The Fujitsu iPad...released in 2002

Fujitsu weighs iPad name challenge: Apple Inc. has caused a stir with its iPad tablet-computer, which could change the face of the publishing industry and how information is gained from the Internet. But one thing may not be revolutionary: the product name. Tokyo-based Fujitsu Ltd. applied to trademark a similar name, iPAD, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2003, a company spokesman in Tokyo said Friday. (Japan Times) (Via News On Japan.)

China’s wine industry sees opportunity amid global downturn: China’s wine industry is having a golden opportunity to boost export as consumers worldwide are seeking wine that tastes fine but costs less, Chinese wine expert said Friday. ‘The year 2010 can be a golden opportunity for China’s wine export as less expensive wine products are becoming more favored by the international consumers as a result of the global economic downturn,’ said Wang Yancai, president of China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association (CADIA).(Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Starwood To Open First “Luxury Collection” Hotels In China:  Luxury Collection Hotels Planned: Astor Hotel, Tianjin And Malus Sanya, Hainan. American hotel operator Starwood- which owns brands like Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis — has made a big push in the Chinese market in the last decade, particularly in the last few years. In 2010, the company plans to open 30 hotels in China, two of which will be the first ‘Luxury Collection’ hotels in the mainland. (From China Hospitality News Via Jing Daily.)

3,100 passengers trapped on Japan’s bullet trains after cable snaps on Shinkansen line: Some 3,100 passengers were trapped inside bullet trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line on Friday after a snapped cable brought operations on a section of the line to a halt, the operator of the line said. (Via Mainichi Daily News – All Stories.)

Rich people eschew Switzerland for Asia: Rich individuals from Europe and the Middle East are moving money from Switzerland to Asia, said Renato de Guzman, who heads private banking at Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp. “It’s a favorable trend,” Guzman said in an interview on Jan. 27. Having a Singapore bank with no ties to Switzerland is an attractive proposition for a lot of them.” Guzman, 59, is trying to capitalize on wealthy clients seeking to shift funds from UBS AG and other Swiss banks amid a dispute with the U.S. on disclosing client data to tax authorities. (Via China Post Online – Taiwan Business,World Business.)

Coach To Open First Mainland Flagship Store In Shanghai: The American luxury accessories designer and maker Coach has announced plans to open its first Chinese mainland flagship store in Shanghai in April 2010. Located at the junction of Shanghai’s Huaihaizhong road and Songshan road, this new flagship store covers an area of 650 square meters and was designed by Coach’s construction and design team. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

7 For All Mankind To Open Four New Locations In China: 7FAM will open four new stores in China this year, in Beijing, Shanghai and two other as yet undetermined cities. Denim is big business in China, and has been since the early 1980s when the first waves of post-Mao fashions swept through Chinese cities. In more recent times, premium denim makers from around the world have seen demand soar in top- (and now second-) tier cities, and brands like Miss Sixty (Italy), ONLY (Denmark), Diesel (Italy) and G-Star (Holland) have opened retail outlets and in-store boutiques throughout the country. In 2007, American premium denim maker 7 For All Mankind entered the mainland market, and since then has established locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Dalian, Hangzhou and Chengdu. This week, in an interview with China Daily, Vice President of VF Asia (the Asian office of American apparel monolith VF Corp, which owns 7 For All Mankind) Raffaele Germano said the company plans to open four new retail locations in China over the course of 2010, with one store each slated for Beijing and Shanghai, with the other two locations to be determined. (Via Jing Daily.)

Sony to shadow Apple store strategy in Japan: Sony this week outlined a plan to fight back against Apple by opening its own flagship retail stores. Starting with Sony Store Nagoya, the stores will imitate the multi-floor design of Apple flagships like Ginza and use large, spacious display areas divided by category. The first floor of the Nagoya store will focus on portable devices like Cyber-shot and Handycam cameras, the PSP, Sony-Ericsson phones, Walkman players and VAIO PCs; a second floor will focus on home theater equipment such as Blu-ray players and TVs. (electronista.com) (Via News On Japan.)

Toyota to suspends sales, production of 8 models with accelerator issues: In what was described as the largest such move ever by an automaker in the United States, Toyota said Tuesday that it had halted sales of eight models of its cars and trucks that account for more than half its U.S. sales until it could find a fix for sticking accelerator pedals under a safety recall. The move, which will cut production starting Monday for at least a week at seven Toyota plants in North America, comes six days after the Japanese automaker announced the recall of 2.3 million vehicles due to the accelerator problem that it first encountered in 2007. (mercurynews.com) (Via News On Japan.)

Proposal to ban dog, cat eating sparks debate over China’s culture: Researchers of a Chinese government think-tank have defended their proposals to ban the eating of dogs and cats in the face of criticism that it would destroy local traditions. A proposed anti-animal abuse regulation suggests a prohibition on cooking dogs and cats with the risk of a 5,000-yuan (732 U.S. dollars) fine or even imprisonment. (Via China – People’s Daily Online.)

(The Korea Herald) Phone salesperson Lee Geon-seok said he has been so busy with customers hoping to buy the newly released iPhone that he has not had time to eat.

He said iPhone sales reached 100 units per day at his two KT stores, accounting for around 80 percent of total handset sales there. “It’s a war. iPhone sales are explosive,” Lee told The Korea Herald.

He said his store is running short of iPhones because of strong demand. Korean customers snapped up 70,000 iPhones as of Sunday – just eight days after its release in Korea, according to a KT spokesperson.

This is rare in the Korean handset market, which has been dominated by Samsung and LG. Global handset makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson have posted poor sales here.

It remains to be seen whether the initial strong sales of Apple’s iPhone, driven by pent-up demand, will continue. But for now, the small gadget is rattling the country’s mobile market.

The iPhone launch appears to have hit LG harder than Samsung. Sales of LG’s flagship phone Chocolate slumped this month, and the company has few competitive smartphone models.

“Sales of the Chocolate phone are meager,” a KT spokesperson said yesterday, without giving the figure.

Top mobile carrier SK Telecom also said yesterday daily sales of the Chocolate slumped to 250 units this month, from 400 units last month.

This contrasts with Samsung’s new smartphone Omina 2, whose daily sales reached a whopping 5,000 units per day this month, SK said. SK Telecom, which does not offer the iPhone, sharply increased its subsidies for Omnia 2, to stave off the challenge from the iPhone.

The iPhone, which is offered exclusively via second-ranked KT, also posted 5,000 units of daily sales this month, according to a local report yesterday. – read more at The Korea Herald…

Apple's iPhone is a big hit in its first week of release in South Korea

By Kim Tong-hyung, Staff Reporter (The Korea Times) – Samsung Electronics and Apple are about to duke it out in Korea’s emerging “smart” phone market, and it looks like local Internet company, Daum (www.daum.net), will have a role in settling the bragging rights.

Daum, which operates the eponymous Web portal that trails only Naver (www.naver.com) in online traffic, is having all of its 1,000 employees choose between the newly released Apple iPhone and Samsung’s flagship smart phone, T-Omnia II, in the company’s free phone program.

Daum is desperate to get ahead in mobile Internet services, and by providing data-enabled handsets to employees for free and paying for their data expenses for the first two years, the company is looking to source innovation in-house.

It remains to be seen which between the iPhone and T-Omnia II end up as the phone of choice for Daum employees, and Samsung seems eager to advise them on their happy headache.

According to Daum officials, Samsung sent sales personnel to Daum’s Seoul headquarters to convince the company’s employees that T-Omnia II represents the better device.

The iPhone is released by KT, the country’s second-biggest mobile operator, while T-Omnia II is pitched by SK Telecom, the top wireless carrier that has a 50-percent-plus market share.

“We thought we were getting iPhones at first, but with T-Omnia II later becoming an option, there are more things to think about,” said a Daum employee.

“In the past few years, we have been putting much emphasis on delivering mobile Internet services and Apple’s mobile Internet devices, such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, were greatly considered when we developed new applications. So there has been a buzz in anticipation of an iPhone release among us for years, but you would have to say that T-Omnia II is an impressive device in its own right.”

Although it would be over-the-top to call the event the “Judgment of Daum,” it is easy to understand why the normally unflappable Samsung is touchy about the results.

Less than a week after its release, iPhones are flying off Korean shelves and showing promise to shake the hierarchy of the local handset market where Samsung and its bitter industry rival, LG Electronics, have been enjoying a near-duopoly. – read more at The Korea Times…

Samsung's NAND flash memory chips are used in Apple's iPhone

By Kim Yoo-chul, Staff Reporter – The Korea Times – There are growing complaints in the semiconductor industry that Apple, the “smart” phone maker extraordinaire and major chip buyer, is manipulating NAND flash memory prices through its “questionable” purchasing strategies, industry sources said Sunday.

And there is not much that Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest flash memory maker, and Hynix Semiconductor, the industry’s No. 3 player, can do about Apple’s moves, as the American company increasingly gains leveraging power due to the global popularity of its iPhone handsets and other consumer electronics products.

The summary of the arguments goes as this ― Apple is contributing to the suppression in flash memory prices by ordering more chips from semiconductor makers than the amount it actually buys from them.

“Apple should certainly be blamed for deteriorating the supply and demand cycle in the global NAND flash market,” a senior industry official told The Korea Times, refusing to be named.

“Apple has asked Korean semiconductor makers to produce a certain amount of chips for its digital products, only to actually purchase a smaller volume eventually. The company doesn’t make immediate purchases, but waits until chip prices to fall to the level the company has internally targeted.”

The chip industry had hoped Apple would increase purchases of NAND flash memory chips to boost the output of iPhone and other flagship devices.

The global iPhone craze currently has Apple drenched in robust earnings.

NAND flash memory chips are primarily used in memory cards and storage drives in mobile devices, computers and other consumer electronics products.

Another industry official, also reluctant to be identified, used the words “absurd” to describe Apple’s purchasing strategies.

“Samsung and Hynix both provide chips to Apple and have less of an edge in deciding prices and volume. Apple’s strategy could hurt the industry’s health,” he said.

Both Samsung and Hynix refused to officially comment, as did officials from Apple’s Korean office.

“We already knew about this,” a Samsung official said, without elaborating further. – read more at The Korea Times…

By Wang Xing (chinadaily.com.cn) – China’s second largest cell phone carrier said today they expect the Apple iPhone to attract over one tenth of China’s third generation (3G) users in the next couple of years.

A senior executive from China Unicom told China Daily that Chinese business users have showed great interests in Apple Inc’s popular smartphone. “We expect the handset to attract over 10 percent of China’s 3G users in the following two to three years,” said the executive, who declined to be named.

The executive’s remarks came shortly after Unicom’s chairman Chang Xiaobing said on Tuesday that he expects iPhone to become China’s best-selling smart phone.

Unicom was reported to have sold fewer iPhones than analysts anticipated in the product’s debut last month, raising concerns the price is too high to attract customers in the world’s biggest mobile phone market.
The Unicom executive refuted that the pricing of iPhone is unaffordable. He said the pricing is “very reasonable for those who spend heavily on their phone bills every month.”

According to the company, an iPhone without contract costs as much as 6,999 yuan ($1,025) in China, compared with $299 in the United States.

The product will be free when customers select a two-year service plan that cost 886 yuan per month, with Unicom repaying pre-pay bills of up to 7,999 yuan. — read more at ChinaDaily.com

iPhone buyers in Beijing. Photo: it.chinanews.com.cn

By Sam Oliver – The iPhone saw its formal debut in China Friday on carrier China Unicom, with the Wi-Fi-less hardware sold via 2,000 stores at a starting price of 4,999 yuan, or $730.

That high price was cited by The Wall Street Journal as the “buzz-killer” over the handset’s debut. The high-end iPhone 3GS sells for 6,999 yuan ($1,024) without a service contract, which is how most people in China purchase their phones. The same handset can be bought for about $800 in Hong Kong.

“When wrapped together with a service plan, as is generally done in the U.S., the phone will cost Chinese subscribers at least $3,120 over two years, compared with the roughly $2,600 cost for the same period for customers in the U.S.,” the report said.

The average cost of a smartphone in China is $350. And Apple must also compete with an estimated 2 million imported iPhones that were already in China as of the summer of 2009.

The cheapest iPhone runs 4,999 yuan, or $630, according to The Associated Press. And all of the officially sanctioned models come without Wi-Fi. But an imported iPhone 3GS with Wi-Fi can be bought from Chinese street markets for 5,700 yuan, or $835. read more at AppleInsider.com…