New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

Phones Require Smarter Solutions for Security

NTT DoCoMo Press Center; When businessman Hideki Suzuki lost his beloved mobile phone, a 3G FOMA smart phone equipped for electronic wallet and other e-commerce applications, he was naturally concerned. If someone were to use his phone maliciously to make purchases, transfer funds or view confidential data, or if the problem somehow impacted his business contacts, it could have been a disaster. But Suzuki did not panic. He simply went to a pay phone booth, dialed his number and let the phone ring a preset number of times. Then Suzuki smiled, because he had just locked his phone’s buttons and smart card features — remotely, automatically and immediately.

Omron Targets Global RFID Market

Omron Corporation, a $5.5 billion Japanese manufacturer of automation and sensing products, will invest $20 million worldwide over 2005 and 2006 as a first step in seizing a larger share of the U.S. and global RFID market. The company’s aggressive entry into the U.S. marketplace focuses on its RFID label inlay and reader products. Omron president and chief executive officer Hisao Sakuta, who has appointed himself as project leader, said “RFID is an important, global initiative which requires a large investment. I believe RFID could be a major growth engine for the company.”

Index to Form TV Joint Venture

Five private television broadcasters have entered into final negotiations with Index Corp., which distributes content to mobile phone users, on forming a company to distribute sports information to Internet portal sites, according to sources close to the broadcasters. The new company would distribute preliminary reports and images of a wide range of sports including soccer, baseball and basketball to portal sites for access by personal computers and mobile phones, the sources said.

New 3G Phone Designed Just for Kids

New 3G Phone Designed Just for KidsNTT DoCoMo have just announced a new ‘child-friendly’ 3G mobile phone, the FOMA SA800i made by Sanyo. The SA800i’s functions and compatible services are designed to help keep children safe, according to company PR. It is configured for easy use by children, and its rounded shape resembles a cocoon to emphasize the phone’s child-oriented security features. The handset has an alarm of about 100 decibels that children can quickly switch on in the case of an emergency and parents signed up for the new “imadoco search” location service can set their phones to automatically receive email announcing the child’s physical location, and the emails will continue at regular intervals.

If the child activates the alarm, the handset will call up to three registered numbers with a voice message alert at regular intervals until all registered numbers pick up, or until a password is entered into the child’s handset. In addition, DoCoMo has established the Kids’ Advisory Board of people with expertise in children’s issues, who will advise the company on the development of products and services beneficial to children. The parents who are signed up for imadoco search can also set their phones to receive an automatic email of the child’s location when the child’s handset is turned off. Moreover, even after the child’s handset is switched off, it is possible to receive e-mails of the phone’s whereabouts in 15-, 30- or 60-minute intervals. The emails continue until a password is entered into either the parent’s or child’s handset.

Feature Film Mobile Marketing

Mobile phone technology is at the cutting edge of studio advertising — though less in the U.S. than in certain foreign territories, where it is far more advanced than here. “What we did for (the June actioner) ‘Batman Begins’ was we developed our first fully dedicated WAP,” Warners international marketing president Sue Kroll says. “We did that in the U.K., France, Germany and Spain and basically promoted a short code that allowed people to access the site and had all kinds of video vignettes, interviews and information about the movie. We are working to do something in Japan that’s similar for (the recently released) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

DoCoMo Credit-Card Site Soft Launch

DoCoMo credit cardOn 8 November, DoCoMo said they would start offering a new FeliCa-compatible credit card, called the ‘iD card‘ (that’s ‘i’ and in ‘i-mode’ and — we guess — ‘D’ as in ‘dominant market position’), on 1 December. The iD card will allow i-moders to make credit card payments with a FeliCa eWallet phone; Big D said the payment procedure will be “as simple as waving the phone in front of dedicated reader/writers at stores.” Now, it looks like their Flash-heavy, groovy, dedicated iD-card website is now open, trolling for prospective customers.

When you’re the dominant wireless carrier in the market, and you’ve invested billions in building a 3G network, but hoped-for packet revenues collapse when your No. 1 competitor beats you up with flat-rate pricing, launching your own credit-card brand is a sensible option. Welcome to the ultra-high-tech, but old-fashioned-business-model, future..