NEC to re-enter US mobile phone market

Electronics conglomerate NEC says it will re-enter the US mobile phone market with the popular Internet-ready handsets that have made it Japan`s top cellphone supplier, reports Reuters.

The move into the world`s second-biggest market for mobile phones - after China - comes against a background of strong growth in cellphone Internet access services.

DoCoMo provided the spark for growth in that market with its i-Mode service, launched in 1999, which enables users to access Web sites and e-mail from their mobile phones. AT&T Wireless operates a similar Internet service called mMode.

Digital copier/printers, which use copier technology to produce print output, can reduce a company`s total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 76%, says Minolta.

Minolta recently conducted a TCO exercise for one division of a large mining concern where 23 people were using a total of 14 desktop devices and two digital copiers at a total monthly cost of R15 946. It recommended the customer install two digital copiers with fax/printing/scanning functionality, which would bring the costs down to R4 817 per month.

The company says the capital cost of buying a digital copier may be high, but the long-term benefits are evident. The cost per copy of an inkjet printer can be as much as 60c per copy, while copies or prints produced on a digital copier can cost as little as 7c per copy. Between 35% and 40% of Minolta`s digital copiers are currently purchased with a printer controller.

Gartner says the worldwide mobile network infrastructure market declined in 2002 as operators remained cautious about investing in new infrastructure. Infrastructure totalled $44.9 billion in that time. Gartner analysts said the market will continue to struggle in 2003.

Operators were waiting for user demand for mobile data services to increase. This has not happened yet, as the adoption among subscribers is still very slow.

Ericsson was the top vendor based on worldwide revenue in 2002, accounting for 29.5% of the market.

The top seven vendors announced 250 mobile network infrastructure contracts in 2002. Nearly 62% applied to GSM technologies, while 20% applied to W-CDMA.