DoCoMo
DoCoMo

DoCoMo

NEC's Electronic Image Stabilizer

DoCoMo will launch the N902i [.jpg] developed and manufactured by NEC Corp., on November 18th. Although the effective pixel count of the image sensor is about two million, the camera may provide 4-megapixel still image resolution with the use of pixel interpolation by correcting blur using four photos taken at the same time. Instead of an optical image stabilizer which moves a lens mechanically, which is used by most digital cameras, this unit employs an electronic image stabilizer to record a much clearer image.

2006: Japan's Year of the FeliCa eWallet Phone

2006: Japan's Year of the FeliCa eWallet PhoneAccording to the ancient Chinese calendar, 2006 is The Year of the Dog. More importantly, it’s shaping up to be The Year of the eWallet. Launched last summer, DoCoMo’s FeliCa-based wallet phones are a growing success and competitors Vodafone and KDDI have scrambled to launch their own FeliCa-equipped models.

A recent survey points to wide consumer satisfaction and even the BBC have started reporting on Osaifu Keitai (wallet phones). The BBC’s ‘Click Online’ producer caught up with me last month in Tokyo; they were in town to cover CEATEC, but also wanted the tech and business-model details on DoCoMo’s ‘i-mode FeliCa‘ mobile service, as well as how people are using them. The result was a pretty good TV programme (if I may say so myself), which you can watch on the Click Online site(WWJ subscribers log in for full story).

Japan Mobile Users Survey

InfoPlant performed a survey of mobile phone users, carried out through the main menus of internet-enabled phones from DoCoMo, au and Vodafone which was at least somewhat focused on flat-rate data trends [.pdf in Japanese]. 16,833 people replied during the survey, 67.4% of respondents were female, and iMode users, Ezweb users and Vodafone Live! users were 57.4%, 20.9% and 21.7% respectively. WWJ subscribers login for the English translation.

DoCoMo Subscribers Top 50 Million

NTT DoCoMo have just announced that subscribers to the companies mobile phone services exceeded 50 million today, about three years and 10 months after surpassing 40 million. DoCoMo subscribers refer to 2G mova, 3G FOMA and DoPa Single Service customers. In the first 10 years after DoCoMo began offering cellular services in 1979, subscribers grew at an average net rate of roughly 30,000 per year. From 1993, two years after DoCoMo launched its 2G mova service, the average annual net gain to the present time has been about four million subscribers.

Japan to Grant New Carrier Licenses

Competition in Japan’s already crowded cell-phone market is set to intensify as the government prepares to open the door to new entrants for the first time in 12 years. Softbank, eAccess and IP Mobile will be granted licenses by the government to offer cell-phone services, possibly from next year, Jiji Press and Kyodo News said Tuesday, citing unnamed informed sources.

Web Update: It’s official!

DoCoMo Launching Mobile Credit Card

DoCoMo’s Osaifu keitai (mobile wallet) line of cell phones will soon have their own branded virtual credit card for mobile payments. The iD card (‘i’ as in “i-mode”) will be launched on December 1, 2005 and will enhance existing credit card services by giving credit card owners the option of making payments via a DoCoMo wallet phone linked to the card, in addition to conventional payments with their plastic credit card. That means charges through the phone will automatically be deducted from the user’s designated credit card. Just waving the phones in front of dedicated reader/writers at stores will start the payment process.