Fujitsu Annouces 1Seg SpotCast
Fujitsu has announced a new video contents delivery system, called Spotcast, designed to transmit product information and coupons to 1seg mobile handsets in a local …
Editor’s Note
Flat-Rate Data Plan Saved 10,000 Euro
We noted an interesting post on a local mobile developer’s site, which points out out how much money their flat-rate data plan saved the company in January. According to the scanned statement of the DoCoMo bill; “By using the pakehoudai option [a JPY 3,900 service plan option for unlimited usage of i-mode data traffic] you saved 1.67 million JPY this month.” They calculated the data packets used total just over 1GB (that’s hardcore — Eds) which would have cost approx. 10,000 Euro under the regular per packet billing model. Yikes!
3GSM 2007 Award Winners
The 12th Annual GSM Association Global Mobile Awards were announced last night in Barcelona at the annual industry event which showcases the best of the mobile world. The stars of the night were the 2007 Global Mobile Awards winners, whose achievements provide an insight into the services, devices and innovation that are taking the mobile industry forward. Sony Ericsson’s K800 CyberShot handset won best 3G handset and Tokyo based I-play’s “The Fast and the Furious” took Best Made for Mobile Game. See the full category list and winners after the jump.
Japan Mobile Industry News Mash-up
It’s been a rather hectic few weeks here, as mentioned at the end of our latest WWJ Newsletter, so we thought a chocolate covered bundle of tidbits would be in order today. With 3GSM running this week in Barcelona, on top of the usual post January speed cycle, we’ve clipped over a dozen highlights together for a sweetheart ‘Valentines Eve’ post chalk full of wireless news goodies collected over the last little while, just for you after the jump.
Obon Holiday Season in Japan
You may have noticed that we’re experiencing a quiet news period here with the summer holiday and war-time-memorial anniversary season in full swing. There are a handful of wireless notes after the log in that we clipped over the last few days and more international (Japan-related) stories coming through again later today. Yoroshiku!
DoCoMo Brings Blackberry to Japan. Who Cares?
Last Thursday, NTT DoCoMo announced they would deploy the super-popular BlackBerry email device, made by Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM), in Japan, in autumn 2006. At first glance, the news is pretty interesting.
One media report stated that “RIM stands to make potentially more money per customer with the DoCoMo deal by marketing its BlackBerrys in addition to its service.” Until recently, Japan lacked a decent, usable email device targeting corporate users.
Willcom has been offering Sharp’s super-cool Zero3, a Windows mobile OS device that has been flying off the shelves since the end of 2005, but it’s a consumer/prosumer device that is sold direct to the street and its POP/SMTP email capability doesn’t integrate (easily) into a corporate server.
[The full text of this article is available, for free, as an exclusive column contributed to the Wireless-Watch Community. — Eds]
Quick Correction to 1 June WWJ Newsletter
To confirm, and as misstated in yesterday’s WWJ Newsletter under “NTT DoCoMo finally needs Microsoft”: the new handset equipped with Microsoft Windows Media Audio software and DRM is the F902iS, and not the N902iS. Sorry for the confusion (the links to the F902iS page were correct). Note, moreover, the item below, “Windows Live Messenger for DoCoMo…”
Mobikyo KK Launches Wireless-Watch.com – Mobile Media Publisher Platform
Mobikyo K.K. today announces the public launch of the Wireless-Watch Community (W-W.Com), a dynamically updated website aggregating high-caliber news and commentary from mobile experts, industry watchers and publishers worldwide. The W-W.Com platform enables established and respected thought leaders to contribute their analysis and insight to a multi-market channel that is on track to become the Web’s most comprehensive resource of independent wireless related information.
W-W.Com launches with more than twenty registered community publishers representing a deep cross section of the most credible and insightful reporting on day-to-day developments in mobile and wireless technology, business models, strategies, applications, terminals, convergence and Internet. “The concept is to gather talented regional mobile media publishers into a single portal to raise the online exposure for all, creating a custom, up-to-date news feed and offering dedicated content that will become a daily destination for the industry worldwide,” said Daniel Scuka, chief editor for Mobikyo’s Wireless Watch Japan media site.
All content coming into the system is retained with full click-through to the original source location and the process is entirely automated with no editorial filtering or control. “Following the famous i-mode model, we have built a critical-mass content platform with a generous revenue-share structure that provides a valuable opportunity for publishers and generates a unique offering for our site visitors,” said Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, representative director for Mobikyo.
Inside Update on SoftBank Takeover
In addition to my comments in yesterday’s WWJ email newsletter, additional details have been provided by a Tokyo-based industry analyst. In a note to investors sent earlier today, CLSA’s Kieran Calder provided a wealth of data on the implications of the impending Vodafone KK takeover. These include SoftBank moving very quickly to integrate Vodafone (a hallmark of Masayoshi Son’s style), aggressive new sales targets and a looming retail price war (WWJ subscribers log-in for details).
Our 5th Birthday!
This week marked a major milestone for WWJ! In one form or another, I’ve been writing this email newsletter for five years — and what a five year term it’s been!
I spent a couple hours last night looking over past WWJ newsletters, and was struck by how much Japan’s mobile scene has changed. In 2001, when I started writing a weekly mobile-focused newsletter for J@pan Inc, i-mode had just celebrated its second birthday, KDDI had yet to roll out CDMA 1X services and the No. 3 competitor in the market was known as “J-Phone.”
Today, DoCoMo is far in the lead with their 3G FOMA service and music and TV are the new hot trends; i-mode itself has become almost dasai (uncool). KDDI have created one of the mightiest and most unified mobile platforms on Earth, with GPS-based blogging, shopping and PC Internet integration drawing huge usage. The company formerly known as J-Phone is about to become the company formerly known as Vodafone as Masayoshi Son attacks 3G mobile with the same successful discount focus with which he attacked NTT and home broadband.
Bonus ‘those were the days’ tidbits via the WWJ Newsletter after the jump!