Dai Nippon Printing has begun providing a service to enable cellphone users to access content related to broadcast and communications satellite TV and terrestrial digital TV programs aired by transmitting 2D codes from their handsets. The service uses a bandwidth allocated to data broadcast in digital TV broadcast, and allows cellphone users to access program-related content from handsets while watching a program.
Superscape, specialists in the development of industry standard 3D technology to deliver console quality, over-the-air (OTA) games on mobile phones, will be showing the latest additions to its portfolio at the 3G Mobile World Forum to be held in Tokyo (13-16th January 2004). In addition Dr. Mike Grant, Superscape’s VP Marketing & Strategy, will be joining other international conference speakers to give a paper entitled “Bringing global mobile brands into mobile gaming.” Superscape’s Swerve engine has been selected by such industry giants as Siemens, Samsung and Motorola as their 3D enabling technology of choice.
Japanese companies are rapidly commercializing the so-called Net Kaden system for electronic control and monitoring of homes through links with mobile phone and high-speed broadband systems. Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are already marketing segments of a Net Kaden network. Hitachi Ltd. plans to debut one on the domestic market next spring and Sony Corp. is preparing a home server using new semiconductors.
NEC has begun marketing “MM GATE,” a software tool that converts image data to formats supported by a wide variety of mobile devices, including cellphones, car navigation systems, and PDAs. Ideally suited for use by mobile content providers, the new software automatically identifies the types of mobile terminal to which an image should be sent, and adjusts the format, size, and resolution of the picture, enabling content providers to transmit the optimized image of a single picture to various types of devices.
Wireless Watch Japan attended NTT DoCoMo’s December 15 press conference demonstrating the first phones to feature the Sony developed “Felica” peer-to-peer payment system. To debit the cash stored on the phone’s IC chip, all you do is swipe the handset in front of a reader; more cash can be downloaded via the i-mode network. The trial, using 2,500 each of the N504iC and SO504iC handsets (engineered by NEC and Sony) will run from today and until mid-2004, when full commercial service is expected to start. DoCoMo have lined up 27 e-payment service providers, including banks, convenience stores, TV broadcasters, game software publishers, and a retail ticketing outlet. There are already 17 million Japanese happily using Felica-based IC cards for train tickets and convenience store payments, many of whom have – surprise! – cell phones. We think the synergy and revenue potential of the two technologies is obvious – and so do DoCoMo’s accountants. Watch our first-on-the Web video report from Monday’s press event – and rethink your i-mode forecasts. Full Program Run-time 3:00
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it will launch a trial, called the “i-modeｮ FeliCa preview service,” using mobile phones equipped with FeliCa contactless IC chip technology developed by Sony Corporation. The phones will be used for public transport tolls, electronic money, personal identification and other trial services between December 17, 2003 and the summer of 2004.
