NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it has acquired 760,500 shares, approximately 3.0% of total issued and outstanding shares, in Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV). Under a tie-up agreement concluded in February 2006, DoCoMo has already been working with NTV to provide attractive services converging mobile communications and broadcasting.
Magic iLand has quickly established itself as the gold standard for mobile phone novels. Work published there is guaranteed hundreds of thousands of readers and lots of street cred. Since its inception, the library has added at least 10 new titles per month. It includes frequently updated reviews and instructions on how to write a mobile phone novel. Last month, the site held the world’s first mobile phone novel award — with the cooperation of heavyweights like NTT DoCoMo, D2 Communications and video-rental giant Tsutaya.
Toshiba Corp. has announced that it will sell its entire stake in Japanese label Toshiba EMI Ltd. to Britain’s EMI Group Plc, saying that it would sell its stake for about 21 billion yen ($179 million). One of Japan’s major music and entertainment companies, Toshiba EMI is currently controlled 45 percent by Toshiba and the remaining 55 percent by the British music group. Toshiba accepted an offer from the EMI Group as “the music content business today is less relevant to other businesses within the Toshiba Group,” it said in a statement.
For the last four years now, KDDI/au has been setting the pace in Japan for mobile music services, launching the first mastertone service in 2002 and the first full-song download service two years later. The company has recorded a total of over 38 billion mastertone downloads and 78 million full-song over-the-air downloads. They have also achieved impressive handset sales, with more than 22.8 million mastertone-capable and 10.4 million full-song-capable KDDI mobile phones sold in Japan.
At a recent press conference in Tokyo, the wireless operator raised the bar yet again – unveiling plans for its upcoming digital radio launch and introducing the latest incarnation of its LISMO! music service.
Naviblog Japan was featured on Dreamgate, a Japanese government-supported organization, with the motto “Rise Up Japan” and that holds as its mission to nurture entrepreneurship in Japan. Found in the “Possibilities for Mobile Business” area within the “Fast Navi” section, Naviblog was featured in a marathon 5-article piece, the interview and article were authored by Kenichi Nakaya who has been involved with the mobile industry since the early days of the i-Mode. We have Naviblog’s presentation at Wireless Japan 2006 on Video Here.
The Record Industry Association of Japan just announced their Q3 numbers, reporting period 1 July – 30 September 2006, with mobile music sales showing strong year-on-year growth. Considering the wider range of enabled handsets, and agressive marketing by all three carriers in this space, it should come as no surprise to industry watchers that full-track downloads posted a sales value increase of 201% when compared to the same period last year. Full details after the jump.
