Editor’s Note
Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Mobikyo at Wireless Japan 2007

Mobikyo KK, publisher of Wireless Watch Japan, announced today it will co-host three popular events in co-operation with Expo Comm Wireless Japan 2007, Tokyo Big Sight, 18-20 July, the largest specialized trade show in Japan dedicated to wireless and mobile network technologies. With over 34,000 industry professionals and 180 exhibitors attending, Wireless Japan is the central meeting point for Asia’s wireless industry. See our video reports for the 2006 event Here

As 3G adoption exceeds 70 percent saturation in Japan, mobile ecosystem players are increasingly aiming to establish partnerships, tie-ups and business deals to deliver their products and services – as well as lessons learned – into emerging markets elsewhere. There has never been a better time for overseas companies to make valuable connections into Japan’s wireless industry and there has never been a better venue than Mobikyo KK’s stellar event line-up at Expo Comm Wireless Japan.

Gemini Mobile Announces New Investors

Gemini Mobile has raised an additional financing round of $5 million from Japan’s ACCESS, Aplix Corp. and Nomura Securities. Previous investor, Mitsubishi-UFJ Capital, also invested in this latest round. The new funding follows the recent $20 million round from Goldman Sachs announced in March. The new financing will be used for general business purposes including continued momentum of Gemini’s international expansion efforts.

Sharp Reports Mobile Sales Up 29 Percent

Profit at Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. jumped 15 percent in the latest fiscal year on strong sales of flat-panel televisions and mobile phones according to results reported this week. Net income surged to 101.7 billion yen (US$861.9 million) in the year through March, while sales climbed 12 percent to 3.13 trillion yen (US$26.5 billion), Sharp said in a news release.

Wireless Watch – Spring Fresh Site Design

Wireless Watch - Spring Fresh Site Design by Mobikyo KKA pleasant April Fool’s surprise for all WWJ regulars here today as we’ve finally moved our tired old website – circa 2003 – into the digital trash can. We have made a few changes, beyond the somewhat tricky migration from Nuke to Wordpress, with this new offering. The ‘tag cloud’ for keywords, ‘share this’ option (with easy article bookmarking) and ‘send to friends’ function, ‘related entries’ (below all posts), a mobile feed version and an improved archive structure should help you navigate the large amount of content WWJ now makes available. As the saying goes, you don’t realize how much stuff you have.. until you have to move it!

One of the more notable changes is that we have opened the extended section of most ‘quick posts’ to free view; we are also happy to bring a couple of great outside contributors into the fold and will be making a seperate introduction for them soon. Full site access to our original Viewpoint articles and Video Programs will continue to be available only to paid subscribers.

Finally, on behalf of our parent, Mobikyo, we are pleased to join with a new local partner, Infinita Inc., to begin offering Japan Mobile Research Reports. Considering our combined experience and network of contacts, this development is a natural evolution for the content and services already on offer. We expect to make a more formal announcement, including additional partnerships, in short order. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the new WWJ site style and look forward to your feedback.

Flat-Rate Data Plan Saved 10,000 Euro

We noted an interesting post on a local mobile developer’s site, which points out out how much money their flat-rate data plan saved the company in January. According to the scanned statement of the DoCoMo bill; “By using the pakehoudai option [a JPY 3,900 service plan option for unlimited usage of i-mode data traffic] you saved 1.67 million JPY this month.” They calculated the data packets used total just over 1GB (that’s hardcore — Eds) which would have cost approx. 10,000 Euro under the regular per packet billing model. Yikes!