The Walkman — whose original model was once Sony’s signature product — will no longer be made in Japan. Sony Corp. said on Wednesday that by the end of March it will close a factory that began producing the Walkman music players in 1979 when it first debuted, according to Atsuo Omagari, a Sony spokesman.

Production of Walkman brand products will be shifted to plants in Mala-ysia and China, he said.The move comes as Sony cuts costs and the competition in the booming digital portable music player market intensifies, where Sony lags behind Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.

Under the Walkman brand, Sony offers five different types of music players: the original cassette tape player, CD and MD players as well as the one using hard disk drives and flash memory.The factory being shuttered in Saitama prefecture was the only plant in Japan making Walkmans, producing a model that uses a hard-disk drive, according to Mami Imada, a Sony spokeswoman.

Japan production of other Walkman models ended earlier, she said.The Walkman has sold more than 350 million units since its creation in 1979, and was once the global symbol of Sony’s — and Japan’s — technical prowess. The Saitama plant stopped making the hard-disk drive Walkman in January. The factory will now become a product design centre.The closure of the factory is the first under a restructuring plan Sony announced last September to revive its ailing electronics operations worldwide.Under its three-year business plan through fiscal 2007 that ends in March 2008, Sony is seeking to reduce the number of its global manufacturing bases by 11 from 65 at the end of March 2005. Sony’s July-September group net profit plunged 46 per cent to 28.5 billion yen ($249 million).

Nokia, a telecommunications company, said on Wednesday it has reached a five-year managed services agreement to run Hutchison Essar’s network operations in nine circles in India. Under the agreement, Nokia will assume the operation of Hutchison Essar’s networks in Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh (East and West), Rajasthan, Haryana and West Bengal, and also take over 600 of Hutchison Essar’s staff into its services business unit.

The agreement, for which documentation is being finalised, calls for Nokia to provide an array of solutions from its extensive services portfolio, including network planning, project management, configuration and optimisation, network operations and maintenance and the administration of third party vendor contract management, a Nokia release said.

"Nokia’s Managed Service know-how, plus its proven track record when it comes to operating and enhancing networks worldwide, were key drivers in helping us make this decision," Asim Ghosh, managing director, Hutchison Essar Ltd., was quoted as saying.

"The services business has become increasingly important for Nokia. Our managed services will improve Hutchison Essar’s cost structure and further enhance their service offerings," said Rajeev Suri, senior vice-president, Networks, Nokia.

The contract deepens already strong ties between the two companies — Nokia is the supplier of GSM network equipment to nine of Hutchison Essar’s 13 circles.

Nokia’s managed services business is a key part of its services business unit, and a core part of the company’s drive to help operators enhance their service offerings and reduce costs.

Nokia has 36 managed services contracts in 28 countries, the release said.