NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile operator, faced tough questions at its annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday as unhappy investors complained about the company’s dividend level and stock performance. Some shareholders demanded the company apply more of its profits in the last business year ended March to double its dividend for the 2004/2005 year.
Motorola, Inc. a global leader in wireless communications and a mobile phone market leader in North Asia today announced the launch of the FOMA M1000, the world’s first-ever WLAN-integrated W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS dual-mode smartphone. Developed jointly by Motorola and NTT DoCoMo, the new handset is modeled on Motorola’s 3G A1000, which won high acclaim from consumers in Europe and Asia. The M1000 will be available in Japan from July 1, 2005 through NTT DoCoMo channels. (See Wireless Watch Japan’s Video Report from the press launch)
Japanese IC cards have pop posters grooving to a techno beat this summer. Fans of hunky J-Pop star Shogo Hamada just flash their Suica rechargeable RFID train commuter card at specially designed high-tech poster displays around town to reserve a copy of his newest album, My First Love. Japanese are calling this new interactive ad medium, “Denki Posta” (electronic posters). Popping up in all sorts of variations, most have plasma-display panels and flat-panel speakers.
Suica’s IC card technology has been a runaway hit in Japan. More than ten million are in circulation around the country and the service has brought in numerous retail partners for cashless payments at shops and restaurants within the stations. It was developed by Sony together with Japan Railways East Corporation and will soon migrate from hands to handsets. In January 2006, DoCoMo plans to combine their Felica smart card e-money platform with the Suica commuter card into a series of mobile handsets.
DoCoMo’s hybrid 3G-PDA M1000 handset is off the showroom floor and finally on the street. WWJ was at the launch event and we’ve put together a quick video program showing just what sort of hoops this smartphone jumps through. Previewed at an April 15 press conference, the tri-band business-use handset from Motorola juggles W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS for global roaming, opens Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs as well as PDF files, and allows multiple email functions including POP and IMAP email. Internet access channels through the Opera 7.5 browser. DoCoMo took the (daring) step of dropping i-mode capability for the M1000 in favor of global compatibility. More PDA than phone, all navigation is through the bright, 2.9-inch touch screen.
Hey DoCoMo Pimp my handset! NTT is shrugging off some of that infamous group-think mentality promoting trendy young designs in an eye-popping line of custom jackets for the P901iS series. Skulls, pistols, snakeskin, Samba Samurai and flower camo transform mobile phones into Japanese pop culture icons — complete with matching phone straps. D-@-mo (datmo design project) is turning out some of the best P901iS covers, but P901iS manufacturer Panasonic
plus a host of licensees have Japanese strutting down urban catwalks flashing their phones like designer clutches.
The cell phones transformation into fashion statement is something Americans are slowly catching on to. Coach, Hermes and Gucci got it right away and started marketing phone straps, charms or Keitai cases for brand loving locals. Custom painted, and completely illegal, rip offs of Chanel and Dior logos decorate jewel-encrusted handsets on pretty young things but everyone knows real brands are better. Now licensed names by youth culture designers and even game-obsessed Otaku brands are spreading onto handsets like a virus – a shiny, happy moneymaking virus.
NTT DoCoMo, and Korea’s LG Electronics just announced a basic agreement to jointly develop a dual-mode 3G FOMA handset that works on both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. The new handset will be capable of international roaming and equipped for all basic FOMA functions, including videophone and even i-mode mobile Internet access. Commercialization is targeted for spring of 2006. Though this move may seem rather like MSN and Yahoo coming out and agreeing to create joint web pages, DoCoMo needs to hustle up more offshore business even if it means sleeping with the enemy.
