As we had hinted here last week, DoCoMo has just announced their latest 3G FOMA handsets – the 904i-series – this afternoon at a downtown Tokyo hotel. While you may not be able to attend the event in person, they will have a video broadcast of the presentation online here starting at 18:45 (GMT+9).
Toyota announced that it will begin rolling out its new G-BOOK mX telematics service and a G-Book mX-compatible HDD navigation system with the launch of new vehicles in Japan starting in May. The new G-BOOK includes features such as Probe Communication Traffic Information, which uses data from other vehicles equipped with G-BOOK mX to provide drivers with highly precise information on traffic congestion. G-BOOK mX builds on the proven reliability and security of G-BOOK with the addition of Map-on-Demand – the world’s first technology for automatically delivering differential map data to car navigation systems – to create a more user-friendly and comprehensive telematics service.
IPMobile announced that its major shareholder, Multimedia Research Institute Corp., has reached an agreement with Mori Trust Co., Ltd. to transfer its stocks, therefore Mori Trust will become IPMobile’s major shareholder. According to the statement, IPMobile will review its capital structure and continue to raise investments required to launch commercial services. IPMobile is currently in talks with Mori Trust Co., Ltd. and will make an announcement about the timing of the launch and the details of its service once an agreement is reached.
QUALCOMM just announced a number of milestones underscoring how KDDI’s wireless data service, powered by BREW, continues to spur the demand for mobile applications in the Japanese market. In January 2007, KDDI subscribers downloaded more than seven million BREW applications to their mobile phones. The cumulative number of BREW application downloads is now more than 160 million since KDDI first launched BREW in February 2003. Gaming has proven to be one of the most active areas of mobile downloads. According to KDDI, its catalog of high-quality mobile games has grown from 2,000 applications in January 2006 to more than 3,000 gaming applications in January 2007.
On October 3 of last year, Napster Japan launched the first online music subscription service in Japan with an ‘all-you-can-eat’ model – allowing subscribers to download and play as much music as they like for a flat monthly fee. Accompanied by a massive marketing campaign featuring oversized bar-code poster ads, the Napster Japan launch attracted a great deal of attention and media coverage. When the company announced that over 2 million songs had been ‘shifted’ (downloaded for playing) in the first week after launch, it looked as though Napster might well be on track to replace iTunes as Japan’s most popular online music service. So how have the first six months gone for Japan’s first and (so far) only online subscription music service?
DoubleClick Japan recently announced they have aquired a domestic mobile CMS integration service provider, Mo-on, without releasing specific terms of the deal. Nextway Co. Ltd designed this ASP service, which provides a web browser-based system complete with various admin. tools, so small to medium sized companies could easily build and maintain new mobile website offerings. According to their press release, the division posted ¥526mln in sales FYE 2006 with ¥18mln profit and noted that the business transfer date is scheduled for October 1st, 2007.
