Mobile handset sales up 6.7 percent

September 14th, 2009 NEC, Casio, Hitachi to merge handset businessesTOKYO — Japanese electronics makers NEC Corp., Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi said Monday they will combine their mobile phone handset-manufacturing operations by April next year in a bid to boost their competitiveness at home and abroad.

August 11th, 2009 Brightpoint shares climb after Citi upgradeNEW YORK — Shares of Brightpoint Inc. got a boost Tuesday after an upgrade from a Citi Investment Research analyst upgraded the cell phone distributor and said it should benefit from a cyclical recovery in the handset market.

August 6th, 2009 Telecom Italia 1H down 17 percentMILAN — Telecom Italia SpA says first-half net profit dropped 17 percent from a year earlier because of a shrinking customer base, lower handset sales and regulations limiting termination fees on mobile phones. Italy's largest telecommunication operator said Thursday that net profit in the period that ended June 30 was euro964 million ($1.38 billion), compared with a restated euro1.1 billion a year earlier.

July 30th, 2009 NTT DoCoMo profit slips, Softbank soars in 1QTOKYO — NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone carrier, said Thursday net profit slipped 15.1 percent last quarter as increased competition led to lower income from voice charges. Separately Softbank Corp., the No.

July 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government has banned the import of Chinese handsets that do not have the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) - a unique 15-digit security code - with immediate effect, a union minister said Thursday. "The government has prohibited the import of mobile handsets without IMEI number or with all zeroes in its place with immediate effect, Minister of State for Telecommunications Gurudas Kamat told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

June 30th, 2009 LONDON - Some of the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to adopt a new universal standard of phone charger in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. Until now, most mobile phones have used proprietary chargers that will only work on one kind of device, leading to cupboards full of unwanted chargers in homes across the country.

June 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Taiwanese handset major HTC Corp, in collaboration with Bharti Airtel, Tuesday launched HTC Magic, India's first smartphone that will run on Google's Android operating system. The device is priced at Rs.29,900 and will be available in Airtel relationship centres and authorised HTC resellers in 17 cities.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Import of Chinese mobile phones without unique identity code numbers has been banned, India's commerce ministry announced. "Import of mobile handsets without International Mobile Equipment Identify (IMEI) number or with all-zero IMEI is prohibited with immediate effect, the Director General of Foreign Trade said in a notification.

June 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Text messages, listening to music and surfing the Internet are the most popular activities of the Indian mobile user, while work-related tasks such as checking emails and managing meetings take a backseat, according to a report by a leading IT publication group. "SMS was one of the most popular mobile application with an overwhelming 92 percent respondents using it," said the report by specialist IT media house Cybermedia.

April 28th, 2009 NTT DoCoMo's annual profit falls 3.9 percentTOKYO — NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's top mobile phone carrier, said Tuesday its annual net profit slipped 3.9 percent to 471.9 billion yen ($4.9 billion) as the recession hit sales of handsets. The company sold 20 million handsets during the fiscal year ended March 31, down 21.8 percent year-on-year as more consumers opted to keep their old handsets during tough economic times.

April 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - When most sectors are bearing the brunt of global economic slowdown, India's telecom industry is continuing with its high growth saga, thanks to the expanding subscriber base in the rural areas. India last month saw the highest number of subscriber addition, 15.87 million, about three times the population of countries like Finland, Denmark and Singapore.

April 21st, 2009 LG Electronics reports quarterly loss of $147 mlnSEOUL, South Korea — LG Electronics Inc., a major manufacturer of mobile phones and flat screen televisions, stayed in the red for a second straight quarter, knocked by foreign exchange losses and a poor result from its flat panel affiliate LG Display. The net loss for the first three months of 2009 was 198 billion South Korean won ($146.7 million), the South Korean company said Tuesday.

April 20th, 2009 Japan's KDDI to release solar-powered cell phoneTOKYO — Cell phone users could soon be turning to the skies to charge their handsets. Japan's No. 2 wireless carrier, KDDI Corp., said Monday it will start selling a waterproof, sunlight-powered cell phone in June.

February 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The B.K. Modi-promoted Spice Group has fully acquired the Indian subsidiary of Dubai-based mobile handset retailer Cellucom.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Department of Telecom's (Dot) decision to ban mobile phones that do not have the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) - a unique 15-digit identity code for handsets - has been deferred for 'some time', an official said. 'The order is still pending with the (telecom) ministry.