100th Webcast: Japan Mobile Rocks!
From Tokyo’s ultra-buttoned-down cellco headquarters to the funky, cell-phone-using youth masses, Wireless Watch Japan brings you first-hand video reporting on this country’s mobile revolution — and now we’ve done it 100 times! To celebrate, the WWJ team decided to show you more of what makes Japan’s wireless Internet the world’s test-bed for high-speed W-CDMA and CDMA 2000 networks and ubersophisticated mobile applications. Today’s program serves, we think, as a showcase for the incredible developments happening in the Japan market — and provides highlights from some of the past episodes we’ve had the pleasure to bring you. Phew! Happy 100th webcast to us! Full Program Run-time 5:41.. Oh, wait there’s more… 😎
Today’s program highlights the new FeliCa e-wallet system being readied by NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, 3-D finger-sensing projection keyboards, digital content kiosks (that deliver music and other data to portable devices), vehicle navigation systems based on cell phones and GPS, and TV keitai. The best content distilled from hundreds of hours of our WWJ footage!
2004 is the year of 3G in Japan as front-runner KDDI extends its massive high-speed subscriber lead and NTT DoCoMo finally rolls out its 900i-series handsets, touted as the best phones on Earth. The question we’ve been asking is: Can cool new 3G services such as videotelephony and mobile music downloading grab consumer attention? The answer is undoubtedly ‘Yes’ as consumers migrate to 3G in massive numbers.
There are now almost 18 million 3G users in Japan and average revenues are significantly higher than for 2G users — and contrary to the pundits’ doom & gloom predictions, 3G data revenues are proving to be some 30-percent higher than 2G.
Japan’s cell phone makers are innovating at light speed to develop cell phones with 500 megahertz-class processors, multi-megabyte onboard memory, extended battery life, and organo-LED displays with image quality to die for. And if your phone can be made smart enough to sense your dog’s moods and provide suitable owner feedback, as Vodafone’s Bowlingual keitai can, then there’s bound to be someone, somewhere who’ll buy it. And we’ve got the video to prove it!
As Japan’s 3G economy goes ballistic, this country is attracting the interest of industry audiences from overseas like never before. From telecom carriers, handset makers and software developers to product managers, sales & marketing teams and technology researchers, all want to know what’s succeeding in Japan, how is it working, and who’s making the profits.
You’ve helped us survive into our third year and grow from a modest media project into one of the Internet’s best-known and heavily trafficked Japan tech coverage sites. May 2004 is ending nicely with our site recording the highest monthly traffic ever in terms of page views, unique visits, and gigabytes of data transfer.
Our 100th webcast is also a great time to let you know what’s been happening with the WWJ media project.
Specifically, we’re working on several efforts to boost the type, range, and depth of information we provide to our audience.
Within a few days, we’ll have a new e-commerce solution and more advantageous group prices up on the site, making WWJ easier than ever to access, pay for, and enjoy. We’re still the only site bringing you regular streaming video coverage of the business and technology of mobile in Japan. We also anticipate a number of announcements concerning staffing and plans to offer significant advertising and sponsorship opportunities to companies keen to promote their brands to the WWJ audience.
Thanks for watching our 100th video program and keep checking back each week as we bring you the best in wireless coverage from Japan!
— The Publishers