| Casio to launch W-CDMA phones in Japan
Japan's Casio Computer Co Ltd said it planned to launch W-CDMA cell phones in Japan sometime during the six months from October 2008 to March 2009, reaching out for a wider range of potential customers. Casio now makes CDMA-based phones and supplies them to Japan's KDDI Corp, Verizon Wireless in the United States and South Korea's LG Telecom Ltd, but it said earlier this year it would launch competing W-CDMA handsets. KDDI, Japan's No.2 wireless operator, has CDMA-based networks, while NTT DoCoMo Inc and Softbank Corp, the largest and third-largest, offer cell phone services based on W-CDMA technology. Casio also said on Friday its operating profit came to 13.74 billion yen ($119.6 million) in April-September, down 40.8 percent from a year earlier, as sluggish cell phone sales more than offset brisk digital camera demand.
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