KDDI has announced passing the 10 million full-song download point as of 15 June. They attributed the success to their CDMA 1X high-speed EV-DO network and fixed-rate packet plans; this popular service duo has doubled the download numbers on a monthly basis since the launch in late November 2004. Link for details, with a breakdown of the top tunes downloaded to date, after the jump.
Yesterday, Impress’ Internet Watch carried a brief report casting doubt on the launch of iTunes in Japan anytime soon. The report quoted an Apple Japan PR spokesperson to the effect that Monday’s Nikkei story — that Apple would launch its iTunes Music Store service in August — was untrue.
Apple Computer Inc. plans to begin its iTunes Music Store online music downloading service in Japan in early August, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Monday. Apple’s service is expected to offer the largest collection among Japanese music downloading sites, with 500,000 to 1 million domestic and foreign songs. Mora, currently the biggest Japanese music downloading site, offers around 200,000 songs.
Executives from MTV Networks were in Tokyo to launch their new Japan-exclusive mobile and online entertainment channel, Flux. The service will initially be available exclusively on KDDI through au EZWeb. Subscription fees are set at 315 yen per month. Scheduled to begin broadcasting on June 30th, Flux targets 13-34 year-olds with original Japanese video and animation productions and programming from the global MTV Networks library. Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants will splash down onto Flux as well – his first adventures in Japan outside Nick network here. Nickelodeon and MTV are part of the Viacom Inc. broadcasting empire.
Two locally produced animations already signed on are Lightman, described in a press release as “a superhero who battles against the forces of evil,” (no, you’re kidding? Against evil?) and “Hanamoski”, a series of clips “starring an elephant with a very long trunk”. That’s nice. Clips will be broadcast on mobile in 1-3 minute episodes, see the press release for more programming details.
The Force is with KDDI young WWJ Padowans. Japan may be one of the last countries on the planet to see the Revenge of the Sith film, not premiering here until July 9th, but KDDI has contracted where no other Japanese telecom has contracted before (I know, I know, it’s a Star Trek reference but cut me some slack), at least for 3G cell phones.
Starting June 9th, exclusive Star Wars content will be available to subscribers of KDDI’s EZChannel, EZBook and EZ Movie portals for au 3G CDMA 1X WIN cell phones. All six of the Star Wars films stories will be readable with EZBooks; over EZChannel, a talk-through guide on how to better understand this latest edition to the series; while EZMovie will run trailers as a quick fix for those fans who continue to be deprived of actually seeing the film. Star Wars music and Star Wars books will be available for real-world purchase on cell phones from auRecords and auBooks. More fun features include a downloadable Flash screen where Anakin becomes one with the user’s cell phone battery. His light saber flashes from blue to red as your battery power levels sink into the danger zone.
Verizon Wireless is giving classic arcade games new mobile life with Get It Now and the getGAMES shopping aisle. A virtual software store on customers’ wireless phones, Get It Now offers customers a selection of more than 500 games, productivity tools, information services, ring tone providers, wallpaper providers, an IM chat client — Mobile IM — that includes access to Yahoo! Messenger, MSN(R) Messenger, or AOL(R) IM (AIM), and more right at their fingertips. Looking at the most popular game titles from Verizon Wireless, it’s no surprise that the most widely played and famous computer game of all time leads both the top 10 games and top classic games categories. Namco’s Tetris(R) by JAMDAT Mobile gives addicts longing for video game action the freedom to play the game virtually anytime, virtually anywhere. Available on Verizon’s select Get It Now-enabled phones for $2.99 monthly access or $6.99 for unlimited use purchase.
