Thrilled to join with nice folks at HP Bazaar to co-host a rocking good MoMo Tokyo debut event on 13 September and it seemed as though most of the unwired digerati within commuting distance of the Pink Cow, in ubertrendy Shibuya, were there. In today’s Portable Reportable, Chief Editor Daniel Scuka quizzes WWJ’s Lawrence Cosh-Ishii on what he saw and heard at the Mobile Monday launch in Tokyo.
The HP Bazaar and Wireless Watch Japan crew have teamed up to organize Tokyo’s first Mobile Monday (MoMo) Event at the Pink Cow in Shibuya. MobileMonday is an open forum for people in the mobile industry. Anyone can attend this informal free-of-charge gathering. Come join in and meet other people in the industry — MoMo is an interactive forum where you can acquire global flair for local enterprises.
Samsung and Philips announced they are teaming up to incorporate Near-Field Communication technology in future cellphone models from Samsung, giving users the ability to use their phones to make payments. Incorporating an NFC chip from Philips in Samsung’s phones will effectively turn the handsets into contactless smart cards, with the ability to make payments, according to a joint statement. The phones could also be used as a key card to enter a building, for example, this is the same technology, by Sony, that powers mobile FeliCa by in Japan.
It’s back! The Mobile Intelligence Tour, that is. Building on the highly successful MIT 1 held in April 2004 and co-organized by Wireless Watch Japan chief editor Daniel Scuka, MIT 2, 3-8 October 2004, promises to be better than ever. For full details at Mobile Intelligence Japan.
IDG reports that Fujitsu Labs and Fujitsu spinoff Net-2Com have this week been showing the world’s first mobile IP/PHS dual-mode phone in central Tokyo. We’ve already shot a program and did an interview with the phone’s developer, we’ll have great video of the device coming up soon. Meanwhile, take a look at this story from IDG for some angles on the phone, which is still a prototype but could be on sale within a year. P(H)S. Did someone say China?
Symbian announced today the completion of the preemption process for the sales of Psion’s shares confirming that all the shareholders (except Samsung) were to exercise their rights. The real significance of today’s announcement is the clear roadmap, supported by a cash injection and an increase in headcout of 300 over the next 18 months, to drive the Symbian OS into mid-tier devices by, among other things, bringing down the bill of materials for the OS phone from today’s minimum of $132 to $78 by 2008.
