In early 1999, Japan’s top mobile-phone company, NTT DoCoMo, received cheers from customers and analysts alike for introducing its i-mode mobile Internet service. The service, which claims 37 million subscribers and lets them check stock quotes, sports, news and other information over their cell phones, was hailed as the greatest invention in Japan since the Walkman.
DoCoMo’s N504iS can serve as a remote controller for your TV via the handset’s IR port; it can also be used to scan and then access a printed URL. Access URLs below for pics.
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/11750.html
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/static/image/2002/11/20/n504is012s.jpg
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/parts/image_for_link/37053-11750-6-2.html
Britain’s first next-generation mobile phone network, 3, launches next month. So it seems like a good time to look at the lessons from the Japanese market, where 3G has been available for 18 months, and ask when we’ll really be enjoying the benefits of 3G in the UK.
MTI Ltd. unveiled on Jan. 31 the “TUNA M+,” a Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) application program for wireless operation of a Windows PC by an “au” mobile phone available from KDDI Corp. Users pay a monthly charge of 315 yen.
KDDI Corp. reported group net profit of 30.87 billion yen for the fiscal third quarter, while boosting its full-year-earnings forecast by five billion yen, citing healthy consumer demand for its flagship “au” mobile-phone service, lower marketing costs, and restructuring. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, KDDI posted sales of 695.08 billion yen and operating profit of 56.80 billion yen.
You can watch streaming video on cellys in Japan, and it isn’t often that tech providers flip back the cover to show how it works. In October, NTT DoCoMo launched their V-Live service on 3G, powered by Fujitsu and US-based NMS Communications. We show the details behind the magic, then drop in on Gartner Japan to get the skinny on the business of mobile streaming. The provision of live or archived video and audio streams to mobile phones using the third-generation IMT-2000 network standard has yet to gain wide usage. Nonetheless, in October, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. strengthened its multimedia content offerings by expanding services provided under its “M-Stage” brand name. It’s still early days, but this stuff really works!
