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Nintendo DS Attracts Crowds

In the Tokyo district of Ikebukuro, about 100 people, including junior high school children and workers on their way to the office, lined up outside a store that opened its doors at 7 a.m. to snap up Nintendo’s new interactive “Nintendo DS” [.jpg image] game consoles. The dual-screen consoles come with a touch panel and built-in chat software, and can be connected to a wireless network to interact with other players. After purchasing the console, many of them immediately opened the box and started playing. Nintendo hopes to sell 5 million consoles worldwide by March 2005.

Prepaid Phones Going, Going, Gone? — UPDATE

In an effort to reduce fraud involving prepaid handsets, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications together with telecos has announced a series of security measures to take effect by spring of 2005. As reported by Wireless Watch Japan earlier this week, politicians as well as the media have been making a lot of noise about doing away with pre-paid service entirely after their use in several high-profile fraud cases last year (which would make Japan the only market anywhere to do so). Such a move would come down hardest on Vodafone, the dominant player in Japan’s prepaid handset market.

Q&A with Vodafone Japan CEO

Wherein Dr. Brian Clark fields questions from the Japanese media at a presser [WWJ Video here] held 16 November 2004; the good CEO responds to queries related to expected 3G subscriber numbers (“We don’t issue forecasts for customer numbers ahead of time”), sourcing 3G terminals from Korea (Korean terminals are not appropriate), and what percentage of customers use prepaid — and how will a ban affect overall performance (“Current base is about 11 percent; prepaid is a fundamental customer benefit”), among others. For wireless watchers, today’s Portable Reportable — a direct look at the inner workings of Japan mobile — is not to be missed.

DoCoMo – mmO2 Confirm i-Mode

A joint press release from London and Tokyo this morning confirms the deal between DoCoMo and mmO2 for i-mode in the UK. O2 UK and O2 Ireland will have exclusive use of i-mode branding and technology in their respective markets; in Germany, O2 will launch the service based on i-mode technology under its own brand. O2 plans to introduce i-mode in the UK and Ireland during the second half of 2005. In Germany, the service will be offered from Spring 2006.

mmO2 AND NTT DoCoMo ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT ON i-mode

mmO2 plc, a leading European mobile operator, and NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s largest mobile communications provider, today signed a long-term strategic agreement under which O2 will launch the i-mode mobile internet service in the UK, Germany and Ireland. This partnership will complement O2’s existing expertise in data services with DoCoMo’s experience in non-sms data and its extensive research and development capabilities. Customers will benefit from easy to use services, rich content applications and messaging across a range of advanced handsets.