Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Top 10 Japanese Mobile Phones

The folks at GfK have produced a Top-10 list for handsets sold in Japan for the calendar year of 2008. Apparently this list is referenced by using POS data compiled through their network of electronic re-sellers, so we have to take the ratings with a grain of salt in the absence of any other official stats provided elsewhere. Since the results are separated by both operator and device maker and then compiled into the overall list, there are a few interesting points to note. First off, apparently Sharp secured four of the top ten spots while Panasonic managed to snag two of the top three best sellers. Also, while DoCoMo showed the way with six of the best movers SoftBank Mobile only got one unit in the top 10, and it was not the iPhone. See the full breakdown after the jump.

Japan Prepares for 4G networks

According to the Nikkei, via Bloomberg, all four major Japanese telcos are moving one step closer to building out their 4G networks, with infrastructure investments pegged at $10 billion. DoCoMo alone is said to have budgeted nearly half of that amount, to enable data delivery at near fiber speeds, with service launch expected in fiscal 2010 with the others set to follow by 2012.

Japan Trials Pandemic Tracking via Mobile

According to this post on the Asahi Shimbun, the Ministry of Affairs and Communications (MIC) has a proposal to run an experiment later this year, across the country using 2,000 cellphone volunteers, to record potential encounters between people infected with a contagious disease. From what we can tell, the proposed trial will track and collect GPS data for time and location so if someone is found later to be infected the agency, with some help from the telecom operators, would be able to identify and notify people who had may have had recent contact.

NEC and Renesas in Merger Talks

NEC Electronics and Renesas have entered talks to strike a merger deal to create a new entity which would become the largest semiconductor company in Japan, and number three globally behind Intel and Samsung with leading market share in micro-controllers and system-on-chip products for cars and mobile devices, capable of generating roughly $13 billion in combined yearly sales.

Nico Nico Douga App for iPhone

Nico Nico Douga, the popular Japanese video sharing site known it’s original interface where users can add comments on video in realtime, has finally released their iPhone app – for free! – according to this article on cNet Japan. The design was based on the companies mobile edition, which was done on Java, launched in 2007, however, Iphone apps need to be coded in C and this apparently caused some real challenges for coding the delivery of certain functions such as commenting.

DoCoMo Annual Results – Future Plans

DoCoMo has just released it’s unaudited results [.PDF Here] for the full 2008 fiscal year, which closed on 31 March. While operating revenues were down 5.6% YoY – with operating expenses trimmed by 7.3% – the bottom line net income was off 3.9% compared to 2007. The company has also announced a series of new initiatives, in several fields of interest, more details after the jump.