Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times

Nintendo DS Attracts Crowds

In the Tokyo district of Ikebukuro, about 100 people, including junior high school children and workers on their way to the office, lined up outside a store that opened its doors at 7 a.m. to snap up Nintendo’s new interactive “Nintendo DS” [.jpg image] game consoles. The dual-screen consoles come with a touch panel and built-in chat software, and can be connected to a wireless network to interact with other players. After purchasing the console, many of them immediately opened the box and started playing. Nintendo hopes to sell 5 million consoles worldwide by March 2005.

Record TV Shows Using i-mode

TV viewers have been using electronic program guides (EPG) and video recording on hard disk drives (HDDs) for viewing programs whenever desired. Now you can easily schedule television recordings without being in front of the TV or VCR, just by entering the necessary program information into your mobile while you are away from home — via i-mode, of course. WWJ reported on this system last year in our “CEATEC Japan 2003: The Future of Wireless” video program, now it’s finally coming to Prime Time.

Prepaid Phones Going, Going, Gone?

Will prepaid phones pay the price for allegedly rising crime rates in Japan? NTT DoCoMo president Masao Nakamura spoke of discontinuing prepaid phone services at a recent press conference and others are calling for an outright ban. Japan’s close (some would say too close) private/public-sector interaction seemed to shadow his statement that the company needed to act considering the growing number of fraud cases using prepaid handsets. It’s only coincidence, we’re sure, that one of DoCoMo’s foreign competitors stands to lose big from shutting down prepaid. And last week, a European business organization pointed out just how wacky a ban would be.

Virus Protection For 3G Phones

McAfee is offering subscribers to Japan’s mobile carrier, NTT DoCoMo, a mobile content scanning technology designed to provide protection against future mobile threats. McAfee VirusScan Content Scanning technology, the industry’s first mobile virus scanning solution, was jointly developed with NTT DoCoMo and is offered as a built-in service on the new FOMA 901i-series 3G mobile phones.

Vodafone Japan Goes Flat-Rate

Vodafone Japan has finally announced the launch of a flat-rate price plan. Vodafone’s new “Packet Free” tariff will allow unlimited use for 3,900 yen; there is also a “Packet Economy” level for 2,000 yen. Both plans allow free messaging (including attachments) between other subscribers and offer global roaming video calling from selected European regions (works on six of the seven new 3G handsets). Top that off with Macromedia Flash, some compelling pre-installed game content, and a new “Vodafone BB” data download service and it would seem Vodafone are finally getting their 3G underway.

Mobile Phone Makers Rush To 3G

Foreseeing global demand for new WCDMA phones will be worth more than 30 million units next year, world leading mobile phone makers, including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Siemens as well as domestic manufacturers began making a big push into the 3G handset market to take lion?s share. Mindbranch Asia Pacific, a market research firm, forecasts that the number of new subscribers to 3G wireless communication service will reach 38 million worldwide next year generating a new demand for more than 30 million units of handsets.