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Credit Saison Seeks Partners

Credit Saison Co., Japan’s second- largest publicly traded credit card operator, said it will expand ties with regional banks to outgrow bigger rivals Nippon Shinpan Co. and JCB Co. and win 30 percent of the domestic market by 2010. [..] Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s No. lender, has allied with NTT DoCoMo Inc. to offer credit services for mobile phone subscribers. It had about 12.8 million cardholders as of March 31 2004.

Entertainment firms the ones to watch

According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) report, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009, the media and entertainment (M&E) industry will increase at a 7.3 percent compound annual growth rate to $1.8 trillion in 2009. The US remains the largest M&E market but not the fastest-growing one. It has been outpaced by Asia/Pacific where China is on track to overtake Japan as the region’s entertainment giant by 2008.

Students Get Security Cell Phones

Tokyo’s Shinagawa-ku has taken an extra step to protect children in the ward by deciding to give them “crime prevention cell phones” that allow them to alert authorities if they are in danger and make emergency calls. Trials of the alert system the phones use will start at the beginning of next week. Plans have been made to supply the devices to all 12,000 elementary school students in the ward within this year.

ACCESS' NetFront Powers Full Internet Browsing on N901iS 3G Handset

ACCESS announced that its NetFront full Internet mobile browser has been selected by NTT DoCoMo for deployment in its 3G FOMA N901iS handset. The N901iS is part of DoCoMo’s 901iS Mobile Wallet series—the most advanced handset series ever developed by DoCoMo. In combination with ACCESS’ NetFront browser, the N901iS handset’s advanced functionality expands to deliver support for both i-mode as well as full Internet browsing. ACCESS’ NetFront browser provides N901iS end-users with a rich, full Internet mobile browsing experience that includes the ability to scale down standard Web pages to fit the width of the phone screen, thus eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling while significantly facilitating the mobile browsing experience.

Where's Vodafone Japan's ex-CEO?

One year — almost to the day — after the dramatic power shift at Vodafone KK, we couldn’t help but wonder ‘where is Darryl Green now’..?!? So after a bit of digging it turns out that the former head of J-Phone (and then Vodafone Japan) has actually landed a new gig — in India! While speculation was rife that he would end up (like many others) moving to Softbank, it seems this next challenge — and potential reward — is even more interesting. WWJ wishes him all the best building another telco in that future mass mobile market.

KDDI Deploys InnoPath's Mobile Device Software Management Solution

InnoPath Software (formerly DoOnGo Technologies), today announced that KDDI Corp., a leading wireless operator in Japan, has deployed InnoPath’s DeltaUpgrade Plus end-to-end solution to provide seamless OTA delivery of advanced services for KDDI handset users. The service was launched initially with handset model W31T and W32SA, and will be expanded to other new handset models. With KDDI’s rollout, three major wireless operators in the United States and Japan have now commercialised InnoPath’s solution on live wireless networks, managing over 50 million devices with an additional 2.5 million added every month. InnoPath is the only end-to-end OTA device management company actively updating handset software in commercial deployments.

NTT DoCoMo Achieves 1Gbps Packet Transmission in 4G Field Experiment

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it achieved 1Gbps real-time packet transmission in the downlink at the moving speed of about 20km/h in a field experiment on fourth-generation (4G) radio access. The experiment took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on May 9, 2005. This is the latest achievement in DoCoMo’s ongoing development of key radio access technology for 4G mobile communications.

ACCESS Announces NetFront v3.2 Browser for Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

ACCESS announced the availability of the English language version of NetFront® v3.2 for Pocket PC 2003/2003 Second Edition (SE) which supports Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE. NetFront v3.2 for Pocket PC 2003/2003 SE builds on the success of ACCESS’ award-winning NetFront v3.1 for Pocket PC browser by providing support for key new technologies and features including JV-Lite(tm) 2 CE edition, ACCESS’ Sun authorized Java virtual machine which supports the Connected Device Configuration (CDC) standard, and native support for Macromedia Flash(tm).

WLAN, 3G Handoff Tests Successful

The mobile phone industry Tuesday heard loud and clear from Nortel and BB Mobile, a Softbank Group company, when the pair announced test calls demonstrating uninterrupted high-speed voice and data sessions. The test calls, completed on a live (UMTS) 3G network and an 802.11 wireless LAN, exhibited a seamless hand-off of voice and data services between a 3G network operating in the 1.7-GHz frequency band and a WLAN, the companies said, claiming the development dials up a new benchmark in convergence.

ColorZip Partners with TV Broadcasters for Mobile Marketing

ColorZip Partners with TV Broadcasters for Mobile MarketingNow that TV viewing has jumped off the couch and onto the streets over wireless handsets, Japanese TV broadcasters are scrambling to adapt content and programming to mobile viewing. Colorzip Japan is introducing a Technicolor technology that could bring TV mobile marketing into focus for broadcasters.

Colorzip Japan recently announced it is working with strategic partners Fuji Television Network, and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) on a late-summer launch of TV applications for its two-dimensional server based code recognition system, ColorCode, linking TV broadcasts to related digital content for sponsored websites, music samples, contests and prize drawings.

The technology could eventually provide easy access to TV programming in progress or rebroadcasts via subscriptions. For now though, the developers are looking at links to mobile program websites as well as contests and promotions. Colorzip Japan CEO Christopher Craney told WWJ, “TV companies are working on this initially as a way to promote their programming.” (Evan Owens, Director and CTO, made a presentation about this technology at Mobile Monday Tokyo’s April Event — Ed.).