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DoCoMo

SoftBank Charts Fiscal 2007 Plan

SoftBank Corp.’s President Masayoshi Son announced the companies vision going forward during the 27th regular meeting of shareholders held at Tokyo International Forum last week. Topics included an increased focus on contents, as previously signalled by the introduction of Yahoo! Streaming in May, and continued price war on voice services by adding a new total flat-rate calling package between family members to their already popular White Plan. According to their FYE 2006 results SoftBank added 10,000 new 3G base stations over the last fiscal year and plans to achieve a total 46,000 locations – almost on par with DoCoMo – installed by 1H FY2007.

Recycled DoCoMo Phones

Docomo and am/pm have begun equipping convenience stores with cellphone recycling bins, so that people can recycle their unwanted handsets. The recycling bins handle all makes and models and are designed to prevent theft. According to this announcement there are currently eight trial locations in place with plans to expand nationwide depending on consumer adoption.

DoCoMo Charts Course for Fiscal 2007

DoCoMo held it’s annual general shareholders meeting here yesterday at the Okura hotel to provide their FYE 2006 results and introduce the companies roadmap for 2007. According to several media reports the Q&A session touched on topics ranging from flat-rate data cards to making dual-mode GSM chipsets a common standard on future handsets and their desire to explore expansion opportunities into emerging markets overseas.

Kids Phones Worry Airlines

According to this article via the Yomiuri Shimbun, airlines are growing increasingly concerned about children bringing cell phones onto planes, as they could interfere with navigation systems. Airlines are especially concerned about the latest children’s cell phones, which contain a built-in crime prevention function that automatically restarts the phone if it is switched off. [WWJ demo video Here]

Mobile Blogs and SNS Survey

Seron over at What Japan Thinks translated a recently-published report from infoPLANT looking at access trends of blogs and SNS from both mobile phones and PC’s. Conducted between the 15th and 22nd of May 2007 3,709 people self-selected themselves to complete a public survey offered through the NTT DoCoMo iMode menuing system. 61.9% of the sample was female.