Wireless Watch Japan
Search Results for: Natsuno

Search Results for: Natsuno


DoCoMo Strikes Back with 905i-Series

DoCoMo Strikes Back with 905i-SeriesDomestic market incumbant NTT DoCoMo came out with all guns blazing during their press conference at the Grand Park Hyatt in Tokyo on November 1st. For the first time ever they combined the launch for both of their upcoming 700 and 900 series models – a record 23 handsets unveiled at once – and the announcement included several new service offerings as well. Marking another notable difference from previous line-up introductions was the absence of Natsuno-san, famed ‘father of i-mode’ and always energetic MC, from the stage.

The companies flag-ship 905i-series included 10 models which will all come fully loaded with high-speed HSDPA, 1Seg digitial-tv, DCMX m-commerce, GPS, 2in1 dual-sim identity and enabled with GSM chipsets to allow global roaming complete with voice-to-text translation capabilities for English, Chinese and Japanese. Further enhancements in handset design include increased multi-media applications in motion sensor gaming, flat-rate music subscriptions and i-motion videos along with updated i-area mapping and cell broadcast emergency announcement services and Flash Lite 3 pre-installed all coming as standard features across the board.

Viewpoint: What Leads Mobile in Japan?

Holographic projection demo at DoCoMo R&D Labs, November 2006 ©MobikyoThe genesis of today’s Viewpoint was back in March, when we spotted this op-ed referring to Japan mobile that had stated: “What’s different about the Japanese mobile market is that innovation is moving toward business models and marketing tactics instead of technical features and functions.” That op-ed piece in turn cited a new research report on eMarketer, “Japan: Marketing to a Mobile Society,” which insisted: “What stands out in the current Japanese experience is the fact that the center of gravity for getting through to Japanese mobile users has shifted in favor of business models and marketing tactics as opposed to new technical features and mobile phone functions.”

We took exception to both these as serious mis-analyses of the cornerstone role that technological innovation and network infrastructure competition have played – and continue to play – in powering Japan’s mobile success story. After contact with the eMarketer editors, we agreed to write separate opinion pieces, which we would both republish side-by-side in our newsletters, as an excellent way to hash out the topic and let you – our collective readers – decide.

Sadly, the marketing guys at eMarketer quashed the idea, as the subject and the detailed discussion would be “too technical a topic for our [eMarketer’s] newsletter.” But we know that WWJ readers are more than smart enough to figure out for themselves what’s really driving the mobile Internet in Japan! So we wished the eMarketer editors best of luck in the future, again gave thanks that WWJ doesn’t have any meddling marketing guys, and herewith present to you our Viewpoint.
(Subscribers login to access the full article by WWJ editor Daniel Scuka)

Image: Holographic projection demo at NTT DoCoMo R&D Labs, November 2006 ©Mobikyo

i-mode Launch Cancelled in India

NTT DoCoMo has just announced that the company and Indian mobile operator Hutchison Essar Ltd. (“Hutch”) have agreed not to proceed with the contract signed on December 15, 2006 regarding the licensing of the i-mode mobile Internet service in India. DoCoMo and Hutch had been striving to launch i-mode service in India within 2007. Due to the changes in business environment, both companies concluded that it would be difficult to launch i-mode service at this time and agreed not to proceed.

DoCoMo 2.0 — Message Lost in Translation?

DoCoMo 2.0 -- Message Lost in Translation? by Mobikyo KKOn Monday 23 April NTT DoCoMo unveiled their latest 3G handsets, the 904i-series, at a press conference held here in downtown Tokyo.

WWJ pointed to this webcast of their presentation, which clearly stated from the very beginning the new “DoCoMo 2.0” campaign theme.

We shouldn’t really be surprised that the main message, from Japan’s dominant mobile operator, contained in the announcement somehow managed to get 2.0 attention from the mainstream media. With few exceptions, the entire tech web focused on the motion-sensor for gaming application. Few if any noted how ironic it was that while the company insisted it was going to “focus on offering unique applications and services that will be difficult for the competition to duplicate” they were in fact introducing a functionality which was originally made available in Japan [video here] by Vodafone and Sharp over two years ago.

Perhaps the gritty details — such as the fact that all five new models will (of course) ship pre-installed with the Osaifu-Keitai FeliCa mobile wallet together with related security services — are less appealing to the overseas media than Nokia’s recent announcement that they, too, have the mobile wallet urge?

To be sure, there were a few interesting new offerings in Natsuno-san’s presentation, such as the 2-in-1 dual-identity option and flat-rate access to Napster’s full music library service. However, one of the main observations we take away from this news is that the rest of the world still tends to focus only on the most quirky headlines (wait until the MSM find out about this one). WWJ subscribers login for our thoughts on this latest development.

DoCoMo's i-channel Hits 10mln Subs

Adobe just announced that DoCoMo’s i-channel news and information service, powered by FlashCast technology, has surpassed 10 Million subscribers in Japan. DoCoMo hit this important milestone just 18 months after the launch. The rapidly expanding data service is delivered through 25 channels to almost 20 percent of all NTT DoCoMo customers. i-channel allows subscribers to automatically receive five basic channels, including news, entertainment, weather, horoscopes and sports.

DoCoMo Introduces 703i Series with Ten New 3G Handsets

DoCoMo Introduces 703i Series with Ten New 3G Handsets by Mobikyo KKDoCoMo today announced the development of new 3G FOMA handsets – the 703i-series plus the D800iDS and SO903iTV. The 703i-series consists of eight models: N703i, P703i, D703i, F703i, N703iD, P703i, SH703i and SO703i. Most of the models are extra slim, with the N703i (image at right) and P703i being the thinnest 3G clamshell handsets in the world, at 11.4mm each, as of 15 January 2007 (and according to the company).

Our Wireless Watch Japan Web Video Triple Play article posted 10 November has a quick shot of Natsuno-san with these new extra-slim handsets.

The new 703i-series handsets made by NEC, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Fujitsu and Sony Ericsson have features ranging from full-track music, Mega Appli gaming and DCMX mobile commerce to document viewer and full mobile web browser. A couple of interesting design notes; Fujitsu’s F703i model is water-proof and claims to be completely safe in the shower while Mitsubishi’s D703i is Japan’s thinnest candybar-style cellphone available, at 9.9mm thick.

DoCoMo also unveiled the SO903iTV handset equipped with a high-resolution LCD using BRAVIA technology and high-quality audio for viewing “One-segment” (1 Seg) terrestrial digital TV broadcasts. In addition the company announced the D800iDS [.jpg image], which according to the press materials, is a world-first cellphone with two full screens – a conventional upper screen and a touch-screen instead of the traditional lower keypad. The N703iD will be marketed on 26 January. The other 703i-series models and D800iDS are planned to be sold in February, while the SO903iTV is scheduled to be launched in June.

We have images with full details after the jump.

DoCoMo Announces i-mode for India

NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison Essar announced today an agreement under which Hutch will launch the i-mode mobile service in India within 2007. DoCoMo will license the patented technologies and know-how needed for Hutch to offer i-mode on GSM, GPRS and W-CDMA networks. Preparations are also underway to launch i-mode in Hong Kong, Macao and the Philippines. DoCoMo plans to expand the service to a total of 26 countries/regions in the future.

DCMX Posts Strong 1H Growth

DoCoMo made an announcement recently regarding the performance of their new DCMX m-commerce product [WWJ video here], which launched 28 April 2006. Noting the claim that the number of contracts exceeded 1 million as of 12 November – just over six months – with 30 handset models now on the market, we decided to dig a little a little deeper and see how the intial 1H growth for DCMX compared with DoCoMo’s flag-ship i-mode portal six months after it debuted in February 1999.

Japan's Still the World's High-Tech Testbed

This past week, WWJ’s own Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, our hard-working director of digital media (and pretty much everything else in our humble shop), appeared on US Web radio program "Into Tomorrow," hosted by Dave Graveline. Dave and his crew pop over to Tokyo each year for the annual CEATEC consumer tech show, and he makes it his business to hook up with a slate of guests who can provide insidery gen on what’s happening in Japan…

DoCoMo Seeking 3G Partner in China

NTT DoCoMo may seek partners in China after the Chinese government issues licenses for high-speed networks to expand in the world’s biggest mobile phone market. One of the standards, called W- CDMA, is the same as the platform adopted by DoCoMo in Japan. “We have to see what kind of technology the operators will use,” Takeshi Natsuno, senior vice president of multimedia services at Tokyo-based DoCoMo, said in an interview broadcast today. “After that, we can decide what kind of strategic alliance we’re going to make.”