Mobile Users
Mobile Users

Mobile Users

JR East Cranks up Cell-phone Tickets

A new service using mobile phones as smart tickets for trains operated by East Japan Railway Co. began Saturday. The service, named Mobile Suica, combines the service of JR East’s Suica IC card and mobile phone service offered by NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. Once customers pay for train fees or train passes online, they can go through JR wickets in and around Tokyo by just holding their handsets over card readers on the ticket gates, according to the railway. (Mobile Suica is finally in operation! See today’s Viewpoint — Eds.)

Info Plant Mobile Users Survey

Online market researcher Info Plant has released the results of a survey on cell-phone functions and services. The company conducted a survey of 7,905 NTT DoCoMo i-mode users nationwide, 12-23 December 2005. When asked which functions and services they usually use that are available on their handsets, 85.4 percent of respondents answered “alarm,” followed by 83.3 percent for “camera (for still images)” and 81.6 percent for “ring tone.” When asked which functions and services they wish to have, the top favorite was “TV,” followed by “GPS navigation” and “pass/ticket for train and bus;” “key,” “ID card,” and “anti-crime buzzer,” were among the top 10 answers.

Mobile Healthcare Launches Lifewatcher

After more than three years years in R&D, Tokyo-based Mobile Healthcare Inc. today announced the commercial launch of ‘Lifewatcher,’ a new disease management service that operates over mobile phones and the Internet. According to the company, Lifewatcher is a comprehensive, patient-centric, mobile disease self-management system for diabetes, obesity, and other lifestyle-related disease sufferers. It is critical for diabetes sufferers to track key health indicators such as blood sugar, blood pressure, calorie intake, exercise and their weight. WWJ posted a video interview with company president James Nakagawa on the then-under-development service in 2003.

Sanyo and KDDI Introduce 3 New Sweet Handsets

Sanyo and KDDI Introduce 3 New Sweet HandsetsBuilding on the original teen-targeted Sweet handsets first introduced in January 2005, the companies have just announced three new models for release starting 1 February. One of the key features included in the first series was a GPS-aided application that included user location data in email sent from the phone (so that parents would know whether young Yukiko-chan was actually at juku (cram class) — or not). The second gen of these handsets goes a few steps further to include that function as well as the new Voice Input application and Hello Messenger, for starters. The latest CDMA 1X (3G) Sweet-series all have 1.3-megapixel cameras, are both BREW- and Flash-enabled and include a built-in security buzzer that boasts a screaming 98dB alarm in case of emergency.

Perhaps the most interesting new feature that was announced, and missed by most other mainstream media, was the new OCR feature. You use the phone’s camera to scan text, such as an email address, URL or phone number, which can then be easily added to the onboard address book; this is a very handy feature. There is also a new “Camera Dictionary” BREW application that will also scan — and translate — English text into Japanese kanji characters as well. Now that is Sweet!

Safety features for children is a growing market niche and this series should prove very popular with both youthful customers and their parents (subscribers log in for full feature descriptions from the press release).

Vodafone KK December Subscriber Count

Vodafone have just released their December net adds: 63,700, showing a strong 3G gain of 236,800 and a to-be-expected 2G loss of 173,100. This indicates the carrier gained at least some new 3G customers from other carriers if we assume all Vodafone 2G customers who upgraded to 3G stayed with the carrier. Vodafone KK subscribers are now, overall, trending up, if still slowly.

eBay to Launch on O2's i-mode

O2 is set to announce it has signed up auction giant eBay to its i-mode mobile internet service. The service, which can already be accessed via i-mode enabled handsets, is thought to be receiving its official launch soon. The i-mode version of eBay provides most of the same functionality as the regular internet service, including the ability to bid, search the auction site and monitor the progress of auctions using the ‘my eBay’ function. eBay has already made its appearance on i-mode in a handful of geographies including Australia, France and Singapore.