Mitsubishi Telecommunications, part of the Hatfield, Hertfordshire-based Electronics Division of Mitsubishi Electric UK Ltd, intends to increase its modest 3.1% share of the mobile cellular phone market with the new MT-4 range of transmobile and transportable telephones. The heart of the range is the MT-4 transceiver, a full ETACS channel phone operating in radio classes 2 and 3 – its strength, says Mitsubishi, is its compactness at 8.1 by 4.6 by 1.1. The MT-4 is available in three forms: a dedicated mobile phone, which for price reasons Mitsubishi does not see competing in the same market as the cheaper Motorola product; a transportable and a dedicated in-car installation – a transmobile. These last two products are the ones in which Mitsubishi is putting most faith. The features offered are in themselves nothing new, such as 99 memory locations, auto store, memory scan, electronic and delayed locking and so on. The point is that Mitsubishi has incorporated these into a small size, light weight 4 lbs 3 oz package – as one of the demonstrators pointed out, a portable phone, not a hernia phone. The other selling point is a 28 hour standby time battery life, with Mitsubishi supplying two batteries with the kits, and a call time of two hours which is surpassed only by the heavier Philips product. The MT-4, manufactured by Mitsubishi at its Japanese plant in Osaka, is intended to help the firm towards its stated objective of capturing 10% of the cellular phone market: the products are available now, with recommended retail prices of UKP1,000 for the mobile MT-4, UKP1,125 for the transportable, and UKP1,250 for the transmobile: but these figures will undoubtedly prove flexible.
