Year: <span>2008</span>
Year: 2008

Year: 2008

Study: Mobile Subscribers More Loyal

According to this press release, a new paper written by Prof. Philip Sugai and Prof. Donghun Kim, both professors at the International University of Japan, consumers to mobile content are more loyal to those sites than subscribers to the same content accessed through the Internet. This research surveyed more than 400 PC and mobile phone subscribers in Japan, and tested their loyalty by finding out how much they would be willing to pay to remain loyal to their current mobile or PC content sites in light of a series of other competing offers.

American Heritage for the iPhone

Tokyo-based Enfour Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company have announced the global rollout of the first iPhone and iPod Touch applications featuring the American Heritage dictionaries and other best-selling Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reference titles. This custom-built iPhone application features fully searchable and updated definitions, real-voice audio pronunciations, zoomable graphics, bookmarking, annotation and history.

Japan Mobile to Get Overseas Push

How about that, this article via AP indicates the Japanese government is gearing up to help the domestic mobile industry push into new markets. According to the blurb: Details and budget plans for the government effort are being outlined in the next few months, but a proposal was approved at a ministry meeting last month. It will be interesting to see how this effort develops, especially considering the recent moves by GSMA. Perhaps your humble scribs here will get a call from the ministry since we have been covering this fascinating story for the last 7 years now!

Japan's Super-Advanced Mobile Web

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…

Obon in Japan = Slow News Cycle

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.