A lot of readers might be surprised to learn that Mitsubishi even makes cellphones, but yeah,
it sure does. Its domestic Japanese market has typically been the recipient of its impressive wares, selling models on NTT DoCoMo using the "D" model name prefix -- but maybe not for much longer. Nikkei is throwing out some rumors today that Mitsu will be exiting the dog-eat-dog cellphone manufacturing biz and possibly doing so
very swiftly, even withdrawing models due to hit DoCoMo in the next few weeks. Despite raking in over 100 billion yen (about $958M) annually from its mobile division alone, the company has apparently been unable to make it profitable and recently downgraded its handset sales forecast for the current fiscal year. Frankly, we wish Mitsu had sold enough handsets abroad for us to be really upset about this. Nikkei says an official announcement could come as soon as today, so we'll update you when we know more.
[Thanks, rinse]
Update: Nikkei was dead on. Mitsubishi has just announced that it is ending its cellphone manufacturing business, a venture that goes back some 25 years with the introduction of car phones on NTT's network. For what it's worth, the company says that it'll continue to support its devices and move the 600-odd employees in the business to other parts of the company. It also says that it will "work to maintain and further strengthen the partnership with NTT DoCoMo through the communication related business [it aims] to expand," so don't get
too teary-eyed, DoCoMo. Hit the link for the official release.
posted Mar 2nd 2008 8:16PM
does any one care
yes I do, stfu
I also do, STFU.
Anyway, the cellular market in Japan is probably the fiercest in the world. Too bad Mitsubishi is to exit the market.
yes, me too.
Mitsubishi's FOMA D905i / D705i are very good!
any possible corporation to purchase Mitsubishi's mobile division??
I'd say the koren cellphone market is more fierce than that of japans....
Making close to a billion in Japan from cellular handsets is pretty damn good.
Let's concentrate on getting those EVO's to all continents please :]
No, not really given that they were spending more than that.
The slight is lost on lain...
Article already mentions their losses...
Making a billion in JAPAN, where the choices for a mobile handset are at completely ridiculous levels, if pretty damn good.
Maybe I need to spell everything out next time with a trailing statement saying I'm surprised they didn't lose more.
Then again, Mitsubishi also dabbles in other areas:
http://www.mitsubishi.com/php/users/category_search.php?lang=1
And apparently how to run a business is lost on you.
Yes, the Japanese market is incredibly competitive, much more so than anywhere else in the world and the technology available there is mind-blowing, well beyond anything we see anywhere else.
However, that doesn't mean that making a certain amount of money is suddenly somehow impressive. If you're not making a profit, then it means nothing - Mitsubishi could make 10 times what they currently are but if they were still unable to actually turn a profit, it wouldn't matter.
Making a large profit in the Japanese market would be impressive but making a large amount of money and still running at a loss is not.
And, no, you don't need to spell things out but using a modicum of common sense before posting would be nice.
get lost troll
I had a Mitsubishi phone once! It must have been donkey's years ago. It was a Trium thing and the home screen had a butterfly on it for some reason. It was also one of the early phones to do WAP as it was then. And we thought it was advanced then!!
Nikon also is part of the Mitsubishi group (which I only learned about a year or two ago).
Huuuge group of companies under that umbrella. I guess it's a good time to exit when it's making you no money.
I had no idea they were into phones too.
Most of Mitsubishi's offerings have WVGA screens, great cameras, and Symbian OS. I wish Japan would let up on their phone locking. Looking to get an unlocked D905i, I found out that the only unlocked phones were physically hacked with modded SIM cards. Legally, NTT cannot allow their phones to be software unlocked in accord with the Japanese government. Sad.
Luckily, according to a article I read on a japanese news site, the Japanese government is looking into changing this law. Hopefully we'll start to see japanese phones popping up outside Japan around 2009-2010.
Don't rag on the SIM-hack- it actually works pretty well; they only thing you're losing is i-mode. The FM transmitter is a plus for those who want one in their cellphone.
How successful is the SIM hack? Do I still get 3G? In some of the forums people said they had problems with messaging because some of the features for the Japanese market are still active even though they aren't provided by American carriers. Something along those lines.
I'm really interested in the D905i, but I don't want it to be crippled. Do you think the hack is proficient enough so that I won't miss any significant features?
If you plan to use the internet or MMS a lot, then give it a pass. Otherwise, go for it. 3G works fine.
No. Its DoCoMo who are not willing to sell unlock phone. Not the government.
Government does request carriers to think on unlock phone while japan started number portability between carriers, and to abandon incentive model of selling mobile.
Carriers are heavily depend on exclusive content download (i-mode/EZ web/Yahoo Keitai), of which platforms are incompatible. i-mode won't work on Softbank phones, and DoCoMo mention that they saw no advantage for selling unlocked phones....
Mitsubishi was in the phone market?
I thought Ferrari in the laptop market was odd.
They did a pretty good job of it too- all their Japanese offerings beat pretty much anything America or Europe has to offer (well, in the non-smartphone arena, at least). Their international offerings, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. I'm looking at getting a D905i while I still have the chance.
Mitsubishi Motors is the part of the company making cars but Mitsubishi is a large corporation, they make nice lcd screens too ^^
... don't forget the air-conditioners.
or pencils.
or beer.