EM Microelectronic has developed in cooperation with Skidata and EC-Passage a transponder chip, the EM4026, which greatly facilitates the handling and identification of rented skis or snowboards at ski resorts. The battery-less transponder, which contains the chip connected only to a small antenna, is integrated into the ski at manufacturing time and powered by the reader field that can operate at temperatures down to -40C.
Japan’s Toshiba Corp. said on Monday it had sold its 33 percent stake in a mobile phone joint venture in China to a local partner, withdrawing from a highly competitive market with hefty growth potential. Toshiba, Japan’s second-largest electronics conglomerate, set up the venture with Nanjing Putian and another company in Hong Kong in 2000 to make and sell Toshiba handsets in China.
NEC has signed a letter of intent to resell RFID identification and tracking system for prisons from Alanco in Asia. The agreement is non-exclusive in Japan but exclusive in other, unidentified, Asian markets. A definitive agreement, worth several million, will be signed in the next thirty days, said Alanco.
Vodafone K.K. announces today that it has decided to donate proceeds from recycled mobile handsets that are collected at Vodafone shops to the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan (WWF Japan), starting 1 April 2005 for one year. In addition to reducing waste to minimise impact on the environment, Vodafone K.K. has been able to contribute to the effective use of resources through its mobile handset recycling activities. Vodafone K.K. began donating proceeds from handset recycling in fiscal 2002, and donated 20 million yen and 18.4 million yen in fiscal 2002 and 2003 respectively.
The antimonopoly regulator ordered five major Japanese record label and software companies Thursday to stop an illegal attempt to dominate the domestic market in mobile phone ring tones.
Can design ride to the rescue against obnoxious cell-phone users? Jim and the incomparable Aaron Draplin think it can. As a public service, we introduce the reasonably polite SHHH, the Society for HandHeld Hushing: downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and featured in Wired News, on Australian National Radio and in dozens of other media.
Japan and the advancing markets saw the largest year-on-year growth among adults who used the Internet via a wireless connection. However, wireless population growth was largely driven by the two biggest Internet markets, the U.S. and Japan, fuelling 69 percent of user increase and adding an estimated 15 million and 11.6 million new wireless Internet users, respectively. Wireless Internet also gained some popularity in Western Europe, South Korea and Urban China.
Willcom Inc., Japan’s largest personal handy-phone system (PHS) company, said Tuesday it will introduce a flat rate for voice communication starting 1 May, becoming the first domestic wireless carrier to provide such service. It said the service will allow users to call fellow Willcom PHS users for unlimited minutes for 2,900 yen per month. Willcom, formerly DDI Pocket Inc., was bought out from KDDI Corp. by the U.S. investment firm Carlyle Group.
Cute is a way of life for the Japanese regardless of age — and occasionally gender. Rather like George Lucas’ The Force, it permeates all life, binding consumer and corporate galaxies together. The undeniable mistress of power in this universe is Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. It was inevitable that Kitty would join in a fearful synchronicity of marketing with Apple to create a limited-edition Hello Kitty iPod mini.
Last Thursday, Takafumi Horie, billed as the guy who “has Japan talking,” was guest lunch speaker at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club (FCCJ) in Tokyo. There has been a lot of coverage lately of his company’s plans to acquire Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. (Nippon Hoso), a long-established, old-line Japanese media company. WWJ is fast forming the opinion that, whatever the outcome of Livedoor’s takeover bid, the company may not have much of a mobile strategy — a fatal flaw, in our opinion.
