Editor’s Note
Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Tokyo Game Show 2008 Video Report

Tokyo Game Show 2008 Video ReportIt was yet another exciting TGS event here in Tokyo, running October 9 – 12, and the ‘Ready For Game Time’ theme was splashed around Makuhari Messe with plenty of next-generation mobile games coming out into the public eye. Wireless Watch Japan was on site – as always – to get a sneak peek at the latest, and some soon-to-be greatest, offerings coming out from the usual software powerhouses.

While we didn’t make it out there for Cosplay Saturday, like last year, we noticed a marked improvement in performance on the latest handset models and saw several very cool networked products that are sure to please above average casual gamers.

Happy 25th Birthday for the Cellphone

If not for cNet, we would have completely forgot.. it was 25 years ago today, October 13, 1983, that the very first commercial cell phone call was made. Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile communications, called Alexander Graham Bell’s nephew from Chicago’s Soldier Field using a Motorola DynaTAC handset, referred to as the “Brick” because of its hefty size. What a difference 25 years makes. In 1984, a year after Ameritech Mobile launched its service, the company had signed up about 12,000 subscribers.

Politicians Caught Watching Mobile TV

Economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano and Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa have apologized to Diet leaders for watching TV on a cell phone during a House of Councilors plenary session. The incident took place on Oct. 3 when Shozaburo Jimi, vice leader of the tiny Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party), was asking questions. The Upper House has banned cell phones from its floor since 1995.

CEATEC 2008 – A Peek at the Future

We spent most of last week out at Makuhari Messe running around the CEATEC tradeshow with clients visiting from overseas. While we were considerably distracted, catering to their specific focus, it was certainly interesting – as always – to get a glimpse of the mobile future. Of course while most of the usual players were on-site with their wares and the media was swarming to get the inside skinny, btw: plenty of great material from Tech-On Here, two of the most obvious trends we noticed was a definite move towards green technology along with next-generation networks and handsets.

This concept model – the Voyage – from KDDI was a prefect example of innovation aimed at solving one of the major challenges, never enough juice, increasingly faced by mobile users. There was not much in the way of details on that unit when we asked at the time however based on past experience with AU Designs it would be reasonable to expect something like this hitting the street a few years from now and we’ll be digging for more intell. on this one! Meanwhile, some of the other concepts on display especially the Ply device with it’s built-in projector and their Trio design – hint: watch the video demos launched via ‘prototype’ icons on lower nav. bar – were also attracting the crowds.

MMORPG Statue Drawing Attention

According to the Foreign Policy blog – we told you Obon is a slow news cycle! – online game company NHN Japan has set up a series of these statues around town to promote their mobile game site hange.jp. Apparently, when people touch the statue’s arm with their mobile phone, the application site will automatically open and a lucky winner will be rewarded 10,000 U.S. Dollars.

Obon in Japan = Slow News Cycle

For those of you who don’t know, the middle of August is Obon season in Japan and traditionally the slowest news cycle for the year. Most folks plan their vacation – to beat the heat – around this time and your loyal WWJ team is looking forward to catching up on some outstanding projects behind the scenes. Meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting notes we missed recently from the Nikkei related to the continued growth trend of mobile manga and the iPhone launch results.

Mobaho to Cease Broadcast Operations

Mobile Broadcasting Corp. has just announced that it will wind down operations of it’s Mobaho! satellite digital services by spring 2009. According to the press release the company face difficult market conditions for it’s subscription model in direct competition with the freely available 1Seg television offerings. Apparently the TU media (subsidiary of SK Telecom) partners based in Korea will continue operations. As Toshiba owns nearly 37% of the venture it is estimated a potential $250M write-down could affect the companies forcasted earnings for fiscal 2008.

Bandai Introduces SmartBerry Handset

Bandai Introduces SmartBerry HandsetBandai, famous for the ’90’s Tamagochi craze, has introduced their new SmartBerry Communicator device. Targeted at young girls, this slider styled touch screen unit offers profile personalization – a virtual business card with blood type and birthdate as given examples – to be shared with trusted friends via real email, including photo attachments and emoji icons of course, with instant chat and multi-player gaming functions, just to name a few.

Available starting this weekend, for about $100, the company has forcasted moving 100,000 units in Japan by spring 2009.

You have to wonder how long it will be before the folks at Mattel catch-up with something like this for Barbie Girls too.. Egad! More details after the jump.

3G iPhone in Tokyo – TGIF

3G iPhone in Tokyo - TGIFWell it was a long time coming but this morning at 07:00 the first 3G iPhones started hitting the street here in Tokyo with almost 1,000 die-hard fans in line at the SoftBank Mobile flagship store in Omote-Sando eager to buy the next-generation mobile computing device.. while supplies last.

Wireless Watch Japan was on the scene, last night and all morning for the launch party at Bic Camera in Yurakucho, shooting some video and chatting with the crowd. Doesn’t he look happy!

We have a ton of material to edit down but for the time being we pulled a few screen grab teaser shots. More after the jump.