Vodafone Holdings today said its 1QFY04 consolidated operating revenue plunged 21.4 percent compared with the same quarter last year; the figure feel to 356.0 billion yen due mainly to the exclusion of the fixed-line telecommunication business in the second half of fiscal 2003. Total revenue for the mobile business declined by 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
Are they ahead, or behind the curve. WWJ has great coverage coming up of the future showing KDDI au/ Hitachi’s W11-based digital TV tuner concept keitai at Wireless Japan 2004 in action. For the present, however, Vodafone continues to press on with analog TV tuners, and massive TV advertizing. The latest offering is Sharp’s V402SH, which will be on sale tomorrow, armed with a swivel screen that allows punters to watch TV (reception willing) even when the phone is closed. The V402SH comes with a 2.2-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) LCD screen and a 1.3 megapixel CCD camera. Happy viewing! [.pdf here]
Launches of the Japanese mobile media platform stalled elsewhere in Europe. But France’s Bouygues Telecom successfully duplicated the Japanese wireless carrier’s development and marketing strategies — right down to the last pixel.
UPDATE 2: The Feature has “sort of” come clean, admitting their original story that DoCoMo was going to “drop i-mode” was utter rubbish. Of course, we smelt a rat as soon as the story, written by someone poorly translating a Japanese source, flashed around tech pages, as noted from the text following this update…”This story sounds a little fishy to us, since the reference to a Nikkei Shimbun story came from Total Telecom via Techdirt we’ve done some quick fact checks and seems that perhaps its a translation issue and/or a mis-understanding of terms.”
While it is true that DoCoMo is beginning to push migration of 2G (PDC) users to their 3G (W-CDMA) network, that has nothing to do with the i-mode service itself. Most telling is that NE AsiaBP who run the english side of Nikkei have no mention of what would be perhaps one of the most significant stories coming out of Tokyo this month.
UPDATE FINAL: We asked for clarification from DoCoMo PR and will set the record straight. “There is definitely no plan to end the i-mode brand in Japan,” according to the company’s Masanori Goto Saturday on July 24 at 16:00 JST.
This free-for-all program takes you to KDDI’s recent launch event at the Imperial hotel announcing the carrier’s three new WIN handsets, all now making use of Macromedia Flash lite. You’ll get a close-up of these phones in action plus tips on the new 3G flat-rate price plan coming in August. We also highlight NTT DoCoMo’s N900iL dual-mode 802.11b/W-CDMA handset based on the FOMA N900i which, unfortunately, has been transformed into the de facto proprietary, intranet-only “Passage Duple” WLAN phone by NEC and DoCoMo. While future versions may run on the consumer-targeted M-Stage platform, for now this first baby step into the dual-mode 3G/Wi-Fi world is aimed exclusively at corporate-controlled walled gardens.
Mobile phone solution provider K Laboratory has announced that it has developed FeliPo, an interactive advertising system designed for use with FeliCa-enabled public posters. Users of FeliCa mobile phones will be able to receive detailed information and special discount coupons online from a FeliPo-enabled advertising poster by simply holding their handsets against the ad.
Further to the announcement made by Vodafone Group Plc (“Vodafone”) on 25 May 2004, Vodafone announces that the offer made by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vodafone International Holdings B.V. (“Vodafone International”), for the shares which Vodafone and its subsidiaries (“Vodafone Group”) did not already own in Vodafone K.K. (the “Vodafone K.K. Offer”) closed for acceptances on 21 July 2004.
Japan’s telecommunications ministry reportedly plans to introduce a new tax for spectrum used by home information appliances and high-bandwidth wireless local area networks. The proposed fee would be collected when users purchase LAN products, according to a media report. We’re waiting for the ‘crats to propose a tax on garage door openers next.
Launched on 20 July by Yamaha, MTV Movies features mobile content that is closely tied to movie programs broadcast by MTV Japan. The i-mode site offers ring tunes, i-Motion movies, and movie trailers for titles including both old and new. The content service initially features 2,000 ring tunes and 200 songs, and Yamaha adds 40 titles every month. It costs 315 yen/month; the company is aiming for first-year sales of 100 mn with a total of 50,000 subscribers.
JCB, the international payment brand, AEON Credit Service, the retail-affiliated credit card company, and NTT DoCoMo jointly announced today that JCB and AEON have developed the QUICPay payment solution for cards with contactless IC chips. The QUICPay service is also compatible with NTT DoCoMo’s smart-card handsets. A trial project for the new QUICPay solution will begin this autumn.
