Panasonic Mobile, will more than double the number of handset models for export this fiscal year to about 10, according to a report in the Nikkei Shinbum. Panasonic has already made agreements with more than 10 carriers, mostly in Europe and projected shipments of about 8 million units this fiscal year, up 10% from fiscal 2004. The new models will be introduced starting in July through year-end, primarily targeted for Europe and China.
Japanese IC cards have pop posters grooving to a techno beat this summer. Fans of hunky J-Pop star Shogo Hamada just flash their Suica rechargeable RFID train commuter card at specially designed high-tech poster displays around town to reserve a copy of his newest album, My First Love. Japanese are calling this new interactive ad medium, “Denki Posta” (electronic posters). Popping up in all sorts of variations, most have plasma-display panels and flat-panel speakers.
Suica’s IC card technology has been a runaway hit in Japan. More than ten million are in circulation around the country and the service has brought in numerous retail partners for cashless payments at shops and restaurants within the stations. It was developed by Sony together with Japan Railways East Corporation and will soon migrate from hands to handsets. In January 2006, DoCoMo plans to combine their Felica smart card e-money platform with the Suica commuter card into a series of mobile handsets.
Anyuser Global’s tiny VoIP IMphone flash drive brings voice communications to any PC. Scheduled to go on sale in Japan this August, the unit streamlines installation into a USB plug and play solution. All the VoIP software and circuitry is packed right inside along with 64MB of flash memory. That means PC vagabonds can use it on any machine with an Internet connection – at Internet cafes, friends houses, conducting “Alias” style international intrigue. Not bad for a unit the size of a packet of gum.
Mobile phones may be an all access pass to fun for most of us but for the physically or visually impaired it’s one more ‘no entry’ barrier. Vodafone Japan along with TU-KA Cellular in Tokyo, Kansai, and Tokai are making mobile services a little easier for people with disabilities through a new free directory service [.pdf]. Dubbed ‘Smile Call’ subscribers punch in 104 to connect to a directory service operator who can assist them in placing calls. Generally 104 calls through mobile lines are fee-based but this system developed with Japan Multimedia Services Corporation creates free access to registered users. After completing the registration process, subscribers punch in 104, identify themselves to the operator and once their name has been verified, proceed with questions and assistance.
KDDI will introduce EV-DO Rev.A that enhances the function of the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO method, which is the infrastructure for their data communication on au cellphones, by the end of 2006. It is assumed that with the construction of an “Ultra 3G” network, the fixed movement integrated communication infrastructure will enable improved connection speed of up to 3.1Mbps service. The decision for this next generation standard was made at a recent 3GPP2 meeting in the United States by joint proposal of 29 major telecomm equipment manufacturer companies worldwide.
KDDI has allied with San Francisco-based CRM solution provider salesforce.com to deliver wireless CRM functionality to mobile phones. Available to salesforce.com Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition subscribers in Japan, the service enables users to download data from the service to KDDI phones and then view, edit and input new data that can be synchronized with search data both offline and online. The pilot will be extended to customers between 1 August 1 and 30 September, becoming generally available in October at a cost of JPY 1,575 incl. tax per month, per user.
DoCoMo’s hybrid 3G-PDA M1000 handset is off the showroom floor and finally on the street. WWJ was at the launch event and we’ve put together a quick video program showing just what sort of hoops this smartphone jumps through. Previewed at an April 15 press conference, the tri-band business-use handset from Motorola juggles W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS for global roaming, opens Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs as well as PDF files, and allows multiple email functions including POP and IMAP email. Internet access channels through the Opera 7.5 browser. DoCoMo took the (daring) step of dropping i-mode capability for the M1000 in favor of global compatibility. More PDA than phone, all navigation is through the bright, 2.9-inch touch screen.
Hey DoCoMo Pimp my handset! NTT is shrugging off some of that infamous group-think mentality promoting trendy young designs in an eye-popping line of custom jackets for the P901iS series. Skulls, pistols, snakeskin, Samba Samurai and flower camo transform mobile phones into Japanese pop culture icons — complete with matching phone straps. D-@-mo (datmo design project) is turning out some of the best P901iS covers, but P901iS manufacturer Panasonic
plus a host of licensees have Japanese strutting down urban catwalks flashing their phones like designer clutches.
The cell phones transformation into fashion statement is something Americans are slowly catching on to. Coach, Hermes and Gucci got it right away and started marketing phone straps, charms or Keitai cases for brand loving locals. Custom painted, and completely illegal, rip offs of Chanel and Dior logos decorate jewel-encrusted handsets on pretty young things but everyone knows real brands are better. Now licensed names by youth culture designers and even game-obsessed Otaku brands are spreading onto handsets like a virus – a shiny, happy moneymaking virus.
KDDI Corporation, Japan’s leading fixed line and mobile phone service carrier and salesforce.com, the market and technology leader in on-demand CRM, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver on-demand mobile CRM solutions for the Japanese market. Known as “salesforce.com Mobile Edition for au,” the innovative joint offering will deliver comprehensive, wireless CRM functionality that enables users to benefit from their salesforce.com data anywhere, anytime using KDDI’s mobile phones and wireless network. Available to salesforce.com Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition subscribers in Japan, the solution enables users to download data from the salesforce.com service to KDDI phones; view, edit and input new data that can be synchronized with salesforce.com; and search data both offline and online.
Lucent Technologies and eAccess Ltd., today announced that the two companies have completed successful High-Speed Downlink Packet Access data calls as part of a third- generation (3G) Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) network trial announced earlier this year. The testing took place in May and used the 1.7 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum band that is being made available in Japan for the deployment of mobile service. Following these successful tests, the two companies plan to conduct a field trial in commercial and residential areas of Tokyo in the coming months. The trial will include deployment of an HSDPA-enhanced W-CDMA network in the 1.7 GHz spectrum band, and also will incorporate Lucent’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution.
