Telstra expects more than one million Australians will pay $500 for new handsets, plus an extra $10-$17 per month for content, when the telco launches its own version of the i-mode mobile phone content service before Christmas. The Australian carrier became the first telco in the English-speaking world to sign up with the Japanese telco, NTT DoCoMo, which claims 41 million subscribers for the service in its own country.
Yet another important pre-launch milestone for FeliCa, the break-through IC chip technology we feel is going to turn Japan’s mobile phones into e-wallets from next year, has been announced by Fujitsu: The company will incorporate the hardware it its next-generation F900iC handsets a scant 8 weeks from now. These new handsets, as we have argued in a series of articles over the last six months, have a very good chance of sparking a revolution in the way keitai are used in Japan.
From Tokyo’s ultra-buttoned-down cellco headquarters to the funky, cell-phone-using youth masses, Wireless Watch Japan brings you first-hand video reporting on this country’s mobile revolution — and now we’ve done it 100 times! To celebrate, the WWJ team decided to show you more of what makes Japan’s wireless Internet the world’s test-bed for high-speed W-CDMA and CDMA 2000 networks and ubersophisticated mobile applications. Today’s program serves, we think, as a showcase for the incredible developments happening in the Japan market — and provides highlights from some of the past episodes we’ve had the pleasure to bring you. Phew! Happy 100th webcast to us! Full Program Run-time 5:41.. Oh, wait there’s more… 😎
Toshiba Corporation today announced its latest strategic roadmaps for the memory market, which reflect the company’s continued focus on the rapidly-growing file storage market, the mobile electronics memory market, and high-performance solutions for networking and digital consumer applications. This market segmentation enables Toshiba to respond rapidly to customer requirements and develop advanced memory solutions to meet their needs. Toshiba’s current line-up of memory products serving these three market segments includes NAND Flash, high-density NOR Flash, low-power SRAMs, Pseudo SRAMs (PSRAMs) and advanced Multi-Chip Packages (MCP) which integrate various memory technologies into a single package; and for the networking and extreme performance digital consumer market, Network Fast-Cycle RAMs (Network FCRAMs(TM)) and XDR(TM) DRAM.
After the May 7 release of NTT DoCoMo’s full-year FY 2003 financial results, Tokyo analysts, financial consultants, and investment gurus have been churning out a steady stream of opinion and forecasts. After reporting stunning net profits of Y650 bn (about US$5.71 bn), at least some analysts predict the company is on track to return to the Y1-trillion operating profit level in FY 2004, ending 31 March 2005 (have any outside Japan achieved similar?). Among the more interesting gems: 2G average revenue per user (ARPU) was Y7,470 (Y5,570 voice, Y1,900 data; data was 25% of total) in 4Q2004, while 3G ARPU was Y10,360 (Y6,960 voice, Y3,400; data was 33% of total) for the same period. Clearly, 3G rocks! But that’s not all — read on for the predictions on how new, flat-rate data pricing will affect profits in FY2004.
DoCoMo announced today the release of D506i and F506i, two new handsets in the 2G i-mode compatible mova 506i series, that will be marketed beginning May 19, 2004. The D506i [.jpg image] features a voice-activated camera shutter and multifunctional side button to activate the camera for stills/video or the voice recorder, even while the handset is closed. The F506i [.jpg image] includes a 2.04 mega-pixels autofocus CCD camera with a sweep-type fingerprint sensor. You can also get a sneak peek at the new 506i series models in our video coverage from the recent launch event.
