DoCoMo Announces First Half Financials
Market leading NTT DoCoMo’s consolidated financial results for the six months ending Sept. 30th were announced last week at this press conference in Tokyo. Operating revenues were up 6.4% while operating income was down 7.8% with earnings per share 3.9% lower when compared to the same period last year. Dr. Kenji Tachikawa, President and CEO stated “During the first six months of fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, the Japanese cellular phone market posted robust growth with the number of net additional subscribers reaching 2.94 million. The enviroment surrounding our business, however, became harsher as the competition among mobile telecom companies intensified..” He also had some interesting comments about their strategy going forward to year end. Full Program Run-time 14:57
The Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) is Asia’s premiere trade show for information technology and electronics sectors, including the fields of imaging, information and communications. This event brings together the complete spectrum of new technologies with a total of 505 companies and organizations, including almost every major Japanese electronics and communications company, 170 exhibitors from 16 counties and regions worldwide, exhibited in 2,460 booths. We visited KDDI to take a closer look at their prototype Sanyo Digital TV phone, talked to the Kyocera folks about the upcoming convergence of GSM and CDMA and interviewed DoCoMo about their IT-House service offering coming soon for 3G FOMA handsets. Full Program Run-time 20:39
We talked to a number of new and established Japanese companies and they were pessimistic about the BREW platform. The general consensus from most developers was that BREW is a bind: without a market, they won’t invest the three or four months it takes to develop a BREW games app. But without the app, where’s the market. Then we had a fascinating chat with the CEO of HelloNet, a Korean BREW contents developer, about their real-time multiplayer network games that are set to roll out here soon. Our interview with Sammy Networks yielded an interesting comment on who to watch for the next mobile gaming market boom in Asia. You better grab a coffee and sit back to enjoy a whole new kind of 3G -Games, Geeks and Girls- video show. Full Program Run-time 21:41
Flashback a few years when J-Phone stunned the competition, and started a global wireless trend, by rolling out their new camera phones; well they may have just done it again. J-Phone was officially renamed as Vodafone KK on Oct. 1st. We were on hand to see President and CEO Darryl E. Green announce the company’s strategy going forward. After his brief pep talk, and during the rather harsh question period from reporters on J-Phone’s recent performance, Green pulled out a shiny red metallic NEC handset. The cameras strobed and the room began to buzz as it became clear that Vodafone had scooped everyone yet again with Japan’s first TV-Phone, set to hit Tokyo streets just in time for New Years. Full Program Run-time 14:24
Wireless Watch Japan was on hand for FOMA’s first international video call in Sept. at the WPC 2003 event. After the keynote introduction from Hutchison’s CEO Bob Fuller, and the World Call demo., we chatted with DoCoMo’s Mariko Hanaoka about their new service. We also took a ride on the upcoming telematics platform in a quick interview with Hidenori Obara of DoCoMo’s ITS Business Promotion Office, and heard that Seiko will add a color display, but not a camera function, to its next generation of the Wristomo PHS phone. Perhaps someday DoCoMo will bundle all three services together…!! In a seperate development we got a peek at Panasonic’s killer app. for camera phones everywhere. Full Program Run-time 16:22
Take a 2 hour trip to Tokyo – compressed into a 3 minute time lapse – and check out Vodafone’s answer to the 505i series. Boasting a 256k capable java appli that makes the ’53 a perfect gaming device, its little wonder that companies like Namco and Taito have lined up some great content for the early adopters. Perhaps most impressive was how clean the 3D Polygon graphics look on that QVGA screen, pardon us for almost forgetting this unit was also the first mega-pixel camera phone on the market to boot. Its not all just games either, a couple of sexy voice recognition functions are on tap in this demo as well, so buckle up for a great ride..!! Full Program Run-time 19:57
On Sept. 4th WWJ attended the Otemachi Corporate News Room for a press conference hosted by DoCoMo President and CEO Dr. Keiji Tachikawa. He covered a wide range of topics including; a new carry-over billing plan and upgraded service offerings for FOMA, brisk sales – 2.7 million units – of the recently launched 505 series handsets and the new ‘Hearty Style’ campaign package for handicapped users. He also took questions regarding their current and upcoming 3G activities in China and Taiwan, and offered his personal thoughts on the differing strategies between DoCoMo and Vodafone. If you need the full-skinny, in English, we’re the only game in town! Full Program Run-time 21:19
Last week the major wireless players in Japan converged in Tokyo’s trendy Aoyamadistrict to discuss future mobile content development strategies, and we were there see DoCoMo’s director for i-mode Takeshi Natsuno and KDDI’s contents general manager Makoto Takahashi keynote speeches. We also sat down to chat with infoPLANT’s V.P and Chief Development Officer, Susumu Taniuchi, about their new camera-phone based marketing research business. With so much potential and controversy surrounding the ketai cams we were impressed to see how a traditional business model can evolve by adopting these new tools and technologies. Full Program Run-time 14:50
As the march towards rich-media solutions for mobile continues, some partsof the evolution remain a challenge – such as common standards and digitalrights management. But the Java virtual machine offers several advantagesfor the carriers, device manufacturers, content developers and end users. This week’s program digs into the details with Tim Smith, managing director of Hello Network Asia. *Disclosure Note* HNA has been an active technology partner for WWJ since our inception. However we strongly feel that this support should not exempt the company from fair coverage of their recent successful mobile application deployments. Full Program Run-time 17:20
In Shibuya – the heart of Japan’s wireless revolution – the mobile Internet is high-tech, uber sophisticated, and cutting-edge. It’s also… Irish. Normally, we wouldn’t make much fuss over three Ireland-based outsiders trying to break into the mobile market here, but one of them – e-settlement software developer Network365 – recently inked a break-through deal with the local heavyweight, NTT DoCoMo; the other two (Parthus Ceva and Polar Lake) also appear to have some real prospects. Our program provides an interesting, behind-the-scenes look at how out-of-town players are making a dent in Japan’s mobile market. Full Program Run-time 19:27