Telstra expects more than one million Australians will pay $500 for new handsets, plus an extra $10-$17 per month for content, when the telco launches its own version of the i-mode mobile phone content service before Christmas. The Australian carrier became the first telco in the English-speaking world to sign up with the Japanese telco, NTT DoCoMo, which claims 41 million subscribers for the service in its own country.
JCB, a leading international credit card brand, in cooperation with Casio, today launched a two-month trial of its new “Offica” wristwatch-based corporate solution. The Offica Watch [image] contains employee ID, access control, and cashless payment functions using Sony’s FeliCa contactless interface chip. Twenty-five JCB employees will use the Offica Watch instead of the current Offica card to access the JCB tower in central Tokyo, make purchases at company restaurants and stores, and carry out a variety of administrative functions.
KDDI has announced “Office Wise”, a new au based service designed to provide an inexpensive mobile and seamless PBX call-service alternative for corporate clients in their local office buildings and plant areas. “Office Wise”, the first service of its kind in the industry, will launch on November 30, 2004, in the Tokyo area, with rapid expansion to the Osaka and Nagoya areas. Office Wise customers use the local area wireless call service by simply installing the required Office Wise equipment at the business site and pre-registering a local area number (up to 11 digits) for use with their au mobile phone units. In addition to calls between registered mobile phones, users can make calls to the extension lines of existing PBX networks by simply adding the “*55” prefix to the extension line number being called.
At the BREW 2004 Developer Conference in San Diego, awards to honor stand-out BREW products and services were announced in six categories. EZFM and EZ Naviwalk won 1st prize in the Best Entertainment and Best Location-Based categories, respectively. Other Japanese entries from Edia Co., MediaSeek Inc., and Namco were selected as finalists in the information, entertainment and productivity categories.
NTT DoCoMo and Telstra Corp. Australia, today announced they have formed an exclusive strategic partnership under which Telstra will launch i-mode® in Australia. Signed today, the agreement licenses Telstra to offer the i-mode service with DoCoMo providing its brand, technology and patents.
Barefoot Software Asia Limited (BSAL) is pleased to announce the launch Australian Swimsuit Edition-Free (ASE), via the Barefoot Software website for download. ASE is a Cardmate application which is being launched for Free as a promotional application to end users who have a Symbian 60 supported device.
