Year: <span>2007</span>
Year: 2007

Year: 2007

Wireless Watch – Spring Fresh Site Design

Wireless Watch - Spring Fresh Site Design by Mobikyo KKA pleasant April Fool’s surprise for all WWJ regulars here today as we’ve finally moved our tired old website – circa 2003 – into the digital trash can. We have made a few changes, beyond the somewhat tricky migration from Nuke to Wordpress, with this new offering. The ‘tag cloud’ for keywords, ‘share this’ option (with easy article bookmarking) and ‘send to friends’ function, ‘related entries’ (below all posts), a mobile feed version and an improved archive structure should help you navigate the large amount of content WWJ now makes available. As the saying goes, you don’t realize how much stuff you have.. until you have to move it!

One of the more notable changes is that we have opened the extended section of most ‘quick posts’ to free view; we are also happy to bring a couple of great outside contributors into the fold and will be making a seperate introduction for them soon. Full site access to our original Viewpoint articles and Video Programs will continue to be available only to paid subscribers.

Finally, on behalf of our parent, Mobikyo, we are pleased to join with a new local partner, Infinita Inc., to begin offering Japan Mobile Research Reports. Considering our combined experience and network of contacts, this development is a natural evolution for the content and services already on offer. We expect to make a more formal announcement, including additional partnerships, in short order. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the new WWJ site style and look forward to your feedback.

DoCoMo to Sell Exclusive D&G Handset

DoCoMo just announced that the company will begin marketing (only via their Internet online sales channels and for a limited time) the exclusive special-edition M702iS DOLCE & GABBANA handset developed jointly with Dolce & Gabbana and Motorola. The designer model, which costs 75,000 yen (including tax), will be available for purchase via PC and i-mode Japanese language portals from 08:30 on April 20, 2007 until May 31 at 10:30 pm, or while supplies last.

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.

CTIA: Ready for Japan?

The annual CTIA event is underway – like spring break for telco geeks – this week in Orlando and the PR is flowing. While there is predictable hype surrounding mobile tv and m-commerce, it’s satisfying to see that indeed the industry over-seas is beginning to embrace the functions and services we have seen developed and deployed here in Japan over the last few years. Now of the course the trick is, after the chatter, what happens next. As they say “the devil’s in the details” so time will tell, but it really does seem that things are warming up under the Florida sun!

DoCoMo's New U.S. Advisory Board

DoCoMo announced today that it will launch a fourth U.S. Advisory Board, which will hold its first meeting in the United States on April 11, 2007. The board will be chaired by former United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael K. Powell, currently chairman of the MK Powell Group and senior advisor of Providence Equity Capital, and will include Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, founder and director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who served as chairperson on two previous boards.

Encouraging MediaFLO Survey Results

the first results from an extensive consumer survey of attitudes towards mobile TV. The survey, which was conducted by Accenture Japan and included more than 3,000 Japanese consumers, showed that subscribers are far more likely to take up mobile broadcast services when they experience it firsthand. Survey results after the jump.

[We noted in a recent WWJ newsletter that new digital tv spectrum allocation from the ministry is under review and the various lobby groups are in full motion to state their case — Eds]