Content Providers
Content Providers

Content Providers

Mobaho to Cease Broadcast Operations

Mobile Broadcasting Corp. has just announced that it will wind down operations of it’s Mobaho! satellite digital services by spring 2009. According to the press release the company face difficult market conditions for it’s subscription model in direct competition with the freely available 1Seg television offerings. Apparently the TU media (subsidiary of SK Telecom) partners based in Korea will continue operations. As Toshiba owns nearly 37% of the venture it is estimated a potential $250M write-down could affect the companies forcasted earnings for fiscal 2008.

Mobile 3D Avatars Join Broadcast TV Show

TV Asahi has joined forces with Artificial Life to pilot a so-called interactive mobile participation television program, titled ‘Hoshi-ichi Owarairyoku Test’, which is scheduled for a one hour debut on 14 June. The concept of this show, loosely translated, is a search for the planets (or at least Japans) funniest entertainer.

Legions of mobile users will be represented on-screen, live in real time as custom 3D avatars on a system that can apparently scale to animate 100,000 concurrent identities, will participate in the contest. What are you waiting for.. advance registration starts today!

Qualcomm Getting it's Groove On

A flood of press releases came out of Qualcomm in San Diego last week including the Adobe tie-up for Flash, a new widgets platform, we also found this Q&A with Paul Jacobs via Tech-on interesting. The company also announced the winners for their annual BREW developer awards and we’re somewhat shocked to see that not one company from Japan managed to bring home the hardware, as they have for the past four years running.

3G iPhone for Japan Via SoftBank Mobile

So the dawn of a 3G iPhone approaches on June 9th as Steve Jobs is widely expected to finally unveil the company’s next-generation mobile computing device. While there has been a predictable amount of speculation including certain parties jumping the gun – Oops – about the telco for Japan, we have an interesting theory. This is an update (with a twist) to our original scoop last November, as it does build on that earlier approach. Update 4 June: It’s Official..!!!

Hakuhodo Wins Mobile Marketing Award

The annual D&AD award winners have been announced with a ‘Yellow Pencil’ going to an interesting campaign by Tokyo-based agency Hakuhodo for snack food client Tohato.

The World’s Worst War used two new spicey snack flavors as opposing forces and engaged players to invite friends, thereby increasing their own personal rank, to join forces of either the Habanero Evil Army or the dreaded Satan Jorquia… Yikes. Better to watch the video!

Via Communities Dominate Brands.

Mobile Music Sales in Japan up 91%

The Record Industry Association of Japan has just released the RIAJ Yearbook 2008, its annual roundup of sales figures, statistics and trends from the previous year. As expected, the CD sales continued to decrease for the ninth straight year. However, total recorded music sales are up for the third year running, thanks to strong growth from the digital sector – or more specifically from the mobile sector, which accounts for the bulk of digital music sales in Japan with full-track downloads rising 91% over the previous year.

Bandai Introduces Mobile Avatar Service

Bandai Networks has announced that as of today it will offer a custom mobile service based on their popular Gundam character through KDDI’s ‘Au one avatar’ platform. Members will be able to create and update their own unique avatar from an initial choice of three characters; “Mobile soldier Gundam”, “Gundam SEED DESTINY”, and “Fmofmo” which can then also be used across several of the carriers other Au one portal destinations.

Disney Mobile Japan Hits the Street

Backed by their telecom operator partner SoftBank Mobile, and with Hillary Duff as the campaign face, SoftBank Mobile held splashy launch parties in locations around Tokyo this week-end. Drawing attention to the companies branded offerings, with over 3 million content subscribers established in Japan over their last seven years operating here, the new MVNO is bullish about it’s domestic market potential. They have indicated a target segment focus, young women, and have a strong industry partners in SoftBank Mobile, including Yahoo!, to run a viable service offering.

Pocket Film Festival Opens in Japan

The Pocket Film Festival in Japan, showing movies made entirely on mobile phone cameras, kicked-off today in Yokohama. Forty-eight films, chosen from more than 400 entries from 18 countries — including Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea and Germany — will screen in competition at the weekend event, organized by the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. The competition has two categories, one for films to be shown on regular screens and the other for films to be viewed on phones. The winning film will receive 500,000 yen (US$4,500).