Mobile Users
Mobile Users

Mobile Users

Tokyo Analyst: 2003 Wireless Outlook

Tokyo Analyst: 2003 Wireless Outlook“Camera phone penetration is increasing. With the newest handsets – particularly in DoCoMo’s case – the packet downloads have just surged. So you’ve got much higher packet usage – two to three times higher now on the camera phones,” says CSFB sr. telecoms analyst Mark Berman. Watch our 2003 kick-off program as we pick the brain of one of Tokyo’s most respected industry watchers on what to expect in ’03. DoCoMo, KDDI, J-Phone, ARPU, data trends, and multimedia: these are a few of our favorite things!

Mobile Videoconferencing to Be 'Ubiquitous'

Keisuke-san says his 2-1/2-year-old daughter is already interested in communicating visually on both mobile phone and on the set-top video system that he has in his SOHO office. “She sometimes says to me,’Dad, let’s do videoconferencing.’ I do not think that she understands the literal meaning of the words but she is kind of getting used to stand or sit in front of a monitor that shows a person talking on the other end of a live video call. She looks [like she’s] just enjoying it.”

Mobile Marketing: Corp. Plans Don't Make Sense

Mobile Marketing: Corp. Plans Don't Make SenseLast month, researchers at the International University of Japan released a report detailing surprising conclusions about consumer behavior and usage of mobile networks. “Business mouths are watering at the opportunity for location-based marketing,” says professor Philip Sidel of the International University of Japan. But it ain’t necessarily so, and Sidel states: “We believe that previous authors have adopted a much too simple framework for ‘contextual marketing’.” His exhaustive research offers surprising results to those who would sell via cell

Youngsters Opt for Mobile

I received some interesting commentary last week from Kennedy Gitchel, self-described “Long-time Japan resident and wireless watcher” and — until recently — consultant at a major foreign consulting house. Gitchel was responding to a recent WWJ Viewpoint wherein we stated “the cost of fixed-line access plays very little or **no** part in Japan’s mobile Net boom,” to point out that the initial total cost of fixed line access is, in fact, a hefty proposition when you consider both the cost of installing a new phone line and monthly fees together.

Fall Roundup of Hot Topics: Packet Fees, WLAN, and 3G Roaming

A couple of interesting events took place in Tokyo last Friday. The American Chamber of Commerce hosted their Fourth Annual E-Business Summit, while Credit Suisse First Boston’s lead telecoms analyst Mark Berman conducted a 3G/Wireless Internet Conference. Some interesting points came out of both. Afterwards, Kobe University’s Jeff Funk commented that the predicted fall in 3G packet prices is “interesting,” while Matsumoto’s additional arguments — that the US is a car society and thus Japan’s experience isn’t relevant — was not valid since “SMS is doing well in Europe and DoCoMo claim that i-mode revenues per person are independent of the region in Japan.”

How Japanese and American Customers Differ

How Japanese and American Customers DifferThere’s been endless yakking about cultural differences between Japanese and US keitai users. Which features appeal to which culture? Is wireless Internet important for Americans? Those Japanese will pay for data, won’t they? Yada yada yada… We’ve heard comments ad nauseam about the differences between Americans, Europeans, and Japanese when it comes to choosing cell phones. While we have long disbelieved the odious stereotypes — like “Japanese want to pay for Internet access” and “American thumbs are too big for those tiny i-mode keypads” — we have to admit, we weren’t sure what to believe ourselves. WWJ gets to the heart of the matter with a visit to Cellular Plaza Mims, a unique cell phone shop serving large numbers of true-blue Americans here in Japan.