3G
3G

3G

SoftBank Mobile Rockin in May

When the TCA subscriber numbers came out on Thursday the champange corks were popping in Shiodome. For the first time ever the number 3 operator (J-Phone, then Vodafone and now SoftBank) gained the most net customers (162,400) on the month beating KDDI’s 138,500 and nearly double DoCoMo’s 82,700. While their Yahoo! portal also added more clients than EZweb and i-mode the company also managed to boost their 3G accounts up by nearly 500,000 month-on-month to total 8.6 million or 50% of their total subscriber base.

Mobikyo at Wireless Japan 2007

Mobikyo KK, publisher of Wireless Watch Japan, announced today it will co-host three popular events in co-operation with Expo Comm Wireless Japan 2007, Tokyo Big Sight, 18-20 July, the largest specialized trade show in Japan dedicated to wireless and mobile network technologies. With over 34,000 industry professionals and 180 exhibitors attending, Wireless Japan is the central meeting point for Asia’s wireless industry. See our video reports for the 2006 event Here

As 3G adoption exceeds 70 percent saturation in Japan, mobile ecosystem players are increasingly aiming to establish partnerships, tie-ups and business deals to deliver their products and services – as well as lessons learned – into emerging markets elsewhere. There has never been a better time for overseas companies to make valuable connections into Japan’s wireless industry and there has never been a better venue than Mobikyo KK’s stellar event line-up at Expo Comm Wireless Japan.

Battery Charging Going Wireless

Here’s a great article, from the cover of Nikkei Electronics Asia June edition, detailing the wireless transmission of electric power. As we see more services and functions for mobile devices, which naturally leads to increased usage, the demand for more battery power has clearly become an issue. Quick wireless power re-charges stations, in convenient locations, may well prove to be a more effective and popular choice to the methanol alternative.

A Totally Vivid User Interface

A Totally Vivid User Interface - Video DemoThe Next-Generation of UI’s hit the street here recently on DoCoMo 3G handsets produced by Sharp and NEC. The Vivid UI by Tokyo-based Acrodea “integrates various types of multimedia content including 3D graphics, Flash animation and full-screen movie backgrounds which enable handsets to be easily personalized with graphically enhanced menus and dynamic standby screens.”

As more developers get their hands on the content creation tool, and as brand owners begin to realize this is a natural vehicle to connect with their markets, we fully expect this style of user interface to become a common standard in the near future.. and not just in Japan. Meanwhile, remember you saw it first here on WWJ!

i-mode Launch in Hong Kong

NEC has received orders for its Mobile Internet Platform (“NEMIP”) from Hutchison (HTHK), the largest 3G operator by subscribers in Hong Kong, which commenced i-mode services on May 30, 2007. This platform is an integrated solution composed of well integrated subsystems such as gateways, mail server systems and portal systems which incorporate multi-operator functions.

ITU Announces IMT-Advanced

The 22nd meeting of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector Working Party 8F (WP 8F) in Kyoto, Japan reached a significant milestone in its work when it forwarded for approval a new terrestrial radio interface for IMT-2000, “OFDMA TDD WMAN” as a specific subset of WiMAX. This new terrestrial radio interface complements the existing family of IMT-2000 radio interfaces and is in direct response to the demands of ITU Members to address the continuously growing wireless marketplace.

Oki Announces Safety Phone

Oki Electric has succeeded in developing the world’s first ultra small DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) wireless module for embedding in mobile phones to be used for inter-vehicle communication systems. Using this module the company succeeded in trial production of the world’s first mobile phone, “Safety Mobile Phone” specifically designed to improve pedestrian safety. The Safety Mobile Phone notifies vehicles in the surrounding area of its location and retrieves the location information of vehicles in the surrounding area that are equipped with the DSRC system.

SoftBank Mobile Summer Handsets

SoftBank Mobile announced their handset lineup for the ‘Summer of 2007 Sales Battle’ which will be available from the beginning of June. According to the company press release the 12 new 3G models are focused on style, quality and individuality, see the dedicated Flash site [in Japanese] Here. We note six handsets are coming from Sharp, including the 913SH slider while the upstart telco claims a scoop for the first deployment in Japan of Windows Mobile 6 on two of the units from HTC. Toshiba added three models with Samsung and Panasonic each contributing one. More details after the jump.

Mobile Monday Tokyo Demo Night Video

A Totally Vivid User Interface - Video DemoThe recent MoMo Tokyo event, held 23 April at KDDI’s Designing Studio, featured a mobile mash-up of presentations in the super-cool Demo Night format – which has been popular in other chapter cities. For Demo Night, a line-up of interesting mobile companies were allowed a 5- to 7-minute show & tell session for their mobile content or service offering – displayed on an actual handset and projected on the big screen for all to see. We’ve posted video of all six presentations for those of you who were unable to attend in person.

Tracey Northcott, VP at Enfour Group demonstrated Camera Jiten a native Brew dictionary application for instant scanning of English words giving their Japanese translations. Mandali Khalesi, CEO of Naviblog, showed-off how to find the closest Guinness with your mobile phone. David Collier, founder and CEO of Pikkle, demonstrated a new type of full-screen mobile flash service they provide to enable rich social networking. Nobuyoshi Noda, Mobile Division Deputy GM of Adways, gave an overview of the Mobile Affiliate Advertisement Smart-C product. Tim Smith, Director of Freeverse Consulting, introduced Malibu IVP, a middleware approach to creating useful and viable 3G videocall applications and Hiroshi Oda, VP Corporate Communications from CIAJ, announced that CEATEC JAPAN 2007 will launch a new special exhibit area under the theme of Digital Contents for their annual trade-show in October.