Year: <span>2009</span>
Year: 2009

Year: 2009

Wireless Japan 2009 Reports

The crew at RBB Today did a fantastic job [in Japanese] covering the annual Wireless Japan conference and exhibition at the Big Sight convention hall, starting with this video demo of augmented reality by DoCoMo R&D labs. We were at the show this year, running the summer edition of Mobile Monday Tokyo event there on the 24th, and must say while there was still several interesting products on display the current economic situation certainly dampened the usual buzz.

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.

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.

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.

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