Yozan Inc. has announced that it will terminate most of its PHS (personal handy-phone system) services in Japan at the end of November and make the shift to its new wireless broadband services starting in December. Yozan aquired the PHS sysytem from Tokyo Electric in August 2002 and has since watched customers migrate to new, faster 3G services. See the company’s Japanese press release, in .PDF format, here.
Cramming for exams is never fun, but it’s a fact of life for students everywhere, especially in Japan. But forget using flash cards or using a textbook to learn all the needed information. Mobile-phone companies are now getting into the game and allowing people to go online and test their knowledge on the go. KDDI, one of the country’s biggest wireless carriers, launched a service under its AU label to offer the “Manabi” program. Literally meaning “to study,” Manabi allows subscribers to get access to study kits and test themselves on multiple-choice questions that flash on-screen.
Cartoon-strip publishers, whose printed-matter sales have been losing steam, are actively embracing mobile media because cell phones are what young people are spending their time and money on. Cell phone sites for cartoon strips are booming, as is demand for popular titles. But at the same time, some famous “manga” artists are bypassing publishing houses to offer their works to “keitai” (cell phone) sites directly. (See WWJ’s initial video report on this topic — from Sept. 2003!! — Ed.)
NEC has announced the world’s thinnest clamshell-style mobile phone to be launched into the Hong Kong market [press release in Japanese]. The new model will also be introduced in Italy, Russia, Australia and China. It boasts slim measurements of 47.9mm (width) X 101.5mm (height) X 11.9mm (depth; when folded) and weighs 96g. Supporting dual-mode GSM/GPRS, it is equipped with a 1.9-in, 65,000-color display with a 1.3-megapixel digital camera. The unit is also loaded with PictBridge, an MP3 player, Java and Bluetooth.
We just came across a cheeky post from trustedreviews.com that claims to have first photos of handsets that will roll out with 02’s i-mode launch in the UK. While we can’t vouch for them, a version from NEC would make sense considering the recent announcement that NEC is providing the i-mode platform infrastructure for O2.
NEC just announced that it supplied the Mobile Internet Platform for O2’s forthcoming i-mode service; operations are scheduled to start this autumn in the UK and Ireland. “We are pleased with NEC as the provider of our i-mode platform, which we believe will offer our customers a whole range of new data services when we launch – furthering O2’s data services leadership position in our markets,” said Dave Williams, Group CTO of O2.
