Building on SoftBank’s TV commercial branding campaign – the company retained Cameron Diaz for a series of spots to coincide with the official patchover from Vodafone in early October – we notice that Brad Pitt has signed-on for round two. Mr. Pitt does not have any lines, the 15sec. TVCM simply blasts ‘Walk This Way’ by Aerosmith as he is seen wandering through what appears to be a crowded street market in Mumbai.
NTT DoCoMo has announced new terminal specifications, developed jointly with Intel Corporation, that will enable mobile phones to be customized with additional desired operating system or application. The specifications provide an open domain, which is separate from the phone’s default domain containing the preinstalled operating system and applications. A controller enables switching between the domains. The open domain will enable a company, for example, to install an original browser and scheduler, and set an internal security policy for the terminal while individuals will be able to install their own personalized game software.
Japan’s antitrust watchdog has questioned new mobile phone operator Softbank Corp. about its sales tactics, a Softbank spokesman said on Tuesday. Officials from the Fair Trade Commission met with Softbank’s wireless unit on Monday to ask for an explanation of new discounts and sales tactics, the spokesman said, declining to elaborate further. The Sankei Shimbun reported the FTC was examining whether recent sales campaigns launched by Softbank are misleading to consumers.
AFP has just reported that Softbank, Japan’s newest mobile telephone operator, have resumed accepting MNP applications after a technical glitch over the weekend that prompted strong criticism from rivals. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry ordered Softbank Mobile to study the cause of the problem which occurred after the firm’s system was overwhelmed by the massive number of customers trying to change their operator. Details after the jump.
The gloves came off on Friday in the war for Japan’s 94 million mobile customers, as the chief executive of NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest mobile company, said he was “very frustrated and mad and upset” at the tactics of Softbank, its smaller rival.
Japanese mobile phone carrier Softbank Mobile Corp., which slashed its prices last week to undercut rivals, said it had to stop taking new applications Sunday because it was flooded by new customers wanting to switch to its service. Softbank stopped accepting new customers shortly after noon Sunday when its computer system couldn’t handle the load, the company said in a news release. It apologized to customers and promised to resume taking switch-over business when it readies the system for increased volume.
