Despite the date, this is no joke. Based on patented technology from ColorZip Media, those old 2D black & white barcodes are about to make a colorful splash into the Japan market. Evan Owens, director of ColorZip Japan, will present a brief outline of the company’s technology at MobileMonday in Tokyo, 18 April. WWJ is rather keen on this concept and we’ll file a report on Evan’s MoMo product demo as soon as MoMo is over.
The Mobile Intelligence Japan mission PR release hit the Web yesterday, and the April 2005 trip promises to provide in-depth know-how and actionable intelligence direct from the heart of mobile Japan. MIJ will comprise six days of intensive company visits, executive presentations, application demonstrations, user sessions, and networking events, guided and analysed by WWJ Chief Editor Daniel Scuka. The agenda (contact us for a full copy) is complete and includes visits to and sessions with some of Tokyo’s hottest mobile players, including carriers, content providers, application developers and technology vendors. Access the full release here. For additional information, fees and registration, access the MIJ site here.
Wireless computer networks across Japan are still vulnerable to illegal access, the National Police Agency said in an annual survey released Thursday. An increasing number of companies and local government offices have information security policies in place, but many of them have yet to establish measures to protect wireless local area networks, the NPA said. The NPA has conducted an annual survey since 2000 when Japan implemented a law making unauthorized access to computer networks illegal.
Vodafone K.K. announces today that it has decided to donate proceeds from recycled mobile handsets that are collected at Vodafone shops to the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan (WWF Japan), starting 1 April 2005 for one year. In addition to reducing waste to minimise impact on the environment, Vodafone K.K. has been able to contribute to the effective use of resources through its mobile handset recycling activities. Vodafone K.K. began donating proceeds from handset recycling in fiscal 2002, and donated 20 million yen and 18.4 million yen in fiscal 2002 and 2003 respectively.
NEC Electronics announced the PD9971 melody chip [.jpg image ] for mobile phones, which offers a 3-D positioning function with built-in real-time processing, stereo 16-bit DA converter and 128 polyphonic tones. The combination of features will help OEMs deliver dynamic sound quality with on-chip functions including pitch bend, vibrato, delay, reverb, chorus, compression and Doppler. The chip is also compatible with Mobile XMF and Standard MIDI Files (SMF).
Softbank Corp. has withdrawn a lawsuit against Japanese telecoms regulators over a slice of coveted bandwith it wanted for its planned entry into the mobile phone business, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily said. The business newspaper said Softbank may have dropped the suit against Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications so as not to hurt its chances for a potential business alliance with Fuji Television Network Inc.
Directly investing in foreign carriers was a fairly hefty blunder for NTT DoCoMo. It took big financial losses, and failed to establish i-mode as a global force. But a new president and a new plan have seen things change significantly. Former DoCoMo CEO Keiji Tachikawa led a number of huge investments in overseas carriers like AT&T Wireless and Three in the UK, in hopes of turning the operators into users of its i-mode system. The plan failed, to say the least, costing the company $17 billion in writedowns — a far cry from its runaway success in its home market.
DoCoMo has set a target of selling more than 20 million high-speed data handsets this year, twice the number of its customers using such services, to help win a dominant market share. “More than 80 percent of the handsets we sell this year will be 3G, and the total number of 3G subscribers will be more than our competitor for sure,” Takeshi Natsuno, DoCoMo’s managing director of multimedia services, said Monday in an interview. [We noted this strategic move when they announced the low-cost 700i-series in February. — Ed.]
Dilithium Networks, a leading provider of wireless multimedia solutions, today announced a major new release of its industry-leading 3G protocol analysis and test tool family, Dilithium Networks Analyzer (DNA). Release 3.0 of DNA provides support for ISUP terminal and monitoring (including China), ISUP signaling to initiate and receive calls, and ISUP based trigger for traffic monitoring. DNA 3.0 also incorporates powerful triggering capabilities for monitoring multiple simultaneous channels with the option of capturing traffic upon trigger. An Auto-Dialer feature, available as an option to existing customers, provides automated and unattended testing capabilities. Additional features include enhancements for ISDN support, expanded message logging capabilities, and more.
Wireless Watch Japan will produce the third Mobile Intelligence mission to Tokyo, 17-22 April 2005, providing an in-depth study of the success factors, companies and technologies that have boosted Japan’s mobile Internet into the world’s No. 1 position. Full Press Release Here
In the past year, new third-generation (3G) wireless Internet services have won millions of mobile consumer customers with QR bar-code readers, e-wallet-based m-commerce, mobile TV, and CD-quality music downloading all enjoying fast consumer uptake. Furthermore, flat-rate data pricing, convergence between cellular, VoIP and fixed wireless services, and per-event billing are all fundamentally reshaping mobile business models. Nonetheless, as Japan’s carriers perfect their 3G survival strategies, they find that 3G ARPUs are actually higher than on older 2G systems.
