Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

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.

Wireless Watch in Toyota's Drivers Seat

Wireless Watch in Toyota's Drivers SeatA new smart watch from Toyota Motors and Citizen Watch lets drivers open and lock car doors remotely, pop the trunk and start the engine with a flick of the wrist. Together the two firms have crafted a non-contact key wristwatch for use with luxury Toyota Crown automobiles. The watch transmits a radio signal for various functions to the car’s built in antenna.

To open the doors drivers just grasp the door handle for the watch to transmit the unlock signal; press a button on the side of the watch for remote locking and unlocking. Although the timepiece is tuned for just one make of car, if this perk proves popular Toyota is considering expanding it to other models. Priced at 42,000 yen, the watch went on sale October 4th.

Mobile Intelligence Japan: Now We're Cooking!

Mobile Intelligence Japan: Now We're Cooking!Another full day on the run for the Mobile Intelligence Japan mission-to-Tokyo crew, with three hours this morning focused on e- and m-payments. This is one of the hottest areas of interest for the wireless industry and we had a couple of great seminar room presentations that really helped everyone put the past, present and future road maps in perspective. Heading out on the street for afternoon sessions in Harajuku and on the Ginza, we managed to get our hands on some of the latest handsets coming from KDDI/au and got an inside peek at the possible future evolution of QR codes from ColorZip.

The evening’s local experts’ dinner, in a very traditional Japanese restaurant — with some fantastic food and conversation — was the perfect way to finish off the day. A dozen hard-core mobile pros gathered to exchange views and opinions about domestic and international markets and strategies while trying to keep up with all the plates and pitchers that just kept coming from somewhere on the other side of the koi pond. Like the title says… Now We’re (Really) Cooking!

InfoPLANT's Handset Market Survey

Online marketer infoPLANT announced a survey result on mobile handset manufacturers. The survey was conducted on September 17 through the company’s data service providing site, C-NEWS, among 200 male and 200 female mobile phone/Internet users aged 15 or older. When asked about which maker offers the most attractive looking handset, about 15% of respondents selected Sharp and Panasonic, followed by Toshiba (about 10%). When asked which maker’s handset they would buy next, 30% replied Sharp, followed by Panasonic and NEC (about 25% each), and Sony/Sony Ericsson (over 20%).

Mobile Intelligence Japan – Akihabara Walking Tour

Mobile Intelligence Japan - Akihabara Walking TourAfter months of preparation, our MIJ mission to Tokyo kicked-off Sunday afternoon with a casual walk-about through the famous Akihabara electric town district. Over the coming week of scheduled meetings and events, we plan to post a daily update — right here on WWJ — of the highlights to provide subscribers a current snapshot of Japan’s mobile space. MIJ has an extensive agenda lined up, including company visits and presentations from many of what we believe to be the most interesting local players, a major networking event at Mobile Monday tomorrow night and a whole day out at Tech Disneyland — the CEATEC trade show.

You’ve got to experience it to believe it!

While most of these discussions will be held ‘off-the-record’ to gather info just for MIJ participants, we are looking forward to gaining an even deeper insight of where the industry is today and how things are shaping up for 2006 and to sharing what we can.