G-mode was set up in 2001 for the sole purpose of creating Java games for wireless. They say they’ve sold 63 million downloads since then, and their games are played 250,000 times per day. This is the first mobile content provider we’ve ever met that claims made-in-Japan games can be exported overseas, despite the barriers of language and culture. Considering that Tetris — known globally — has no text, they just could be right.
With over 150 different Internet-capable cellular handsets in use by four different carriers, the challenge of formatting content to match the terminal is becoming, well, terminal. Each model has its own screen dimensions, color capability, and other idiosyncrasies, and if your business depends on making sure that mobile shoppers can see pics of all your products, like, say Yahoo Japan Auctions’ does, you’re in a world of hurt. Fortunately, one company has a solution. Thank God for the Americans!
Openwave is one of the key players in software and all things wireless, and are a vendor to both J-Phone and KDDI. We interview a senior product manager on standards-based applications, and why MMS may fail like WAP 1.0. We also take a first-hand look at a lively new instant messaging application for keitai and PC.
The Streaming Media Japan 2002 show was held last month, and we dutifully trooped over to cover the excitement, certain in our belief that mobile players would be out in force. There wasn’t a single carrier there — nada, zilch — much less any of the big-name content players. Isn’t Japan’s 3G future supposed to be all about streaming content delivered via thin air? Guess not..?!?
There’s a whole donburi full of WLAN projects in the works right now, including efforts by NTT DoCoMo, NTT Communications, Yahoo BB, Speednet, and others. All are following the famous “hotspot” model, and are angling tie-ups with your Macdonalds, your Mos Burgers, and your coffee shops. But we found a new entrant with a contrarian approach. Forget all the relatively immobile burger eaters and coffee drinkers; MIS provides fat pipes to surfers who are actually walking down the street.
World Cup soccer has kept Japan at a fever pitch for the past couple of months, and we decided to drop by the sports cafe set up by superstar player Hidetoshi Nakata in downtown Tokyo to catch some of the action. J-Phone were there too, illustrating the key role that celebrity sponsorship has played in the sales and marketing of handsets in Japan, without which the mobile Internet would be a much duller space.
