For some strange reason NTT DoCoMo seems reluctant to sink more cash into loss-making AT&T Wireless – the most grumbled about carrier in the North American market – two years after seeing the value of its $8 billion investment in the “struggling” carrier come to zilch. At least DoCoMo has a footprint in the U.S. market, well one anyway, a demonstration room with a FOMA (Freedom tO Move Away from AT&T?) base station.
The difference between walking the walk and talking the talk was painfully clear at last week’s 3G Mobile Forum 2004 conference held but a home run away from Tokyo Disneyland’s Magic Mountain. The four-day event hit the airwaves running with a keynote from NTT DoCoMo’s Keji Tachikawa, who was able to reconfirm DoCoMo’s solid plans for FOMA through the year. But given the surplus of inertia that’s dragging 3G launches– actual and putative– the conference swayed on the tides of optimism and not a little understated recrimination between carriers, contents providers, business platform providers and engineers about the potential if not the reality of 3G outside of Japan, Korea and (possibly?) the UK.
This viewpoint hoists the petard on our exclusive video interviews with mobile phone inventor and 4G actualist Martin Cooper, who tells us about the potential and pratfalls of the wireless world as he sees them 30 years after he made that first call. We also have Playboy.com’s Markus Grindel telling us about the potential for adult content in the wireless environment, and last but definitely not least a high-paced program with prolific author and analyst Tomi Ahonen, a man who single-handedly lends a new meaning to ubiquity; he seems to be just about everywhere in the wireless space, and boy, is he always switched on. We’ll have this terrific triptych of programs up in the coming weeks, but first, let’s take a look at some interesting points at last week’s conference.
Tune in for a WWJ exclusive year-end interview with IDC Japan Communication Research Division’s Senior Analyst Michito (Mitch) Kimura. In this video program, Kimura, a veteran IDC analyst, casts his eyes on the ups and downs over the last year in the world of wireless and takes a look at prospects for 2004. He details the strategy at Japan’s three carriers, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Vodafone, and offers his view on the prospects for Japan’s ever-surging content business. Kimura-san also gave us his perspective on the continued evolution of 3G, handset replacement cycles, and – a favorite topic of ours – Japan’s first packet pricing war.
Fujitsu Ltd. is reported to be re-entering the European market with both 2- and 3G phones in 2005, according to a report in Japan’s Nikkei. Fujitsu’s last foreign foray overseas, in the United States, ended in 1997. The Nikkei reports that Fujitsu plans to develop dual-standard phones with France’s Sagem SA, with which Fujitsu signed a technology partnership agreement back in 2002. The new phones are reported to support both GRPS and W-CDMA.
Signaling its seriousness to get its HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) network and concomitant mobile/smart phones up and transmitting in 2005, NTT DoCoMo said today that it is plowing 37 billion yen ($343.8 million) into 5 Japanese handset and network builders AND Motorola Japan Inc. What is immediately surprising about this move is that once again, as with yesterday’s media extravaganza on the new 900i phones, long-term handset partners Toshiba, and handset maker and major infrastructure builder Sony Ericsson are both missing. But it now looks like DoCoMo feels its time to start really kicking in the efficiencies to differentiate itself from KDDI’s WIN service both in terms of performance and, more critically, to faster recoup the considerable investment the company has made in 3G as it probably gears up for a packet price war with KDDI and Vodafone KK. And then, there is the leveraging of Motorola’s Linux links too!
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regionalsubsidiaries today unveiled the FOMA 900i series, the most advanced-ever 3G FOMA i-mode mobile phones, featuring a Macromedia Flash-equipped browser, HTML e-mailand avatar-capable videophone. Compared with the original series of FOMA phones, 900imodels offer three times longer standby and weigh 20 percent less. The 900i series will boast the first 3G phones equipped with a Macromedia Flash browserfor the enjoyment of rich content enhanced with highly fluid animation. Flash applicationsof up to 100K are possible, compared with 20K in 2G mova 505i series. The new serieswill also handle richer, more sophisticated online games. Java-based i-appli applications offer a 400K scratch pad and have a maximum capacity of 100K forcontent/archiving, compared with 200K and 30K in existing models.
