Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Index Tuning in for Mobile Digital TV Contracts

Index Tuning in for Mobile Digital TV ContractsIndex Corp., a Japanese company specializing in creating content for mobile phones, is rounding up TV contracts aimed at specialized interactive services linking mobile handsets and television programming. A story in the Nihon Keizai business daily reported the company was on the verge of issuing around 20 billion yen in shares to four other broadcasters including Nippon Television Network, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Fuji Television Network and TV Tokyo. When asked by WWJ, Index would say only that parties concerned were in negotiations and nothing could be confirmed yet. The news, confirmed or not, drove Index shares up 9.5 percent on the JASDAQ on 25 May. Both TV Asahi and Fuji Television already own around 1-2 percent of shares in Index.

The company is currently in partnership with five broadcasters for a remote control application that displays TV listings for the whole country on mobile phones. Launched in March, TeMo Chan is free to download, works with all carriers and also provides access to official mobile sites of TV programmers. Partners are Tokyo Broadcasting, Fuji TV, TV Asahi, Nippon Broadcasting (NTV), TV Tokyo.

Getting Touchy Feely with Textured Cell Phone Covers

Getting Touchy Feely with Textured Cell Phone Covers

Vodafone Japan has two new handsets ready to roll this July perfect for fashionistas and metrosexual males with finicky phone fetishes. Tightly fitting silicon costume covers, ala Trinity, have been designed to slip onto the sleek clamshell bodies of the V501T from Toshiba and Sharp’s V501SH handset for a very different sort of custom look. The V501T has twelve wild interchangeable cover designs. These are not just reflective overlays but full-on, 3-D cushy covers changing the look and feel of the phone to, well, something else.

Vodafone: New Costume Covers for Cell Phones

Vodafone KK announces today that in early July 2005 it plans to offer two new 2G (PDC) handsets, the V501T by Toshiba and V501SH by Sharp, so customers can easily coordinate handsets with their mood, fashion or lifestyle. With the V501T, customers can change a handset’s appearance with interchangeable covers, and the V501SH comes with panels that alter its tactile feel.

Japan Cell Phone Sales Drop

Domestic shipments of cellular and automobile phones in Japan totaled 44.77 million units in fiscal 2004 that ended March 31, down 12.2 percent from the previous year for the first decrease in three years, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association reported Tuesday.

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

With little fanfare and no press conference, NTT DoCoMo has released five new 3G FOMA 901iS FeliCa-enabled handsets into the digital world: D901iS (Mitsubishi), F901iS (Fujitsu), P901iS (Panasonic), N901iS (NEC) and SH901iS (Sharp). All have certain features in common with other 901i models, including music players, “3D Sound,” Deco-Mail to decorate email, G-GUIDE interactive TV guide and recording programmer (see the .pdf for full specs). New features include a 4-megapixel recorded resolution camera for the D901iS and a full Web browser on the N901iS. The company says that the 901iS-series is DoCoMo’s first in which all models are equipped for mobile-wallet functions, but the five handsets actually do a lot more than drain virtual bank accounts. The pre-installed Adobe Reader LE, for example, enables 901iS phones to view PDF files downloaded from i-mode sites. The application includes access to all basic PDF functions including scrolling, paging, text searches, bookmarks and page rotation and users can easily email files, dial a number or navigate to a Web link in the file. But wait, there’s more…

Japanese Use Cell Phone QR Bar Code Readers to Check Food Safety

Japanese Use Cell Phone QR Bar Code Readers to Check Food Safety

Belly up to the Bar Code: QR codes are reducing the fear factor for foodstuffs in Japan as agricultural associations embrace the new wireless technology tagging fresh produce for quick access to mobile information Web sites. A new English-language report [.PDF] released this month by NTT DoCoMo on QR code use in agriculture reveals the growing popularity of this medium.

Forget any assumptions about Hicksville. Japanese farmers have little fear of technology. Rural Ibaraki Prefecture has turbo charged their QR coding for agricultural products tagging a wide variety of vegetables grown in that prefecture. Ibaraki Prefectural authorities and the JA Ibaraki Prefecture Central Union of Agricultural Cooperative cooperating with other farming and agricultural associations are adding QR code labels right at the point of origin. In the supermarket, consumers use camera equipped cell phones to scan the QR code on the label. The code links to a mobile website detailing origin, soil composition, organic fertilizer content percentage (as opposed to chemical), use of pesticides and herbicides and even the name of the farm it was grown on. Consumers can also access the same information over the Ibaraki Agricultural Produce Net website by inputting a numbered code on each label.

April Subscribers: Vodafone Gap Widens

The April subscriber numbers are public and the news is mixed, at best, for Big V. Vodafone KK suffered a loss of 180,800 2G subscribers but only gained 141,300 3G users, for a net loss of 39,500 subs. This has got to be disappointing given that the March’s loss had fallen to a mere 7,400 and company management were likely hoping April would see a turnaround with the net change moving into the black.

Clarion Steers iPod into Car Navigation System

Clarion Steers iPod into Car Navigation System

Apple’s iPod is putting the ‘fun’ in functionality and Japanese electronics makers are innovating for a piece of the action. Car navigation system maker Clarion has added iPod access to their newest AddZest HDD series. Touch panels on the MAX950HD and MAX850HD will synch with the iPod via an optional connector cable. Like the iTunes PC display, the car version can bring up album covers and artist’ names on the screen. Drivers who prefer to burn music instead of rubber can use both the 950 and 850 to rip CDs at speeds of 4X to 7X. Something to do in those endless rush hour traffic jams. The built-in hard disk will hold around 4000 tunes. Full Specs from the company press release [in Japanese].

Japan Mobile Telco's Q4 Forcast

NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. may say Q4 operating profit fell as they paid retailers more to lure shoppers and promote new handsets. DoCoMo’s operating profit probably dropped 83 percent to 44.4 billion yen ($420 million) in the three months ended March 31, according to the median targets of nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The company’s biggest rival in Japan, KDDI, may say operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, fell 6.8 percent to 53.5 billion yen.

Mobile Fun and Games for Index Corp. and Takara Toys

Mobile Fun and Games for Index Corp. and Takara ToysMobile content distributor Index Corp. is looking to put more play into mobile content through a new alliance with Takara Toys. Japanese Game powerhouse Konami has washed its financial hands of all shares in Takara making room for Index to move into this big corporate box of marketable fun. Index Corp. has agreed to purchase 22.2 percent of the toy maker’s outstanding shares at a cost of around 11 billion yen reportedly. The partnership aims to use Takara’s lineup of popular TV animation and toys to drive development of content incorporating the Index Group’s mobile centered expertise.

The two have partnered before. Takara’s Bowlingual dog translator, see WWJ video here, is now our in the US and Canada and was jointly developed with Index and includes mobile phone functionality. In January 2004 Index and Takara set up a company to work on joint projects.