Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Accessibility for JIS Standard

The CIAJ has announced that the "JIS X 8341-4: Guidelines for Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities – Information and Communications Equipment, Software and Services – Part 4: Telecommunications Equipment" has been deliberated by the Japan Industrial Standards Committee, established as a JIS standard, and notified in an official government gazette. These guidelines define items which are essential and items which are desirable from an accessibility standpoint in the planning, development and design stages so that telecommunications equipment can be operated without difficulty by all people, including older persons and persons with disabilities.

Smell Tones for Mobile Phones

Aromatherapy wafts to a high tech edge with Japanese "smell tones" for mobile phones.  Scented mobile phone charms release a variety of fragrances to signal incoming calls and email using an electronically stimulated micro scent generator built into a cell phone-style charm. Keitai KunKun (KunKun is Japanese shorthand for the act of actually sniffing) releases a light burst of fragrance for five seconds after the arrival of a call/mail. At least pockets and purses will be sweetly scented. 

Japan Mobile Users Survey

InfoPlant performed a survey of mobile phone users, carried out through the main menus of internet-enabled phones from DoCoMo, au and Vodafone which was at least somewhat focused on flat-rate data trends [.pdf in Japanese]. 16,833 people replied during the survey, 67.4% of respondents were female, and iMode users, Ezweb users and Vodafone Live! users were 57.4%, 20.9% and 21.7% respectively. WWJ subscribers login for the English translation.

Results of Survey on Cellphone Usage

Online market researcher infoPLANT conducted research regarding mobile phone use among 16,833 phone users (operators limited to NTT DoCoMo, au, vodafone) from September 6 to 13, 2005. When asked how often they access Websites via mobile phones, 73.8% of the respondents answered “almost everyday”, followed by “a few days a week (10.9%)”, “four to five days a week (10.4%)”, and “about one day a week (3.1%)”. More than 70% men and women of every age group except men aged 50 or older and women aged 40 or older replied “almost everyday”.

Marlboro Rolls New Shift Gears Campaign

Here’s a slick way for Philip Morris to tap into their customers, within the well-established pack a day distribution network, using mobile. Running from early September through the end of December, Marlboro cigarette packs will have a unique lotto number under the lid allowing registered members to win branded merchandise on the spot ranging from lighters and ball caps to larger weekly prize draws for jackets and mountain bikes. The grand prize trip to Italy for some hands-on F1 gear jamming!

Clearly an innovative approach to tap into, segment and reward the companies loyal base. While it’s not the first time they have run at ‘coupon code’ campaign, the QR driven approach – created by part of the same crew who earned a Golden Lion at Canne for Vidal Sassoon – this should definitely render more valuable meta data results than 1994. Watch the show&tell video [26mb – .mp4] to see the process in action.. 😎

Yahoo Japan Launches Mobile Content

Yahoo Japan announced it will launch a mobile content distribution service in which cell-phone users can buy games, ring tones, news and other services in 17 categories from 59 content providers including Cybird and game-maker Taito Corp. A full breakdown of their new offerings after the jump.

Japan to Approve Wireless IP Services

The Japanese government plans to allow three or four companies to start offering high-speed wireless Internet Protocol phone services in 2007, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Thursday. The article said the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will formally unveil its plans for wireless IP phone services on Friday.

Cellphone Weather Girl Auditions

A total of 32 women, hoping to become presenters for a video-based cell-phone weather service, gathered at KDDI’s Designing Studio showroom in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Final auditions for the Kanto region’s “Weather News” service began on Monday when KDDI selected their short-list of just 7 from the 1,034 people who had submitted written applications. Online voting to choose the two winning candidates will be carried out 12-25 October.

Vodafone Announces 'Love Flat-rate'

Vodafone K.K. have just announced that on 1 November 2005 the company will introduce “Love Flat-rate,” Japan’s first mobile service that allows customers to call and send mail to a designated party as much as they like, according to a press release. The service name stands for the ability to call and mail the person ‘one loves most’ without worrying about the cost. The service lets a customer call and mail a designated party (one Vodafone K.K. phone number) without limitations, and discounts video calls by 50% for a monthly fixed charge of 300 yen (315 yen including tax).

Mobile Intelligence Japan Wrap!

Mobile Intelligence Japan Wrap!On Friday, the MIJ team wrapped up the October mission to Tokyo and headed home to the Heartland for happy hour and some relaxed networking; everyone was pooped but delighted with the program (so said the team, not me the organiser!).

After a full day Wednesday at CEATEC to view fuel-cell mobile batteries, digital-TV handsets and a super new satellite pocket rocket from DoCoMo, we spent Thursday and Friday back on the MIJ agenda, meeting with, respectively, an LBS application developer, a major content aggregator, an alternative mobile payment provider (to find out what to do when your content is just too pricey for the official menus), a mobile marketing manager and a 3G carrier, among others. Thursday evening was another highlight as we met with Andrew Shuttleworth, one of Tokyo’s most knowledgeable and opinionated mobile application usability gurus, and a trio of young, female, non-tech Japanese college students who utterly tore apart preconceived notions of why Japanese use mobile like they do. (What? You mean you don’t like to pay for content??)

Listen to WWJ’s Lawrence Cosh-Ishii and Daniel Scuka begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting on Dave Graveline’s “Into Tomorrow” live at CEATEC; from 11:00-mark via MP3 Here.