Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times

Desirable Mobile Services for the Future

Info-Plant has issued a very interesting report on mobile-phone usage in Japan focusing on ‘Desirable Mobile Functions and Services’. Data was collected via a nationwide survey of mobile phone users from the networks of NTT DoCoMo, KDDI/au, and Vodafone and valid responses were received from 7,905 users. Questions asked what mobile phone functions or services were used regularly and respondents were asked to list the services or functions they would like to see added to mobile phones in the future (log in for details).

3G Lessons Learnt – Buyer Beware

BusinessWire has a press release from the folks at Analysys stating that 3G in Japan has hit 40 percent penetration. While we agree that “Mobile operators in Japan and South Korea have consistently led the world in the development of innovative mobile services and technology” and “They have unrivalled track records of introducing new handset capabilities and services, and they are currently the only markets to achieve mainstream adoption of services delivered by 3G networks,” that “40” number is way too low. According to a TCA offical report, the 50 percent mark was actually reached here back in February.

Inside Update on SoftBank Takeover

In addition to my comments in yesterday’s WWJ email newsletter, additional details have been provided by a Tokyo-based industry analyst. In a note to investors sent earlier today, CLSA’s Kieran Calder provided a wealth of data on the implications of the impending Vodafone KK takeover. These include SoftBank moving very quickly to integrate Vodafone (a hallmark of Masayoshi Son’s style), aggressive new sales targets and a looming retail price war (WWJ subscribers log-in for details).

TI, NEC and Panasonic Consider JV

According to the Nikkei, top mobile phone chip supplier Texas Instruments Inc., NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are in talks over possible cooperation in cellphones, Matsushita and NEC said on Friday. NEC’s chip unit, NEC Electronics Corp., and the cellphone unit of Matsushita, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., are involved in the talks, they said, adding that nothing concrete has been decided.

RFID Cigarette Vending Machines

The Tobacco Institute of Japan said Thursday it will start switching cigarette vending machines nationwide to new machines featuring an age-verification system from March 2008 to prevent minors from buying cigarettes. The institute announced that a total of 620,000 tobacco vending machines nationwide will be switched during 2008 to types that can read “tobacco cards” with integrated circuit chips bought by adult smokers.

Not surpised, we’ve seen the same age verification function on “Sake Pass” machines [ .jpg image ] for some time already — Eds.

DoCoMo Partners with Lawson

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and LAWSON, Inc. have just announced a business alliance that will result in customers using DoCoMo’s Osaifu-Keitai (phones with wallet functions) for a variety of practical mobile services at LAWSON convenience stores beginning by April 30th. According to the press release: “The deal will converge substantial business assets of the two companies, namely DoCoMo’s more than 50 million mobile phone subscribers and LAWSON’s some 8,300 convenience stores nationwide.”

Usen Plans Free Mobile Video

Usen Corp. plans to begin a free video distribution service for cellular phones on March 27, with the goal of attracting 3 million registered users in the initial year. Videos, each lasting no more than five minutes or so, will be transmitted to users of 3G-handsets that support video and high-speed data communications functions once they register their personal information, including ZIP codes, sex and email addresses. No fees will be charged, but four short commercials will be inserted into each programme.

Japan Handsets Sales to Increase

Japan’s mobile-phone shipments are forecast to rise this year, after gaining for the first time in three quarters in the period ended December, researcher IDC said. For all of 2005, shipments rose 0.5 percent to 44.32 million units. Sales of 3G handsets in the fourth quarter helped offset declines in the previous two quarters, fourth-quarter mobile-phone shipments rose 7.1 percent to 11.6 million units from a year earlier, IDC said.

Suica Mashup Mapping

Sherelog is a system that fetches data from JR’s Suica RFID train pass and visualizes personal train-ride records on a large public map (or Google Map). Koutaro Hashimoto, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Toshio Iwai, Michitaka Hirose showed this system at the Japan Media Arts Festival earlier this month. The developers’ intentions seem to be (1) to support people to remember their personal travel histories and reflect upon them and (2) to create unique opportunities for communications by making it extremely easy to share personal travel histories.

Japan 3G Customers Become Majority

The Telecom Carriers Assoc. stats just released for February sales activity indicate that the majority of mobile phone customers in Japan have now migrated to 3G. DoCoMo added over 828,000 new 3G contracts for a total of 22 million, KDDI/au added 309,000 for 21 million and Vodafone managed to sign-up 195,000 new 3G customers for a total of just under 3 million.