Wholesale Applications Community
Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.
Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.
Tokyo Game Show announces 10 finalists for Sense of Wonder Night: http://bit.ly/jsK6m PLUS Japan Game Awards 2009 [PDF]: http://bit.ly/jWWrM
Aplix announced [in Japanese] they will introduce their Mobile Game Deployer – MGD – application targeted at domestic content providers in order to enable auto transcoding for the Windows Mobile Marketplace. Designed to convert existing i-Appli programs, originally configured to run on i-mode terminal specs, the software will apparently also handle the tricky touch and rotation panel functions.
NEC BIGLOBE announced it will introduce a mobile site Flash creator platform, under a SaaS model, as of today. According to the release, a multi-design template driven offering is used for the construction of mobile websited so clients need only add the text and images, no special skills are required. The package fee is quoted at $1,500 for initial setup and $5k per month for hosting with stated target of 300 clients in 36 months for a cool 1 Billion jpy. Adobe Flash has been a standard pre-install, by all operators on all handsets, since 2004 in Japan.
The good folks over at YAPPA have launched an interesting platform, in conjunction with Dentsu, for browsing and purchasing magazines. The MagaStore, initially targeting the iPhone but eventually available for other mobile platforms, debuts with 30 titles provided by 20 mainstream publishers including Asahi Shimbun, ALBA, Kodansha, Shogakukan, Shinchosha, SONY, Hankyu and Fuso.
DoCoMo just announced it has acquired 35% of PacketVideo for $45.5 million in all-cash transaction effective immediately. The companies have worked together over the last 10 years, with the PV CORE technology embedded into over 90 FOMA models, and continued growth in the mobile multimedia space the companies statement suggest it’s a natural evolution. Considering the recent JV with AVEX to launch BeeTV this spring, and expected moves into other markets, this strategic alliance may well prove most interesting as next-gen. networks come into place.