Dai Nippon Printing has begun providing a service to enable cellphone users to access content related to broadcast and communications satellite TV and terrestrial digital TV programs aired by transmitting 2D codes from their handsets. The service uses a bandwidth allocated to data broadcast in digital TV broadcast, and allows cellphone users to access program-related content from handsets while watching a program.
It’s sassy, not clunky – but analog only. If this sounds like an ode to Japan’s first Tellycelly, please make your call swift: The TV will only run about an hour before the batteries poop, but the sales potential is, we think, killer. Vodafone’s V601N [.pdf] from NEC, on sale in December, follows Japan’s long consumer electronics tradition; namely, a cool, high-tech gadget that will sell at a premium by the truckload. Watch the tube, no pesky packet fees, grab screen shots and capture live video from broadcast programs, access TV guides via browser, and use it as a remote to control your karaoke machine. Watch our exclusive WWJ video clip of the ‘next big thing’ in action at Vodafone’s October press conference when the unit was introduced.
The Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) is Asia’s premiere trade show for information technology and electronics sectors, including the fields of imaging, information and communications. This event brings together the complete spectrum of new technologies with a total of 505 companies and organizations, including almost every major Japanese electronics and communications company, 170 exhibitors from 16 counties and regions worldwide, exhibited in 2,460 booths. We visited KDDI to take a closer look at their prototype Sanyo Digital TV phone, talked to the Kyocera folks about the upcoming convergence of GSM and CDMA and interviewed DoCoMo about their IT-House service offering coming soon for 3G FOMA handsets. Full Program Run-time 20:39
Experts see 2003 shaping up to be a banner year. For starters, DoCoMo, KDDI and J-Phone will all be coming out with refined 2G equipment. They’ll also be rolling out new 3G systems, expanding rich-media services and launching camera-enabled, programmable handsets that can serve as “e-wallet” and “e-ticket” mobile-commerce terminals.
