Archive for July, 2009

DoCoMo Releases Q1 Result for 2009

DoCoMo President and CEO Ryuji Yamada presented the company Q1 performance numbers for fiscal year 2009 this afternoon - the .PDF and video are both available in English. Reported year-on-year highlights from the quarter include; operating revenue -7.3%, operating expenses -4.7%, Capital Expend. -6.5%, MOU -1.5% to 135mins and Voice/Data ARPU at 5,440jpy, -7.6%. With new 18 models in Summer 2009 handset lineup - 4.34M units were sold April 1st to June 30th, down 12% compared to Q1 2008 also noted that 43% of subscriber base is now on a flat-rate data plan. The new i-Conceir” service has gained 1.8M subs in the first 6-months with 364 content service offerings while the BeeTV launch on May 1st show 550K subs paying 315jpy per month.

Posted: 30 July 2009 | Filed under: Carriers, Editor's Note | ..Continue >> 

QR Code on the Beach

A giant QR code made of sand - scan worked just fine for us.. give it a try! Campaign site here - Jpn: http://bit.ly/2g23q6

Posted: 27 July 2009 | Filed under: tweets | ..Continue >> 

Exclusive iida Designer Handsets

The au Design Project has added to their unique collection of custom models with three new units; Happiness with Dots, Doggie Ring-Ring and the groovy Hand Bag for Space Travel, created by Yayoi Kusuma going on sale here July 30th. These handmade limited edition offerings, priced accordingly from $1,000 to $10,000 each, will be available on first come basis both online and at one of several specially designated shop locations. Considering past success of the INFOBAR, talby, neon, and MEDIA SKIN designs, which were were added to the permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, no doubt the latest iida branded concept will gain approval with certain discerning clients overseas as well.

Posted: 27 July 2009 | Filed under: Japan Market, Terminal Technology | ..Continue >> 

AEON and DoCoMo Open Marketing Co.

As first announced on March 31, the JV between DoCoMo and leading department store chain AEON group launched on 24 July. The new entity, AEON Marketing, will combine RFID point of sale details from purchasing preferences along with targeted marketing via mobile phones in order to increase efficiencies, leading to higher purchase ratios at stores, as well as improve customer loyalty. The new company was founded on 800 million yen (approx. $8M usd) and is mainly owned by AEON group with 71% of the share, with DoCoMo holding the 29% balance of stock.

Posted: 25 July 2009 | Filed under: Editor's Note, New Tech & Services | ..Continue >> 

Japan Mobile Campaign Award Winners

This press release [J] just came through from KDDI with news they have won a D&AD Yellow Pencil in the environmental design category for their PLY exhibition, see Mobile Marketing segment for more lucky winners. Also announced, the folks at Canne have awarded KDDI a shiny bronze Lion for their funky iida calling - mobile music generator - campaign, details on video Here. Sony Music grabbed some hardware for their very cool Pair Movie series, watch the video Here. More notes after the jump

Posted: 22 July 2009 | Filed under: Japan Market, New Tech & Services | ..Continue >> 

Japanese Cellphones & Global Markets

Lets take an A-B-C approach on this recent post from NYT. Since Gen Kanai has already provided a strong and balanced review, taking an open-source software approach, we will stick to the hardware aspect for our humble comments herein.

As long-time observers of the Japan market, with a decent grasp on the global stage considering that’s where many in our audience are based, we have a few thoughts about possible handset futures. As we see it, there are basically two niche ends of the spectrum: smartphones and emerging markets, so it’s reasonable to expect some near-term activity with DoCoMo and one or more of their handset partners getting underway in India, for example. A single digit share in either of those growth areas, let alone the main-stream replacement cycle, would easily surpass the home market annual volumes shipped as indicated at about 30M units. Now to the A-B-C heart of our argument. Follow along after the jump.

Posted: 21 July 2009 | Filed under: Editor's Note, Japan Market | ..Continue >> 

Free Wireless on the Bullet Bus

People on the move between Tokyo and Osaka can now hop a luxury bus service which conveniently includes speedy wireless access. These red-eye express coaches offer riders 802.11b/g connectivity via IIJ and DoCoMo networks with power access and Business Class seats for about $100usd, a notable savings compared to taking the Shinkansen. While commuter buses are usually designed to carry up to 40 passengers, these new Eco-Friendly hybrid gas and electric powered chariots are configured with only 16 large comfortable reclining vibro-seats. Talk about flying first class on the ground!

Posted: 20 July 2009 | Filed under: Japan Market, Mobile Users | ..Continue >> 

Au Premiere Shop Hits 5M Users

KDDI announced the My AU Premiere Shop portal reached 5 Million members, out of their 30M total subscriber base, in just 5 month since launch in mid-February. The digital mall provides EZ WEb subscribers a free profile page to customize with product preferences and receive exclusive offerings.

Posted: 19 July 2009 | Filed under: Carriers, Mobile Users | ..Continue >> 

Japan Mobile Market Growth in 2008

According to the Nikkei, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecomms announced the mobile contents and services market results in 2008 increased by 17% YoY to reach 1.35 Trillion JPY (approx. $14 Billion usd), mobile advertising not included. The mobile commerce market, including mail orders and stock transactions recorded $9B, up 19% while airline and hotel reservations, in the same segment, increased by 25%. The mobile contents category, lead by music, games and e-books, gained 13% to about $5B. Do the math on a mobile population of 106M contracts!

Posted: 18 July 2009 | Filed under: Japan Market, Sign of the Times | ..Continue >> 

Mobile Website Flash Creator

NEC BIGLOBE announced it will introduce a mobile site Flash creator platform, under a SaaS model, as of today. According to the release, a multi-design template driven offering is used for the construction of mobile websited so clients need only add the text and images, no special skills are required. The package fee is quoted at $1,500 for initial setup and $5k per month for hosting with stated target of 300 clients in 36 months for a cool 1 Billion jpy. Adobe Flash has been a standard pre-install, by all operators on all handsets, since 2004 in Japan.

Posted: 17 July 2009 | Filed under: Content Providers, Japan Market | ..Continue >>