| |
Table
of Contents: |
| |
| |
Economics & Government
General Technology News
|
| |
Exchange Rate as of 12/12/99
$1 US = 102.35
Yen
1 NIS= 24.26 Yen
|
| |
Economics & Government |
| |
|
| • |
IBJ,
NTT DoCoMo establish VC Fund
IBJ
Securities, NTT DoCoMo, Internet Research Institute, and Ikuo
Nishioka (former Chairman of Intel Japan) have jointly set up
a $47 million VC fund named Mobile Internet Capital. The new
fund will invest in companies that deal in mobile Internet related
products and services. |
| |
| • |
TransCosmos
AND Nikko Securities establish investment company
TransCosmos
and Nikko Securities will establish a new investment company
called eVentures which will invest its $100 million in Internet
related ventures. The new company will also act as a management
consultant and an intermediary for M&As. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
General
Technology News |
| |
|
| • |
Substantial
growth in PC sales
According
to JEIDA (Japanese Electronic Industry Development Association),
Japanese domestic PC shipments between April and September 1999
increased by 34% in volume over the same period last year. JEIDA
also forecasts that PC shipments for FY 1999 will reach 9 million
and over 10 million in FY 2000. |
| |
| • |
CdmaOne
subscribers growing
CdmaOne
service providers, IDO and the DDI Cellular Group, have announced
that together they have more than 3 million subscribers, a 550%
increase since April 1999 when the system was first introduced.
IDO has 680,000 subscribers and DDI has 2.3 million subscribers. |
| |
| • |
NEC
and HITACHI in DRAM joint venture
NEC and Hitachi
plan to integrate their DRAM development businesses. The new
entity will be called NEC Hitachi Memory. |
| |
| • |
NTT
DoCoMo and Microsoft set up wireless data company
NTT
DoCoMo and Microsoft will each invest $949K in a joint venture
that will provide wireless communications services for data
intensive applications. The new company, Mobimagic, will launch a
data center service for users of mobile phones, PDAs, and other
mobile computing devices. Users will have access to e-mail,
scheduling, etc. |
| |
| • |
CATV
is gaining popularity
According
to research company, Seed Planning, the Japanese CATV market
will expand from 7.9 million households (3/99) to 28 million
by 2008. Of the 28 million, about 18 million will use CATV to
receive multi-channel broadcasting and Internet services.
|
| • |
Linux
use is spreading
A
recent survey conducted by Nikkei indicates that about 30% of
Japanese companies plan to use Linux in the near future. Currently
the penetration rate is 5% |
