Kudo’s to TechCrunch for looking beyond the usual US-centric focus to explain the magic mobile ecosystem here in Japan with 1,000 words or less. While, as stated, the web access device of choice is running at even 50-50 between PC and cellphone, it’s most certainly not an either/or scenario…
For those of you who don’t know, the middle of August is Obon season in Japan and traditionally the slowest news cycle for the year. Most folks plan their vacation – to beat the heat – around this time and your loyal WWJ team is looking forward to catching up on some outstanding projects behind the scenes. Meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting notes we missed recently from the Nikkei related to the continued growth trend of mobile manga and the iPhone launch results.
DoCoMo has announced that it will stop accepting applications for its 2G ‘Mova’ mobile service as of November 30. Without stating when it would turn-out the lights on their legacy PDC network it would seem possible that it will happen by Q4 of fiscal 2008, therefore March 31 2009. It’s the end of an era!
Since 1998 the CIAJ has conducted an annual study of mobile phone use in Japan and has released this year’s survey results. This report strives to capture the most recent user trends and has added topics which might forcast growth demand in the domestic market, including: handset replacement cycle trends after the implementation of the new purchasing plans, ownership of multiple devices and consumer interest in new services and functions, such as video use. The full report is available Here.
Fujitsu Global Mobile Platform Inc., a joint venture established based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) tied between Fujitsu Limited’s former LSI business, and the Institute for Information Industry of Taiwan, have announced the commencement of operations, according to this press release. FMPI will develop reference designs – designs which improve design efficiencies – for WiMAX-related products for Taiwan-based ODM vendors, in addition to providing technical support.
Mobile Broadcasting Corp. has just announced that it will wind down operations of it’s Mobaho! satellite digital services by spring 2009. According to the press release the company face difficult market conditions for it’s subscription model in direct competition with the freely available 1Seg television offerings. Apparently the TU media (subsidiary of SK Telecom) partners based in Korea will continue operations. As Toshiba owns nearly 37% of the venture it is estimated a potential $250M write-down could affect the companies forcasted earnings for fiscal 2008.
NTT DoCoMo released it’s first quarter earnings for this fiscal year showing a mixed bag of results. While the YoY net income is up from $1.2B to a healthy $1.7B, attributed in part to cost cutting on handset subsidies, the blended ARPU indicates a continued downward trend due to increased competition. Full details [.PDF in English] are available Here.
KDDI and Japan Rail have announced their new campaign to help encourage AU customers with the adoption of Suica. The summer handset series includes six models which have the RFID application pre-installed in an effort to enable users to start using their handsets a the preferred payment device at Suica enabled locations. We’d say that’s a full swing opposite from early days when JR required folks to have a View credit-card in order to get Suica onto their phones!
According to this article NEC has developed a system using a face recognition technology that determines the general attributes of a person standing in front of a digital display and outputs advertisements, according to their profile, to the persons FeliCa-enabled handset. NEC calls this system the “Digital Signage Solution,” combining their advertisement delivery and display system with their advertising value measurement system.
Bandai, famous for the ’90’s Tamagochi craze, has introduced their new SmartBerry Communicator device. Targeted at young girls, this slider styled touch screen unit offers profile personalization – a virtual business card with blood type and birthdate as given examples – to be shared with trusted friends via real email, including photo attachments and emoji icons of course, with instant chat and multi-player gaming functions, just to name a few.
Available starting this weekend, for about $100, the company has forcasted moving 100,000 units in Japan by spring 2009.
You have to wonder how long it will be before the folks at Mattel catch-up with something like this for Barbie Girls too.. Egad! More details after the jump.
