Year: <span>2005</span>
Year: 2005

Hudson Adopts Tira Jump Suite

Tira Wireless have just announced that mobile gaming giant Hudson Entertainment, the U.S. subsidiary of Hudson Soft, has licensed their Tira Jump Product Suite. The agreement builds on a long-standing relationship in which Hudson has been using Tira Wireless’ professional services to adapt its content for global consumption. Hudson’s mobile division is a major publisher on Verizon Wireless and Cingular, offering a broad selection of popular titles, including Bomberman, Burger Time, Lode Runner, and Adventure Island.

Toshiba and NEC to Collaborate

Toshiba Corporation and NEC Electronics Corporation announced that they have agreed to collaborate on the development of CMOS logic process technology for the 45-nanometer (nm) generation. Under the terms of the agreement, engineers from Toshiba and NEC Electronics will collaborate at Toshiba’s Advanced Microelectronics Center in Yokohama on development of fundamental CMOS process technology, which both companies will be able to implement at their manufacturing facilities.

Govt to Study Re-Organization Plan

Telecom minister Heizo Takenaka pledged Friday to examine NTT’s plan to reorganize its structure and eliminate overlapping businesses. The remarks from the minister of internal affairs and communications came two days after the telecom giant unveiled the reorganization plan, which is designed to offer Internet and telecom services, among others, for corporate clients at competitive fares.

NEC's Electronic Image Stabilizer

DoCoMo will launch the N902i [.jpg] developed and manufactured by NEC Corp., on November 18th. Although the effective pixel count of the image sensor is about two million, the camera may provide 4-megapixel still image resolution with the use of pixel interpolation by correcting blur using four photos taken at the same time. Instead of an optical image stabilizer which moves a lens mechanically, which is used by most digital cameras, this unit employs an electronic image stabilizer to record a much clearer image.

2006: Japan's Year of the FeliCa eWallet Phone

2006: Japan's Year of the FeliCa eWallet PhoneAccording to the ancient Chinese calendar, 2006 is The Year of the Dog. More importantly, it’s shaping up to be The Year of the eWallet. Launched last summer, DoCoMo’s FeliCa-based wallet phones are a growing success and competitors Vodafone and KDDI have scrambled to launch their own FeliCa-equipped models.

A recent survey points to wide consumer satisfaction and even the BBC have started reporting on Osaifu Keitai (wallet phones). The BBC’s ‘Click Online’ producer caught up with me last month in Tokyo; they were in town to cover CEATEC, but also wanted the tech and business-model details on DoCoMo’s ‘i-mode FeliCa‘ mobile service, as well as how people are using them. The result was a pretty good TV programme (if I may say so myself), which you can watch on the Click Online site(WWJ subscribers log in for full story).

WWJ: Back from A Perfect Storm

By Daniel Scuka, WWJ Editor in Chief
Thanks to everyone who dropped us a note in the past two weeks while WWJ weathered The Perfect Storm: the power surged, the hard drives choked, the server crashed and the database disappeared. But the patient has recovered, and we expect to have everything tidied up shortly (if you find any broken links or misfunctions, let us know). Please accept our sincere apologies for the interruption! We now return to our regular, cutting-edge wireless coverage.

Accessibility for JIS Standard

The CIAJ has announced that the "JIS X 8341-4: Guidelines for Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities – Information and Communications Equipment, Software and Services – Part 4: Telecommunications Equipment" has been deliberated by the Japan Industrial Standards Committee, established as a JIS standard, and notified in an official government gazette. These guidelines define items which are essential and items which are desirable from an accessibility standpoint in the planning, development and design stages so that telecommunications equipment can be operated without difficulty by all people, including older persons and persons with disabilities.

Smell Tones for Mobile Phones

Aromatherapy wafts to a high tech edge with Japanese "smell tones" for mobile phones.  Scented mobile phone charms release a variety of fragrances to signal incoming calls and email using an electronically stimulated micro scent generator built into a cell phone-style charm. Keitai KunKun (KunKun is Japanese shorthand for the act of actually sniffing) releases a light burst of fragrance for five seconds after the arrival of a call/mail. At least pockets and purses will be sweetly scented. 

Japan Mobile Users Survey

InfoPlant performed a survey of mobile phone users, carried out through the main menus of internet-enabled phones from DoCoMo, au and Vodafone which was at least somewhat focused on flat-rate data trends [.pdf in Japanese]. 16,833 people replied during the survey, 67.4% of respondents were female, and iMode users, Ezweb users and Vodafone Live! users were 57.4%, 20.9% and 21.7% respectively. WWJ subscribers login for the English translation.

DoCoMo Subscribers Top 50 Million

NTT DoCoMo have just announced that subscribers to the companies mobile phone services exceeded 50 million today, about three years and 10 months after surpassing 40 million. DoCoMo subscribers refer to 2G mova, 3G FOMA and DoPa Single Service customers. In the first 10 years after DoCoMo began offering cellular services in 1979, subscribers grew at an average net rate of roughly 30,000 per year. From 1993, two years after DoCoMo launched its 2G mova service, the average annual net gain to the present time has been about four million subscribers.