NTT DoCoMo just announced that DoCoMo Europe (France) S.A.S., a wholly owned subsidiary of DoCoMo Europe Ltd., will be closed at the end of this year and a representative office in Paris will be established in January 2008. With the main role of the subsidiary now reduced to the monitoring of the European telecom industry, DoCoMo has decided to replace it with a representative office that will liaise in matters related to DoCoMo’s business interests in Europe.
Domestic market incumbant NTT DoCoMo came out with all guns blazing during their press conference at the Grand Park Hyatt in Tokyo on November 1st. For the first time ever they combined the launch for both of their upcoming 700 and 900 series models – a record 23 handsets unveiled at once – and the announcement included several new service offerings as well. Marking another notable difference from previous line-up introductions was the absence of Natsuno-san, famed ‘father of i-mode’ and always energetic MC, from the stage.
The companies flag-ship 905i-series included 10 models which will all come fully loaded with high-speed HSDPA, 1Seg digitial-tv, DCMX m-commerce, GPS, 2in1 dual-sim identity and enabled with GSM chipsets to allow global roaming complete with voice-to-text translation capabilities for English, Chinese and Japanese. Further enhancements in handset design include increased multi-media applications in motion sensor gaming, flat-rate music subscriptions and i-motion videos along with updated i-area mapping and cell broadcast emergency announcement services and Flash Lite 3 pre-installed all coming as standard features across the board.
Talk about Mega Games, wish we had seen this at TGS in Sept., Taito has announced it will release a motion sensitive music application for DoCoMo 904i-series handsets (D904i excluded) in December. Their so-called “Intuition Band” game also makes use of the built-in camera sensor and a/v output allowing ‘players’ to create their very own mobile music! It will apparently also do other instruments, such as drum tracks (not sure about vocals?), and the company will be offering a free trial version via the i-mode menu from early November.
Second Life Japan’s mobile application is slated for public launch here on December 15th and the company is going into recruiting mode for 100 beta users to take the new service for a test-drive. The mobile version will offer both limited free and full paid monthly subscription accounts, 315jpy per month including 300 Linden dollars, and appears to be initially targeted at DoCoMo handsets from the 3G FOMA 700 and 900 series. Clients are strongly urged to make sure they have a flat-rate data plan!
NTT DoCoMo and UFIDA Software Co., Ltd., a leading provider of management software solutions and services in Asia, are waiting for the final approval from Chinese authorities to establish a mobile ecommerce joint venture between the companies. UFIDA Mobile has announced its development strategy for m-commerce in China and plans to deploy their first full-scale mobile commerce platform in the eastern region.
The Mobile Contents Forum (MCF) is gearing up for the Mobidec 2007 conference again this year to be held on 27 November at the swanky Meguro Gajoen in Tokyo. Their stated focus topics for the popular annual industry event include; SEM, SEO, advertising, user-generated content, m-commerce and digital tv broadcasting for mobile. We’ve always enjoyed this gathering in years past and look forward to attending again in November!
The fall and winter 2007 handset season is officially upon us now with au announcing their new series of models will hit the dori by middle of November. The latest line-up also claims one ‘world first’ with a co-op between Samsung and Hitachi, on the W53H – Wooo, touting a 2.8 inch QVGA organic EL display targeting users hooked on 1Seg digital-tv. More details with pics and links after the jump.
Advanced M-Pay, the mobile payment arm of AIS, is penetrating the online community and making inroads into the high-margin international direct dialing services in an effort to turn a profit in 2008 for the first time ever. The 70:30 joint venture firm between the Thai cellular market leader Advanced Info Service and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo (as noted Here) expects the strategic shift to improve its performance by 30% next year in terms of transaction volume and value, revenue and profit.
NTT DoCoMo and KT Freetel just announced that in November they will set up a venture fund in Korea to invest in promising mobile and IT firms. Through the fund, DoCoMo and KTF expect to identify promising companies for tie-ups in technology and other opportunities in the mobile and IT sectors. The fund will will operate for six years, with an option for a two-year extension, and will be managed by KTBnetwork Co., Ltd.
US-based ScanR will provide their new service to KDDI customers via the EZWeb official contents portal as of October 4th 2007, press release [in Japanese] Here. “ScanR” creates PDF files of documents and business cards from user-generated cameraphone images, and stores those files online to deliver via FAX or e-mail. The service, which can also automatically transcode business card information into file data to be compiled onto the address book of your mobile phone, is on display in KDDI’s booth at CEATEC this week.
