Samsung is teaming up with Tata Teleservices’ GSM brand ‘Tata DOCOMO’ to launch some Android love in India. I haven’t been able to find specifics on the initial device to be launched, but from what I’ve read it’ll be similar to the Samsung Galaxy that has seen air time in other areas of the world. Look for it to become available on Tata DOCOMO for Rs 28,990 (~$600 USD) with 500MB of data for six months. Other devices will be coming down the tube in India as well, as Samsung India Electronics General Manager of Marketing Asim Warsi noted:

“This is first of the block. There would be more this year. Android is a very serious operating system on which we will build more phones…”

Early days on this one, stay tuned for more.

[Via: IndiaTimes]

This is one of those things that makes you go “hmmm, why didn’t anyone else think of that?!” Indian mobile operator Tata Docomo, which only launched this summer, is going to start charging you by the amount of letters/numbers you use in a text message, rather than per text message. Ever wanted to tell someone “OK” but didn’t want to waste the money for a whole text message? This service is for you. The prices are extraordinarily cheap, at only 1 paise per character. The paise is what you and I would call a cent; 100 paise = 1 rupee. That translates to 3.3 American cents for a perfect 160 character text message. In case you’re wondering, they are not going to charge for a space.

[Via: Textually]

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) has announced that there are now 10 million subscribers using their credit payment service – DCMX. The success came from several factors including popularization of Osaifu-Keitai and iD reader/writer terminals, as well as an introduction of a customer loyalty program.

Currently, there are about 30 million DoCoMo customers who use Osaifu-Keitai-compatible handsets, and about 420,000 iD readers/writers nationwide, as of July 31, 2009. The service is used at such places as shopping malls, electronics retailers, restaurants and even taxis.

DCMX exists in three “flavors”: DCMX mini, the standard “DCMX” plan and the premium “DCMX GOLD” plan. Subscribers of the standard DCMX and DCMX GOLD plans can earn DoCoMo’s loyalty points each time they make a purchase. Later on, these points can be used for DoCoMo product discounts and other customer rewards.

For the record, DCMX was launched in April 2006, and has reached 1 million subscribers in November 2006. In February 2008, there 5 million people were using it, and now, just three years and four months since launch, the number climbed to 10 million. Impressive!

[Via: CellularNews]

Japan’s DoCoMo has confirmed that it is interested in buying a mobile network in Cambodia. The country has several operators which could be suitable targets, including Millicom’s local subsidiary.

At present, the Japanese company is in the midst of considering political and economic risks, according to Toshinari Kunieda, senior vice president and managing director of DoCoMo’s global business. “It’s like a marriage proposal — you don’t make an offer the day after falling in love at first sight, you look at other potential partners, too,” he added.

Cambodia ended last year with around 3.77 million mobile phone subscribers spread across 7 active mobile operators, representing a population penetration level of 26%.

Finally, Cambodia is not the only country where DoCoMo is eyeing investments. The operator is also seeking to invest in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and China; and it already owns 26% of India’s Tata Teleservices, 30% of Bangladesh’s Aktel and 16.5% of Malaysia’s U-Mobile.

[Via: CellularNews]

NEC and Panasonic (NYSE: PC) have introduced nine new LiMo handsets through Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM), spread across three families. In the PRIME series, we have the N-06A, P-07A and N-07A; in the STYLE series there’s the N-08A, P-06A, P-08A, and P-10A; and finally the SMART series is including the N-09A and the P-09A. No fresh additions to the PRO series, which usually hosts some of the more exotic (by their standards) handsets, like the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold, HTC Magic and Touch Pro.  As usual, tha majority of these new handsets come off as blockish, cheap-looking flips, but don’t be fooled – many are rocking TV tuners, 7.2 Mbps, GPS, WVGA displays – hell, three of them have 8.1 megapixel cameras.  With this release, the number of LiMo-compliant handsets goes up to 42 – a solid lead on its brother-in-Linuxosity, Android, although when it comes to hardware, the next year is looking busy for Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s mobile platform.

[via LiMo Foundation]

Devices that are announced by NTT docomo (NYSE: DCM), that mobile phone fanbois like yourselves read about, are like mythical unicorns. People talk about them, but no one really sees them. Today another unicorn left the factory, the SH-08A. The clamshell measures 109 x 50 x 17.3 mm (21 mm at the thickest point) and weighs 140 grams. It has a 3 inch screen with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution that can render 16.7 million colors. It also has an 8 megapixel CCD camera, can be submerged in up to 1 meter of water, and a large solar panel on top gives it 1 minute of talk time for every 10 minutes in the sun. We’re never going to see this unicorn, but dreaming about it is OK.

Porn. Go anywhere in the world and you’ll find porn going strong. Go to Japan, however, and you you’ll find that mobile porn consumption is straining wireless data networks to the max. With more and more Japanese mobile subscribers opting for unlimited data plans, the mobile phone is starting to replace the desktop PC in porn consumption. In fact, the demand for mobile porn over 3G data networks has become so extreme that Japan’s top two wireless carriers, DoCoMo and KDDI, are looking to limit heavy data users in a bid to manage the load on their 3G networks.

It’s fitting that porn is forcing carriers to deal with data traffic surges. Porn was the deciding factor in the VHS vs. BetaMax format wars. Porn recently helped decide the Bluray vs HD DVD format war. Now, it seems porn is going to be the driving force behind wireless carriers’ management of unlimited data plans. “Pornography will eventually open a debate about how carriers should modify their business model as data traffic swells,” said Yusuke Tsunoda, telecommunications analyst for Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. “It may prompt even tighter access restrictions.”

As handsets become more advanced and wireless data networks get faster speeds, the mobile porn problem is only going to get worse. As it stands, some wireless subscribers have complained of slow or dropped data connections around midnight (hmm, why would that be?) on KDDI’s network. The surge in data traffic is simply too much for the Japanese carrier’s network to handle, despite the fact that Japanese wireless operators spent approximately $74 billion in infrastructure build-out costs since 2000.

It should be interesting to see how carriers react to porno-fueled traffic spikes and over-consumption on unlimited data plans. That “unlimited” data plan of yours is already capped to a handful of GB’s, we wouldn’t be surprised to see that carriers imposing more drastic caps in the near future. Let’s hope 4G LTE networks help alleviate the porno-bandwidth problem to some extent.

[Via: Bloomberg]

NTT docomo (NYSE: DCM) just launched the HT-03A in Japan, better known as the HTC Magic, and no one really even noticed according to Wireless Watch Japan. It’s shipping in the land of the rising sun for $300 on a 2 year contract, and it even comes with an extra battery since the locals are afraid it isn’t going to last a whole day. It’s no surprise the Japanese don’t care about this thing. It doesn’t have mobile TV, it doesn’t have NFC, it doesn’t have a lot of the things that the Japanese market has been enjoying for past few years while European and American mobile phone nerds masturbate furiously waiting to see something even remotely similar in their local shops.

I’ll take a SH-07A thank you very much.

PacketVideo makes software for viewing video on your mobile handset, and they just became $45.5 million richer after Japanese operator NTT DOCOMO (NYSE: DCM) purchased a 35% stake in the company. NTT DOCOMO has already shipped 90 handsets with their software on board; now as an investor, they may have their say into the future direction of the company and a reduction on royalty fees.

Toshio Miki, Associate Senior Vice President, Managing Director of Communication Device Development Department for NTT DOCOMO, said: “PacketVideo has been a key supplier of software to DOCOMO and has made important contributions to the success of our services in the Japanese market. We are pleased to become an equity partner of PacketVideo and are very confident of the company’s continued growth and long-term success.”

James Brailean, Ph.D., CEO of PacketVideo said: “We are honored to welcome DOCOMO as an investor. We are building on our unique and highly successful relationship with DOCOMO to further strengthen PacketVideo’s position in developing the best in class media experience, regardless of format or platform. PacketVideo is the global leader in delivering rich media solutions for mobile operators, and DOCOMO’s support will enable us to accelerate our innovation and growth.”

For what it’s worth: PacketVideo is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance

[Via: NTT DOCOMO and NewTeeVee]

NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is joining the mobile money market with its own remittance service. Starting from July 21st, individual users (as opposed to corporate customers) of the carrier’s i-mode service will be able to remit up to 20,000 yen (about $208) per transfer by simply inputting the payee’s mobile phone number. The payee then receives a mail notification on its mobile phone and is given the option of depositing the money in a domestic bank account or having the amount credited to their monthly phone bill. The payee can receive remittances totaling up to 200,000 yen (about $2,080) per month.

Best of all, the service doesn’t require any registration or opening of a specific bank account!

Cost wise, the charges per payment (including consumption tax) will be 105 yen for the payer and 65 yen for the payee. The payee is not charged, however, if the remittance is deposited into a Mizuho Bank account or credited to their monthly phone bill.