Year: <span>2004</span>
Year: 2004

Year: 2004

Upgrading to a New Cell Phone in Japan Might Depend on Who You Are

Taking a break from the summer heat, this humble reporter was bribed with promises of nomi-hodai, all you can drink at usually unbeatable prices, to tag along as ‘the mobile phone expert’ recently in Shinjuku. So with ice tea-laden backpacks, we embarked on an blistering hot afternoon ketai safari in search of the elusive new V602sh handset from Sharp through Vodafone Japan, only to discover that this ultra-cool model was already sold out at the monster electronic consumer super-store of choice. Or was it? Thus unfolds an interesting look at how the subsidy-driven handset marketplace deals with existing vs. new customers.

KDDI 1Q Net Profit Surges 17.6%

Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI Corp. said today that its quarterly net profit rose on strong demand for its mobile services. Consolidated net profit for the April-June first quarter was 51.66 billion yen ($462.4 million), up 17.6 percent from 43.9 billion yen a year ago. Vodafone reported a 6 percent loss for the same quarter on Monday. DoCoMo reports tomorrow.

NTT DoCoMo to Offer Financing for FeliCa Service Startup at GEO

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company entered into a financing agreement with multimedia retail company GEO as part of a strategy to promote i-mode FeliCa service in the Japanese market. Under the agreement, NTT DoCoMo will provide financial assistance for the development of a network system to support i-mode FeliCa service at GEO outlets, and the installation of smart-card reader/writers at approximately 600 GEO shops beginning this November. In order to recoup its investment in the system, DoCoMo will collect a commission for each usage of the FeliCa service. GEO is a major player in the rental and sales of videos, DVDs, CDs and game software.

KDDI's Chaku-Uta Hits 100M Downloads

KDDI has announced that their EZ “Chaku-Uta” service achieved the one hundred million song download plateau on July 5, 2004. Since its introduction, EZ “Chaku-Uta” has continued to improve, adding an AAC codec for improved sound quality and stereo playback. Also, with the cooperation of record companies, au has been able to provide more and more new songs from artists, even before they are released on CD. As a result, EZ “Chaku-Uta” is becoming established as a way to enjoy the latest releases first.

Vodafone K.K. Offers Auto Image Size Conversion for Sha-mail

Vodafone K.K. announced today that it will offer a new automatic image size conversion function starting September 1, 2004 to make exchanging Sha-mail picture messages among Vodafone customers even more convenient. Currently, various file sizes and formats exist for exchanging images on mobile handsets, and not every handset can automatically receive multiple image formats and file sizes. Using the new automatic image size conversion function in the Vodafone K.K. network mail system, the attached image’s file size and number of colors are automatically converted when a Sha-mail is sent to another Vodafone customer *1, thereby making it possible for the sender to send a picture message without worrying about the receiver’s handset type.

DoCoMo Unveil's FOMA N880iES 3G Phone

The new “Easy & Simple” NEC handset [.jpg image] is equipped with a camera that has an effective resolution of 320,000 pixels, and is the first model in the “Raku Raku Phone” series to be compatible with the 3G network. Users can receive voice calls and videophone calls by following the blinking keys and the instructions displayed on the screen. As with previous easy-to-use handsets, this model displays detailed image-based instructions to smoothly walk users through each step of basic operations such as creating and sending mail.