3G is ready for the rest of us, says NEC

 

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Posted on 31 Jul 2003 at 16:59

NEC is to ramp up production of 3G handsets for extra-Japan territories to more than a million a month.

'We fully expect 3G to really take off,' a spokesperson for the company told us.

The move involves outsourcing volume production to a company called Solectron, which will pump out the phones from its facility in Suzhou, China.

Cheap labour and the large scale manufacturing processes offered by Solectron will drive efficiency for NEC and allow it to anticipate a growing demand without the risk of investing in their own production facilities.

'In Japan NEC is an industry giant and our market share in external markets is growing, so we needed to find a way to rapidly increase production without incurring too much risk and strain through costly investment. Tying up with Selectron offers us a leap in efficient production without the hassle and expense of initiating manufacturing facilities overseas ourselves.'

NEC, which has been a handset partner at every 3G service launch in the world to date, will shortly supply the fourth handset to Hutchison 3G, the e808y (pictured) - currently the UK's only 3G network operator. This is being manufactured by Solectron and offers video calling, video and photo messaging,
video downloading, games and 'wireless dial-up networking'.

Even so, the likes of NEC's recently announced TV-receiving handset may still take some time before it reaches these shores. 'At the moment technological potential exceeds the market's understanding of what 3G can do. The digital TV broadcast reception is still in the future for European markets (launching in Japan in December this year) and video streaming is a fairly new concept in the UK so a wide range of services haven't yet evolved to accompany it. That will change when the market catches up.'

Solectron is also providing pan-European repair services for NEC 3G products.

Author: Matt Whipp