Mobile Content Networks (MCN) has announced the establishment of MCN Japan K.K., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MCN Inc. Concurrent with the formation of MCN Japan K.K. MCN has moved its global operating headquarters to Tokyo to accelerate response to growing demand for MCN’s whitelabel Mobile Search Management platform in Japan, Southeast Asia, China, and India.
There has been a fair amount of speculation (see here and here) about pricing strategies, related to future handset subsidies and voice minute charges, for mobile operators in Japan based on regulation suggestions made in a recent report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
US-based ScanR will provide their new service to KDDI customers via the EZWeb official contents portal as of October 4th 2007, press release [in Japanese] Here. “ScanR” creates PDF files of documents and business cards from user-generated cameraphone images, and stores those files online to deliver via FAX or e-mail. The service, which can also automatically transcode business card information into file data to be compiled onto the address book of your mobile phone, is on display in KDDI’s booth at CEATEC this week.
The CIAJ has released the telecom equipment figures for Q1 fiscal 2007 (April – June) that show negative performance continues in the mobile terminal category, which accounts for approx. 70% of the market. Handset sales account for approximately 67% of the market and therefore has a large impact on overall production figures. The 2007 results show a significant drop from the 2006 figure, but is similar to the performance in 2005.The total number of subscribers continues to increase, indicating that the trend among carriers to purchase high-end products by domestic brands and import low-end modestly priced products from abroad continues.
Not surprisingly the battle over proposed new handset regulations is starting to heat up. According to a brief article, KDDI Corp’s President Tadashi Onodera reacted angrily to the recent government report calling for the cellular industry to terminate the practice of offsetting handset discounts with higher service charges. Onodera criticised the plan stating that Japanese mobile operators must be allowed to continue offering rebates. “Amid free competition among three carriers.. I feel odd about the government-backed decision.” We commented on this issue Here in June.
According to this report on WSJ Sanyo said it would sell their retail sales division to Telepark for 4.8 billion yen ($41.6 million). Sanyo had been reluctant to sell off businesses but Goldman Sachs and other investors that last year funded a 300 billion yen bailout have put on the pressure, resulting in management changes and a new strategy. This exit decision was revealed in July however the closing price is well below previous estimates.
Cumulative shipments of handsets that can receive so-called 1Seg digital TV broadcasts totaled 11.7 mln units at the end of July according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. Overall unit shipments climbed 54.6 pct in July from a year before to 5,348,000 units, surpassing five million for the second straight month.
The number of downloads from legal music and video services in Japan has fallen for the first time, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), Via PC World. A total of 111.6 million downloads were made during the second quarter of this year, down from 114.3 million in the first quarter of the year. The figures are derived from data supplied to the RIAJ by its 42 member companies. Despite an increase in ringback tones and a jump in cellular music downloads from 23.3 million tracks to 25.5 million tracks, the entire mobile Internet download market shrank 2 percent quarter-on-quarter to 104.8 million downloads, said the RIAJ.
ANA will roll-out its new SKiP service, across all 50 airports in Japan to which ANA flies, from September 4 this year. Passengers who wish to SKiP, chose their seat after booking and paying for their ticket, in advance of going to the airport. Thanks to mobile internet technology, seats can even be chosen or changed on the way to the airport. On arrival, they bypass check-in and simply touch one of the following to a reader at security, and then again at their boarding gate: an IC-chip equipped ANA credit card or mileage club card, IC-enabled mobile phone, or printed 2D barcode.
SoftBank Mobile and NTT DoCoMo have both issued press releases this afternoon with new price plans specifically targeted at enterprise users. DoCoMo announced that all corporate customers committing to a two-year contract would receive an immediate 50% discount on basic monthly charges under the new “Office-wari MAX 50” plan. The maximum 50% discount was previously reserved for customers that had subscribed to DoCoMo services for at least 11 consecutive years.
