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3G Mobile Forum 2004 Conference Coverage

The difference between walking the walk and talking the talk was painfully clear at last week’s 3G Mobile Forum 2004 conference held but a home run away from Tokyo Disneyland’s Magic Mountain. The four-day event hit the airwaves running with a keynote from NTT DoCoMo’s Keji Tachikawa, who was able to reconfirm DoCoMo’s solid plans for FOMA through the year. But given the surplus of inertia that’s dragging 3G launches– actual and putative– the conference swayed on the tides of optimism and not a little understated recrimination between carriers, contents providers, business platform providers and engineers about the potential if not the reality of 3G outside of Japan, Korea and (possibly?) the UK.

This viewpoint hoists the petard on our exclusive video interviews with mobile phone inventor and 4G actualist Martin Cooper, who tells us about the potential and pratfalls of the wireless world as he sees them 30 years after he made that first call. We also have Playboy.com’s Markus Grindel telling us about the potential for adult content in the wireless environment, and last but definitely not least a high-paced program with prolific author and analyst Tomi Ahonen, a man who single-handedly lends a new meaning to ubiquity; he seems to be just about everywhere in the wireless space, and boy, is he always switched on. We’ll have this terrific triptych of programs up in the coming weeks, but first, let’s take a look at some interesting points at last week’s conference.

Japan Wireless 2004 Preview

Japan Wireless 2004 PreviewTune in for a WWJ exclusive year-end interview with IDC Japan Communication Research Division’s Senior Analyst Michito (Mitch) Kimura. In this video program, Kimura, a veteran IDC analyst, casts his eyes on the ups and downs over the last year in the world of wireless and takes a look at prospects for 2004. He details the strategy at Japan’s three carriers, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Vodafone, and offers his view on the prospects for Japan’s ever-surging content business. Kimura-san also gave us his perspective on the continued evolution of 3G, handset replacement cycles, and – a favorite topic of ours – Japan’s first packet pricing war.

Wireless Links for Digital TV Related Data

Dai Nippon Printing has begun providing a service to enable cellphone users to access content related to broadcast and communications satellite TV and terrestrial digital TV programs aired by transmitting 2D codes from their handsets. The service uses a bandwidth allocated to data broadcast in digital TV broadcast, and allows cellphone users to access program-related content from handsets while watching a program.

Vodafone's 2-Megapixel Camera Phone

Sharp’s V601SH handset hit the Tokyo streets in late December with a rollout price under $200 (19,800 yen). It features an embedded 2-megapixel CCD camera capable of capturing 2.02 million effective pixels and comes with autofocus and 20x zoom capability. The 2.4-inch QVGA CG silicon screen provides a bright and clear image display and is compatible with Bitflash’s vector imaging technology that allows documents (such asMicrosoft Office and Adobe Acrobat) to be scaled with very little loss of quality, so users can easily zoom into a specific area on a large spreadsheet document. The unit can also record 320 x 240-size .3gp video clips at 15 frames per second as well as display still images, games, and video clips on a TV using the video output function. In addition, the V601SH is the first cell phone to support Bow-Lingual, an entertaining dog barking translation function based on a toy device first offered by Takara. The software, contained on an SD memory card (which you have to purchase separately) can be loaded into the phone. When you’re within 15 inches of a dog, the program can register and is supposed to analyze the beast’s barks. We just shot a video episode featuring a live demo of a hound ordering a Doggy Treats and Perrier that will be coming online soon! (only WWJ could make this possible folks…). Meanwhile, as we get geared up for our January 2004 Wireless Watch programming, take a look at this short video clip we made using the V601SH on New Year’s Eve at the Hakone Shrine. Kotoshimo Yoroshiku! Win. Media 56k 300k

Motorola to Launch 3G Devices in Taiwan

Vowing to stay No. 1 in Taiwan’s mobile phone wars, Motorola announced it would roll out at least 30 new handset models next year in addition to the three sporty camera phones it unveiled yesterday. Its 2004 product portfolio might include at least two third-generation handsets, said Jonathan Hong, Motorola’s senior marketing promotion specialist in Taiwan. “In the coming year, we will be launching two to three models of our 3G phones. Everyone will be switching to 3G phones sooner or later. Motorola thinks it will happen in 2005 because there’s not enough content to make 3G devices attractive,” he said.

DoCoMo Plows $343.8 Million into 3.5G HSDPA

Signaling its seriousness to get its HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) network and concomitant mobile/smart phones up and transmitting in 2005, NTT DoCoMo said today that it is plowing 37 billion yen ($343.8 million) into 5 Japanese handset and network builders AND Motorola Japan Inc. What is immediately surprising about this move is that once again, as with yesterday’s media extravaganza on the new 900i phones, long-term handset partners Toshiba, and handset maker and major infrastructure builder Sony Ericsson are both missing. But it now looks like DoCoMo feels its time to start really kicking in the efficiencies to differentiate itself from KDDI’s WIN service both in terms of performance and, more critically, to faster recoup the considerable investment the company has made in 3G as it probably gears up for a packet price war with KDDI and Vodafone KK. And then, there is the leveraging of Motorola’s Linux links too!