it is also moving its Asia headquarters from Singapore to Beijing as well. Operations at the Singapore office will continue however. A MarketWatch report quotes a Nokia representative as saying that: part of our strategy to adapt our operations to the business environment to ensure our competitiveness. This includes an ...
Dec 30 2011
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China’s 10 Most Wanted Smartphones – Great News for Android, Not So Much for iPhone
Smartphone growth and usage continued to accelerate in China in 2011 - but which phones do Chinese consumers most want to buy? QQ Tech looked at the most popular product searches for such devices on all the major search engines, and compiled this top ten list. The results are awesome news for Android - which runs on seven of the ten - and offer a glimmer of hope to Nokia. But the iPhone is not the one sitting on the throne. Note that this method is better than taking a poll, ...
Shanghai Boy Imitates Mobile Game, Jumps Off Five-Story Building
Feb 7, 2012
James Tong: How IDA and Gobi Ventures Help Startups Expand Into China
Feb 7, 2012
Thailand’s Ensogo Reflects on Success, Aspires to Expand in 2012
Feb 7, 2012
Jumpsurf Provides You With Cross-Border Mobile Wifi
Feb 6, 2012
FC2 Continues to Expand Web Services to Big Markets
Feb 7, 2012