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Japan Mobile Market Myths from Past and Present

Japan Mobile Market Myths from Past and PresentThe recent guest article, Mobile Music Best Practices from Japan and Korea, has resulted in some interesting comments on the web. It seems that the long- wrong-held belief about Japan’s mobile success story is still being attributed to the “There are relatively few people in Japan with a home-based Internet connection, making the mobile Internet more attractive” syndrome. However, it’s clear according to the ITU that Japan’s Internet and PC adoption rates have been much the same as, or even better than, the adoption rates in European countries such as France, Germany and the UK since at least 2001. Another comment we saw regarding the Chaku-uta Full song downloads explained in the article said “it seems to me it may be being marketed (and more importantly used) more as a next-generation ring-tone service than as a true music service”.

This is incorrect. Today in Japan, marketing to encourage customers to upgrade and listen to full-track music on their new mobile devices is everywhere; in print, outdoor and on television commercials, we are seeing massive “i-pod-meets-mobile-phone” promotions. Hence the stereo headphones and J-pop artists making regular appearances to help push the product. Sure, people can use full songs as ring-tones as well (that’s a bonus), but that is not how Chaku-uta Full is be marketed or — more importantly — being used. (And you don’t have to take our word for it. Visit KDDI’s Ad Index site and surf around to watch their current selection of TV commercials.)

Mobile Phone Designed for Seniors

DoCoMo will release a new mobile handset able to slow down speakers’ voice speed later this month. The key targeted users are the elderly. The speed converter technology used in the handset slows down speakers’ voice speed up to 0.7x, so the listener can feel like that the speakers’ dialogue goes slowly. By reducing the number of menu items as well as using relatively large icons, screen operation became easier than before. The unit also features an emergency 80 dB alarm system and a built-in pedometer.

Namco Ports RidgeRacer for BREW

EZweb gamers can rejoice in spending about $5 to download and burn RidgeRacer rubber now that Namco has made the popular title compatible with Qualcomm’s BREW platform. While apparently only available for the new W31SA at launch, no doubt it’s just a matter of time for it to become more widely available across KDDI’s WIN handset fleet… and then… The World! We also noticed another interesting Namco title, while snooping around their mobile site, called IdolMaster. Talk about RPGs! WWJ members log in for the full skinny!

KDDI to Buy Handsets From Pantech

KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, will procure handsets with high-speed Internet access capabilities from South Korea’s Pantech Co. to reduce costs. Pantech, South Korea’s third-largest mobile-phone maker, will offer 3G handsets to KDDI by the end of the year, KDDI spokesman Haruhiko Maede said, confirming a report today in the Nihon Keizai newspaper.

Mobile Phones Scan ColorCode on TV

Mobile Phones Scanning Color QR Bar Codes on TVInteractive television programming is walking out the door and onto mobile handsets, pressuring Japanese TV broadcasters to adapt content and programming. Networks TBS and FujiTV are linking up with ColorZip Japan, a new server-based full-color bar-code technology that synchs TV broadcasts to related digital content for sponsored websites, music samples, contests and prize drawings.

We spoke with ColorZip Japan CEO Christopher Craney about how ColorCode is developing the Japanese market. Already in talks with telecom providers over having the code embedded onto new handsets, Chris discusses both corporate and individual marketing campaigns for this next-generation bar-code technology. We also interviewed the CTO, Evan Owens, who demonstrated several applications of their product.

Next Frontier: TV for Mobile Phones

The IHT posted a story on Monday on issues related to television for mobile phones. The story says, in part, “Before true mobile broadcast services can take off, a number of questions have to be answered: Which of at least five delivery methods, ranging from cellular technology to mobile broadcasting via separate wireless frequencies, works best? How will the relationship between television content providers, channel owners and mobile phone operators evolve? What kind of programming, if any, do mobile viewers want, and how much will they be willing to pay for it?” All good questions, we think, but the story fails to report the first real brick wall that that mobile TV services/technologies will hit.

Wallet Phone Usage Stats

DoCoMo’s Mobility Newsletter for August is out and has some interesting numbers from their in-house FeliCa survey conducted this spring. In April, DoCoMo entered a strategic business and capital alliance for credit card business with the Sumitomo Mitsui Group, confirming the introduction of mobile wallet services as a key step for the evolution of m-commerce and DoCoMo’s mobile Internet strategy)

Fancy Tech on Runway

In the future, we’ll text-message hugs to each other’s shirts, our coat buttons will house cameras, and our underwear biosensors will phone home when we’re in trouble. This week’s runway show brought together 35 exhibitors from 10 countries to display wearable computers, computer-generated jewelry and clothing designs festooned with electronics; the exhibitor list combined familiar fashion brands like Oakley and Fossil with tech names like Sony, Charmed Technology and the MIT Media Laboratory.

Kyocera Plans New LCD Factory

Kyocera Corp. is planning to implement a capital investment program worth 100 billion yen [about USD$1 billion] in fiscal 2005, an increase of 60 percent from fiscal 2004, according to Kyocera President Makoto Kawamura. “We are pushing a plan to build a factory for liquid crystal-related products in Kagoshima Prefecture” and other parts-making facilities elsewhere, Kawamura said in an interview.

DoCoMo 3G Adds 1.2 Million in July

The latest subscriber numbers are in and DoCoMo added an impressive 1,196,400 new 3G accounts in the month of July compared to rival KDDI/au, which only gained 312,000 new customers for their CDMA 1X service in the same period. Overall, however, KDDI managed to sign up a total of 230,500 new customers (2G + 3G) to beat DoCoMo’s 229,800 net additions. Meanwhile, Vodafone gained 18,000 more customers than it lost in July, with the stats showing they added 130,100 new 3G customers.