TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) Tuesday unveiled software that can help users access their personal computers with their mobile phone handsets.
The new software, called the "Ubiquitous Viewer," gives users access to computers using Microsoft Windows-based operating systems.
Unlike some existing varieties, Toshiba said the new software enables users to view and edit all kinds of files on their PCs, as well as access their Internet browsers and other applications on their computers from their mobile phones.
With Japanese telecom operators such as KDDI Corp. (9433.TO) and NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.TO) already offering flat-rate fee mobile data services, mobile subscribers can easily send and receive compressed data from their PCs to their mobile phones, Toshiba said.
The new software will be installed in the third-generation mobile handsets designed for KDDI's "CDMA1X WIN" flat-rate service, Toshiba said.
Toshiba said it plans to offer KDDI subscribers with "at least one" Toshiba-made handset model that has the software by the end of March 2005.
Companies such as Casio Computer Co. Ltd. (6952.TO), Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO) and Sanyo Electric Co. (6764.TO) also supply handsets for KDDI flat-rate 3G mobile services.
Toshiba said it is in talks with some handset makers, but declined to comment which other makers might use the software.
Of Japan's nearly 80 million mobile handsets in use, nearly half are used in a corporate environment, Toshiba said. Of that, between 2 million to 4 million handsets already have functions that enable them to be linked to personal computers.
Toshiba expects the market for such corporate-use mobile handsets to double to 4 million to 8 million handsets by around 2010.
It added that it doesn't have a specific sales target for the software, which it also plans to market overseas.
-By Michele Yamada, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2955; Michele.Yamada@dowjones.com
-Edited by Chris Gallagher and Bennett Richardson
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 18th January 2005
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