<span class="vcard">editors</span>
editors

Year of the Pig Shaping up as Golden

What’s this?? … mobs of Flying Ketai Pigs..?

Actually, 2007 promises to be far more interesting than even that cheeky title! Here goes our official WWJ Fearless Forecast for 2007 – all in one – huge – breath!

2007 promises to be far more interesting than even that cheeky title! Here goes our official WWJ Fearless Forecast for 2007 – all in one – huge – breath! M-commerce: The carriers? FeliCa-based services will continue to grab serious market share. At the end of 2006, DoCoMo had over 1 mln customers for their DCMX mobile credit-card service alone, not to mention the 18.3 mn regular FeliCa handsets in use as of 31 December. KDDI and SoftBank have FeliCa user bases in the millions as well.. grab a cuppa for after the jump!

Kyocera Developing WiMax Devices

Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Runcom Technologies disclosed a development agreement aimed at leveraging Kyocera’s expertise in wireless device development and Runcom’s leading chipset technologies. The companies are working closely to develop exciting new consumer electronic devices employing the latest in broadband Mobile WiMAX technology. Kyocera and Runcom worked closely over the last several months in the early development of multiple classes of Mobile WiMAX terminals.

SoftBank Mobile Announces New 3G Phones

SoftBank Mobile Announces New 3G Phones by Mobikyo KKSoftBank Mobile rounded out the Japanese operators spring handset announcement rush this week by announcing a new fleet of models – Flash site Here – with major bling factor. According to the companies announcement most models will be available by March which is traditionally the busiest handset replacement month of the year in Japan as the new academic and fiscal year begins on April 1st. Masayoshi Son did his best Steve Jobs impersonation, black turtle-neck and all, however there was no announcement related to the recent news from MacWorld.

Models of interest include the 911T by Toshiba, a candybar slider with a huge 3-inch screen running on high speed HSDPA has a 3.2-megapixel camera, 1GB of internal memory, 1Seg digital tv, it’s FeliCa m-commerce enabled and comes complete with a pair of Oakley Thumps which connect via bluetooth. Other new handset highlights include; the 812SH Pantone series by Sharp (pictured right) with 20 different colors to choose from, the 812T Kodomobile model designed especially for children and Nokia’s E-61 Communicator – labeled as X01NK – which has Japanese Kanji text input and comes Wi-Fi enabled.

There are three new phones from Samsung including the 708SC slider which claims the title for the worlds thinnest 3G handset at a mere 8.4mm thick and the 707SC Swarovski Crystal version which is a follow-up to the earlier 705SH model [.jpg image] which sold-out the day it was launched last fall.

There have been over 30 new handset models announced by the three main operators during the last week for content and application developers, industry wags and ultimately the marketplace at large to chew over.. whew! WWJ subscribers login for more comments, photos and a video-link to watch the actual presentation (70 minute runtime) from the press conference held in Shinagawa on Thursday.

Linux Mobile – LiMo – Foundation Announced

To support their goal of creating the world’s first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone announced today the official launch of the LiMo Foundation. A not-for-profit organization, the LiMo Foundation is aimed at blending the community-based development benefits of transparency, innovation and scalability with the best development practices from the mobile community to create an innovative new business model.

KDDI Q3 Profit Drops on Increased Costs

KDDI announced third quarter profit fell 2.8% as marketing costs surged along with their increase in new subscribers. Net income declined to 55 billion yen ($457 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, from 56.6 billion yen a year earlier, while sales surged 13 percent to 858 billion yen from 761 billion yen a year ago. Operating profit fell 4.7% year on year in the third quarter to 86.6 billion yen, KDDI said.

BBMF Forms Alliance with CDC Mobile

CDC Mobile announced it has entered into a letter of intent to make a strategic investment in BBMF Group Inc, a leading 3G content provider in Japan. This will be the first of CDC Mobile’s targeted investments through its recently announced US$100 million 3G Content Partner Program designed to provide first-mover advantage in the anticipated 3G content market in China. Under the letter of intent, CDC Mobile intend to invest US$20 million in convertible bonds issued by BBMF Group Inc. and the two companies would form a strategic alliance in operations to jointly target 3G markets in Japan and China.

Napster Mobile Launches on KDDI

Napster announced the launch of it’s mobile music service on KDDI so Au brand customers can access Napster library through the EZ web network. Programming features, include personalized recommendations, featured artists and new releases, exclusive music and chart information. Napster Mobile made its Japanese debut this past November when it launched on DoCoMo’s i-mode platform.

PS3 Update Includes FeliCa

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced [in Japanese] a PS3 firmware update will be available from 24 January in Japan only. The new 1.50 version includes support for FeliCa, the companies m-commerce system. Customers with a USB connected PaSoRi reader will be able to use their osaifu ketai or traditional EDY card to buy games over the Playstation Network.

Radio Waves Declared Safe

Japan’s mobile phone operators, NTT DoCoMo, Inc., KDDI Corporation and SoftBank Mobile Corporation have confirmed that radio frequency energy from mobile phone base stations does not cause damage to human cells in vitro studies. Since November 2002, the companies have been collaborating to examine the effects of radio waves. As part of the collaboration, large-scale experiments have been conducted on the cellular and genetic level using radio waves up to 10 times stronger than the limit set forth in radio frequency radiation protection guidelines for base stations. In an interim report on April 26, 2005, the companies announced they had found no effects on cell proliferation, gene expression profile, or DNA single-strand breaks. Now they have found there are no genetic alterations or protein functions that could be associated with cell transformation or programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Psycho-Analyse Your Mobile Messages

Have you ever received a message on your phone from someone special but weren’t sure whether the text represented their true feelings? It’s this kind of problem that Animo is trying to solve with its new i-mode service Email Truth Checker which is similar to the Feel*Mail handset function I posted on yesterday. To use the service, you choose your gender and the relationship between you and the person whose message you want to analyse (you can chose from partner, crush, superior, family etc.). After you’ve uploaded the message in question, the system analyses the language used and rates the authenticity of the feelings expressed.