C.A. Mobile, a Tokyo-based online content provider affiliated with Cyber Agent, has begun auctioning on iBid, a mobile auction site, in collaboration with 0ch, a cell-phone TV station. The site is the first that uses video to profile auctioned items. The service is supported by KDDI’s EZweb and NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode services. There is no charge for viewing iBid. 0ch is free for i-mode users, but costs 105 yen per month for EZweb users.
Sharp has signed an agreement with the Japanese division of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications [Press Release in Japanese] to collaborate on development of cell-phone handsets based on the Symbian operating system for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G service in Japan. The two companies plan to share selected hardware while developing 3G phones that will be unique to the Sharp and Sony Ericsson brands.
In the Tokyo district of Ikebukuro, about 100 people, including junior high school children and workers on their way to the office, lined up outside a store that opened its doors at 7 a.m. to snap up Nintendo’s new interactive “Nintendo DS” [.jpg image] game consoles. The dual-screen consoles come with a touch panel and built-in chat software, and can be connected to a wireless network to interact with other players. After purchasing the console, many of them immediately opened the box and started playing. Nintendo hopes to sell 5 million consoles worldwide by March 2005.
In an effort to reduce fraud involving prepaid handsets, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications together with telecos has announced a series of security measures to take effect by spring of 2005. As reported by Wireless Watch Japan earlier this week, politicians as well as the media have been making a lot of noise about doing away with pre-paid service entirely after their use in several high-profile fraud cases last year (which would make Japan the only market anywhere to do so). Such a move would come down hardest on Vodafone, the dominant player in Japan’s prepaid handset market.
There hasn’t been much noise about it, but several media outlets are reporting that NTT DoCoMo has said it will stop offering 2G service by 2012 as 3G technology goes mainstream; Kyodo, Yahoo News, and AFP have all carried this item. If you’ve seen the popularity of 3G FOMA and CDMA WIN in Tokyo, the news of 2G’s slow demise on Japan’s biggest carrier will come as no surprise.
Cellcos and handset manufacturers here are counting on the seemingly limitless Japanese craving to trade up to the trendiest and newest feature-packed cellies to push cash flow forward. Right behind the recent roll out of DoCoMo’s shiny, feature-packed 3G FOMA 901i-series comes a new line of four “Mova” (the carrier’s 2G brand) handsets targeting niche buyers. Lets take a look at these babies as each one has a distinctive feature targeting a specific, finicky, not-yet-ready-for-3G keitai shopper.
Niche marketing is undeniably cost-intensive — all those handsets require development, marketing and manpower to support. If 3G is where DoCoMo wants everyone to be, why continue to innovate within the older, 2G Mova line?
TV viewers have been using electronic program guides (EPG) and video recording on hard disk drives (HDDs) for viewing programs whenever desired. Now you can easily schedule television recordings without being in front of the TV or VCR, just by entering the necessary program information into your mobile while you are away from home — via i-mode, of course. WWJ reported on this system last year in our “CEATEC Japan 2003: The Future of Wireless” video program, now it’s finally coming to Prime Time.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that Family Discount plan members will be able to share the unused portions of their monthly data and voice allowances for up to two months beginning on February 1, 2005. The Family Discount plan offers discounts on communication between registered family members.
Will prepaid phones pay the price for allegedly rising crime rates in Japan? NTT DoCoMo president Masao Nakamura spoke of discontinuing prepaid phone services at a recent press conference and others are calling for an outright ban. Japan’s close (some would say too close) private/public-sector interaction seemed to shadow his statement that the company needed to act considering the growing number of fraud cases using prepaid handsets. It’s only coincidence, we’re sure, that one of DoCoMo’s foreign competitors stands to lose big from shutting down prepaid. And last week, a European business organization pointed out just how wacky a ban would be.
NEC and Panasonic have developed three Linux-powered 3G mobile phones to be introduced in Japan in the coming months — NEC’s N900iL, NEC’s N901iC, and Panasonic’s P901i. Of the three, only NEC’s N900iL [see WWJ’s video] is currently shipping. The N900iL is a dual-network 3G/VoIP handset that works as a 3G mobile phone (using DoCoMo’s W-CDMA/FOMA technologies), VoIP terminal, or both simultaneously.
