A Reuters report cites yesterday’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun (newspaper) as saying that Apple Computer plans to start a music download service in Japan by March 2005. The Nikkei said Apple aimed to offer more than 100,000 songs with an emphasis on Japanese music at its “iTunes Music Store,” which is expected to be the largest music download service in the country. But it’s unlikely to happen exactly as Apple might wish, and here’s why.
DoCoMo have just launched their next generation FOMA handsets at a splashy event at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel — complete with bikini-clad beauties, big-name stars, and a sound and light show that blasted their five new 901i handsets into the spotlight. The D901i, F901iC, N901iC, P901i, and SH901iC models all come equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, and enhanced audio and video for even more multi-slacking fun. In a ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!’ press event move, DoCoMo announced that only the SH901iC will be ready for nationwide release on 26 November. Other handsets will ‘follow’ with no specific release dates given. DoCoMo says sales of FOMA cellys stand at 7.3 million. Sales of i-mode-compatible FeliCa e-wallet handsets stand at 600,000 units; infrared signal-compatible handsets, 27.2 million, and bar-code reader terminals, 14 million. Watch our video report here.
KDDI Corp., a leading CDMA2000 mobile operator in Japan, has deployed Starent Networks’ high-performance core network platform for its 1xEV-DO network at 800 Mhz. The Starent ST16 Intelligent Mobile Gateway is providing high-speed data services to KDDI’s subscribers through its CDMA 1X WIN broadband service. KDDI has the largest CDMA network in Japan with more than 18 million subscribers and has the most 3G subscribers in the country with over 16.1 million. The Japanese mobile communications market has long been one of the largest and most progressive, with a projected $13.4 billion in data revenue for 2004. This makes it the world’s largest market with two to three times the revenue of other leading countries according to analyst firm Ovum.
The latest word from Tokyo street-level retailers for the Top 20 DoCoMo mobile phones sold between 4-10 November. Sorted by maker, model, and color (and link to product site), this interesting tidbit should give marketers a clear snapshot of what customers are actually buying. It’s no surprise that NEC scored 8 of the 20 positions with 6 in the top 10.
InterVideo, Inc., a pioneer in advancing DVD and MPEG-multimedia software technology, announced today that its Mobile Player and Mobile Studio will support major cellular phone operating systems (OSs) on Texas Instruments Incorporated’s (TI’s) OMAP(TM) processors, including Symbian OS(TM), Windows Mobile(TM), and Linux(R). InterVideo will demonstrate its technology on both TI processor lines on handsets at the TI booth during the 3G World Congress and Exhibition, which is being held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, November 16-17, 2004.
DoCoMo announced today the N900iL [WWJ video here], a dual-network WLAN/3G FOMA handset. The phone will be released on 16 November 2004. The N900iL is specifically designed to support DoCoMo’s exclusive PASSAGE DUPLE system for dual-network operation as both a standard FOMA phone and a VoIP mobile phone over a corporate user’s internal wireless LAN.
