Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Hello Kitty V@mp Music Player

Hello Kitty V@mp Music PlayerHere kitty, kitty. The Sanrio Hello Kitty Bearbrick special version Apple iPod is hardly cold on Sanrio store shelves when here comes another audio player full of Hello Kitty’s megabrand of marketable goodness: NHJ’s digital audio player helps cool cats customize a meow mix of music via 256 megas of built-in flash memory boosted by SD memory cards (up to 512 MB). Compared to the iPods mini’s fat, 1,000-song capacity, this is just kibble at a mere 192 songs a shot. But this unit targets those who buy Hello Kitty rice cookers, toaster ovens, computer monitors and tissue box covers, not hard-core mobile audiophiles.

Japan 3G Cell Phone Shipments Surge

Japan 3G Cell Phone Shipments Surge3G handsets are driving new phone sales as consumers toss older 2G models for the promise of more music, fun and games. The Nihon Keizai Business Daily reported statistics from the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association (JEITA) showing February shipments of cell phones jumped 23 percent over the same month last year to total 4.7 million units – the second consecutive month of increases.

Consumers were initially slow to replace 2G handsets but resistance was futile. A barrage of slick ads and enticing features combined with the general mobile mass hysteria for entertainment-on-the-go have Japanese running to electronics retailers and cell-phone boutiques. Subscribers to DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA service have currently reached about 11.5 million and KDDI boasts nearly 18 million. Both cellcos have a seemingly endless lineup of new phones for every sort of consumer.

Texas Instruments Japan Growth

Texas Instruments expects solid growth in Japan, where the U.S. computer chip maker can count on surging demand for super-fast cell phones and digital TVs, the company’s Japan unit president said Friday. Texas Instruments Inc.’s strength in Japan comes from its partnership with the nation’s major electronics makers and working together on developing products, said Toshiyuki Yamasaki, appointed president earlier this month.

Toyota Announces New Telematics Service G-BOOK ALPHA

Toyota announced today that it has completely renovated its G-BOOK telematics service, which was initiated in October 2002, to create G-BOOK ALPHA. TMC will begin offering the new service on vehicles equipped with G-BOOK ALPHA-compatible navigation systems. G-BOOK ALPHA is a next-generation telematics service that takes safety, security and comfort to the next level. In addition to offering, as standard, the emergency call service known as HELPNET, which can alert the police or fire department to summon emergency vehicles in the event of a traffic accident or medical emergency, G-BOOK ALPHA also employs a car audio system that allows users to make on-the-go purchases of music they want to enjoy?when they want to enjoy it?through the use of G-BOOK ALPHA’s new digital rights management (digital copyright protection) system, called G-DRM.

Japan's Most Popular Cell Phones

According to research done by Idomco that surveyed handset sales in the greater Tokyo area for the week ending 3 April, the NTT DoCoMo NEC 901ic in white pearl is No. 1 in the ranking of top 20 models. The survey also notes a new entry on the charts, in 4th position, for DoCoMo’s SH700i by Sharp in black; 17 of the 20 are 3G handsets. Log-in to access the full list.

QR Barcodes Getting Colorful

Despite the date, this is no joke. Based on patented technology from ColorZip Media, those old 2D black & white barcodes are about to make a colorful splash into the Japan market. Evan Owens, director of ColorZip Japan, will present a brief outline of the company’s technology at MobileMonday in Tokyo, 18 April. WWJ is rather keen on this concept and we’ll file a report on Evan’s MoMo product demo as soon as MoMo is over.

Wireless Networks in Japan Vulnerable

Wireless computer networks across Japan are still vulnerable to illegal access, the National Police Agency said in an annual survey released Thursday. An increasing number of companies and local government offices have information security policies in place, but many of them have yet to establish measures to protect wireless local area networks, the NPA said. The NPA has conducted an annual survey since 2000 when Japan implemented a law making unauthorized access to computer networks illegal.

Welcome to Aichi Expo 2005

The Aichi World Expo officially opened here yesterday and “Japan has pulled out all the technological stops to show that its gadgetry and ingenuity is the best in the world.” Opposite Toshiba’s digital cinema is Hitachi’s virtual reality safari. Hitachi equips visitors with portable handsets that contain a prototype of its mu-chip, a processor slated to become the key component of future wireless devices, including mobile phones. As the handset is brought close to particular transmitters, it instantly downloads any information on offer in that area and displays it on a small screen.

It's Quiet on Tokyo's Mobile Street. Too Quiet.

Checking headlines around the Web yesterday and today, I was struck by the eerie silence on Tokyo’s mobile street. There is a ton of coverage on the Livedoor/Fuji TV take-over battle, but that’s largely a Web/media topic and not really related to mobile. Where’s all the silence coming from? And could it be related to Vodafone, Softbank or flat-rate mobile voice calling? To be sure, we’re not totally lacking mobile news; DoCoMo have posted a couple of releases in the past two weeks, including the 22 February announcement of Mobile FeliCa, see WWJ’s video coverage here and the 8 March notice on the launch of the N700i and P700i 3G FOMA handsets. Similarly, KDDI have some releases up (but only in Japanese; nothing in English since 8 February), notably on their new W31S music-player form-factor celly from Sony Ericsson.