Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times

Has Apple Started a Mobile Computing Revolution?

Has Apple Started a Mobile Computing Revolution?By now everyone who can read knows that the big news in wireless this week was the announcement for “Steve’s Amazing New Device”. We’ve had several queries for comment over the last couple of days and reluctantly have decided to offer a few thoughts on his so-called ‘future of mobile handsets’. One might be forgiven for asking “what does this development have to do with Japan” but it was actually the LA Times who started it. Also related, the early rumors swirling in May last year – which were quickly denied – that we would see SoftBank Mobile roll-out Apple Computer Inc.’s new gear here in 2006. If Jobs & Co. actually plan to hit their 10 million sales target, or just 1% of the global share, then a 3G enabled unit for advanced markets like Japan has to be part of their 2007 roadmap.

So, what do we think. After the rough ride WWJ gave RIM got for their market entry Blackberry device, you shouldn’t expect any glowing Mac fan boy type ravings from us. However, there certainly is one definite and positive aspect to this whole discussion.. Awareness. Before getting into specific pro’s and cons of the device itself – as described at launch – for just a moment lets consider the obvious impact on the general marketplace. The very nature of this high-profile move into mobile computing will, as they say, simply have to raise all boats. As more people are exposed to the possibilities of consuming content and services in the wireless arena, better product offerings will no doubt follow. That being said, HTC’s smartphone (video here), running Windows mobile with a full qwerty sliding keyboard and touch screen entry (pointer included), has been available from both DoCoMo and SoftBank in Japan since mid-2006. So it’s somewhat difficult to understand the ‘revolutionary design’ aspect as things already seem well underway.

There are several issues (beyond the no 3rd party apps) at first blush; for starters a touch screen as the ‘only’ input feature – can you say finger grease – seems to ignore the common reality of text messaging. It should be quite interesting to see how they have designed the UI for those big dumb fingers to type e-mail. Battery power will be another major challenge with that nice big screen, especially since it will be running a cpu hungry mobile version of OSX. As most readers should recall the locked-down battery saga with the early iPods, clearly their rev. 1 model of this handset might well be disappointing in that area after 12 months of routine daily usage as well.

It’s an easy prediction that it will be one of the Top Stories in 2007 and we are looking forward to
follow the product and it’s market evolution. The company has taken a very public step into this new space and considering the past success of their mobile music product offerings it should help to breath some fresh air into the telecom industry.

Mobile Books a Big Hit in Japan

Magic iLand has quickly established itself as the gold standard for mobile phone novels. Work published there is guaranteed hundreds of thousands of readers and lots of street cred. Since its inception, the library has added at least 10 new titles per month. It includes frequently updated reviews and instructions on how to write a mobile phone novel. Last month, the site held the world’s first mobile phone novel award — with the cooperation of heavyweights like NTT DoCoMo, D2 Communications and video-rental giant Tsutaya.

Toshiba Exits Music by Selling EMI

Toshiba Corp. has announced that it will sell its entire stake in Japanese label Toshiba EMI Ltd. to Britain’s EMI Group Plc, saying that it would sell its stake for about 21 billion yen ($179 million). One of Japan’s major music and entertainment companies, Toshiba EMI is currently controlled 45 percent by Toshiba and the remaining 55 percent by the British music group. Toshiba accepted an offer from the EMI Group as “the music content business today is less relevant to other businesses within the Toshiba Group,” it said in a statement.

DoCoMo Finds Handsets Cloned in China

Cell phones “cloned” by using IC cards from NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s FOMA handsets were found to have been used in China and other countries illegally, according to sources. In six cases, perpetrators are thought to have taken the IC cards from disused third-generation cell phones and inserted them into other handsets, creating cloned cell phones. DoCoMo, which had previously insisted cloning its cell phones was “technically impossible,” admitted it had confirmed such clones had been found through in-house investigations.

UPDATE: DoCoMo has issued a coment [in Japanese] about this article stating that it’s a legacy issue with older FOMA model handsets. They state the function to refuse a connection with the DoCoMo side switchboard was added as of February 2006.

Fujitsu Bets Big on WiMax

Fujitsu wants to get back into the wireless race in North America by being a major U.S. player in the race to build high speed wireless broadband WiMax networks. Last month, Fujitsu announced a whole new line of WiMax products covering every major component in the WiMAX network, including silicon solutions, electronic devices, radio access network solutions, professional services and backhaul infrastructure solutions. The company presented two new high performance base stations designed for indoor or outdoor use.

Mobile Oracle from Kyoto

One of the most famous tourist traps in Kyoto, Japan, the venerable Kiyomizu-dera temple has jumped on the digital bandwagon, their solution is a credit-card sized charm. Printed on its surface are eight deity of good fortune. The image of deity actually hides a URL encoded with an embedded FPcode (Fine Picture code). This is a code system developed by Fujitsu [see our CEATEC video — Eds], an extension of the QR code which has become the de-facto system for Japanese K-tai terminals. 2D FPcode pattern utilizes a near-transparent color ink, and easily printed over the existing picture without spoiling it.

The Middle Man in Wireless Content

Derek Kurton, formally in charge of strategizing and building Disney’s wireless efforts, has posted an interesting article about the way carriers deal with mobile content in the US: It’s too bad the US hasn’t seen the adoption of the democratic Asian model, where carriers put up just about all content available, and let the customers decide which is bad, which is good, and which belongs at the top of the decks. This model has worked wonders in Japan and Korea, and would work even better when joined by new emerging solutions in custom UIs, search, segmentation and discovery.

Brad Pitt Selling for SoftBank

Building on SoftBank’s TV commercial branding campaign – the company retained Cameron Diaz for a series of spots to coincide with the official patchover from Vodafone in early October – we notice that Brad Pitt has signed-on for round two. Mr. Pitt does not have any lines, the 15sec. TVCM simply blasts ‘Walk This Way’ by Aerosmith as he is seen wandering through what appears to be a crowded street market in Mumbai.

DoCoMo 1H Profits off 20 Percent

NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s net profit for the fiscal first half ended 30 September was 20 percent lower than a year earlier, with the decline in net profit to a great extent due to the absence in the first half of one-off gains of the kind made in the corresponding period of last year (when the company booked a special capital gain of 62 bn yen from the sale of its 20-percent stake in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd.). DoCoMo reported a first-half net profit of 309.82 bn yen, compared to 385.28 bn yen a year earlier.

Mobile Payments Research Report

Strategy Analytics released this new report ‘Mobile Contactless Payments – Growth on the Horizon’ analyzing payment for goods or services using phones instead of cash, credit or debit cards. At a global level, activity in the mobile phone contactless payment market today is still negligible; over the past two years the only bright point has been the FeliCa service in Japan, which has provided a model for the speed with which services can take off if the right players and the right structure are put in place. The report estimates that FeliCa will drive $900 million worth of payments in Japan during 2006.