Gizmodo had an interesting entry about KDDI's AI-MATE (see photo to the left), a prototype which the Japanese operator is calling a "hybrid communicator", blending the functionality from a cell phone and a PDA.  The model will make its debut at the Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan (which begins on March 25th).

On a separate note, we can add a couple more datapoints to the "Chaku-Uta Full" polyphonic tones download service that I wrote about recently.  KDDI announced earlier this month that the service surpassed the 3 million download mark on March 1st, after surpassing 2 million downloads earlier in February (on Feb. 5th).

Nortel (NYSE:NT) reported its Q3 2004 results, with a revenue tally of $2.179 billion (as opposed to the Street's consensus estimate of around $2.270 billion). Enterprise results were in line, whereas wireline were a bit lower and wireless a bit higher than expected. But the shortfall really came in the optical side, mostly attributed to "a cumulative correction of approximately $80 in the third quarter of 2004 for revenues previously recognized primarily in 2001 and 2002 relating to the delivery of future contractual post-contract support, or PCS, and other services.”

But going forward, if Nortel is to win back the full confidence from the Street, more transparency in the reporting of results will be required (as Lucent did after its own settlement with the SEC).  So, in the future, items such as the mysterious $159 million charge on the BSNL contract (that adversely impacted gross margins) need to be better explained.