Vodafone Group Plc of the UK plans to boost its business in Japan by launching competitively priced 3G cellular phones around autumn and developing more market-focused services. Vodafone Group President Arun Sarin said that in the October-December quarter the company will begin volume sales of its global-model 3G cell phones, which are also used in the group’s 3G services in other countries.
An interesting mobile user survey has been posted on the Research+ site, which is run by iBridge KK (Japanese only). The survey includes responses from 1,000 respondents of all ages, from teens to 60-years-and-older, and focused on mobile data usage. It appears that lots of Japanese use the mobile Internet at least somewhat while a few use it quite a lot… And upon such tenuous results DoCoMo et al have built empires. Meanwhile, the police find that bad kids use too much data.
You may have read about it in Wired or The Feature, but our program today is the first Web video coverage for Mogi, a GPS game that may be The Future of Mobile Content, Version 1.0. Mogi is a multi-player network game in which individuals or teams hunt down virtual treasures hidden in Tokyo’s concrete jungle. Mogi players interact in ways that the much-talked-about i-mode has yet to deliver. It’s new for Japan, even newer for the rest of the world, and there’s no lucrative revenue model. Yet.
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. The Dilithium Networks Analyzer (DNA) diagnoses, analyses and monitors all aspects of 3G video telephony calls and enables 3G operators and network equipment vendors to identify and address service issues which are critical to providing a high quality user experience and successful uptake of video telephony. The new release adds the ability to gather key performance indicators of network statistics related to video telephony.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announced that it will take control of Beijing Ericsson Putian Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. (BMC), a joint-venture mobile-phone manufacturing facility, by raising its share holding to 51 percent. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (China) will increase its stake in BMC from 10 to 26 percent, while Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications in addition will acquire a 25-percent equity stake in the company.
JCN Newswire, 30 June 2004
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of the world’s first technology that embeds 12-digit numerical data (*1) in printed color images in a way invisible to the human eye. This new technology makes it possible to embed data, such as ID codes to convert URLs or telephone numbers, into color images for magazines or advertisements without interfering with the printed design. Utilizing this technology with mobile phones or PDAs enables easy Internet access and phone calling. This technology was developed to provide more natural interfaces using mobile phones or PDAs to customers offering new services such as linking printed images to the Internet.
