It’s back! The Mobile Intelligence Tour, that is. Building on the highly successful MIT 1 held in April 2004 and co-organized by Wireless Watch Japan chief editor Daniel Scuka, MIT 2, 3-8 October 2004, promises to be better than ever. For full details at Mobile Intelligence Japan.
A year ago, WWJ predicted the end of packet-based pricing. A year later, KDDI/au, and Japan, would seem to be entering a new price war. Today, KDDI threw down the gauntlet to DoCoMo by slashing its fixed packet charge from 4,200 yen to 2,000 yen (Yes! You read that right…) on August 1, while flaunting three cool new mobile models armed with what will rapidly become de rigeur in Japan: flash! We’ll have an exclusive video program with Anup Murarka, Macromedia’s senior director of mobile marketing and devices coming in a few weeks, and — of course — breathtaking visuals of KDDI’s newest and sexiest phones and menus. But first, let’s take a look at the No. 2 carriers’s latest strategy to keep pummeling DoCoMo and Vodafone for new adds in a maturing market.
An interesting mobile user survey has been posted on the Research+ site, which is run by iBridge KK (Japanese only). The survey includes responses from 1,000 respondents of all ages, from teens to 60-years-and-older, and focused on mobile data usage. It appears that lots of Japanese use the mobile Internet at least somewhat while a few use it quite a lot… And upon such tenuous results DoCoMo et al have built empires. Meanwhile, the police find that bad kids use too much data.
Today, Casio announced the world’s first 3.2-megapixel camera phone, the A5406CA [image] for KDDI. Fully equipped with an automatic focus function, the 2048ױ536 QXGA image size compares in quality to what the company calls “traditional” digital cameras. Mobile snappers can choose from 9 Best Shot modes, including twilight, panoramic, fireworks, and the unlikely named “food” setting. The unit also boasts up to 60 minutes of video recording (clips are saved to the onboard 12-MB data folder). A WWJ English Web news scoop! Press Release in Japanese.
KDDI announced a new line of 3G phones to be available end of February 2004. The models include the W21H by Hitachi, equipped with a mega pixel camera, the first of the kind among CDMA 1X WIN mobile phones; the Sanyo A5405SA, equipped with functions such as “pair function” and “smart mode” and the Sony Ericsson A1402S, equipped with a 2.3 inch QVGA LCD and au’s first infrared ray communication function.
The Wireless Watch Japan Media Project will co-produce the Mobile Intelligence Tour (MIT) to Tokyo from 12-16 April 2004, promising to be one of this year’s premiere events for extracting business intelligence from the Japan mobile market. MIT aims to expose participants to the best and brightest individuals and companies making mobile work in Japan, the world’s No. 1 wireless market, and will include highly focussed company briefings, presentations, visitations, end-user demonstrations, access to local experts, and industry-related social events.
