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Mobile FeliCa Trial Launch: Video Report

Mobile FeliCa Trial Launch: Video ReportWireless Watch Japan attended NTT DoCoMo’s December 15 press conference demonstrating the first phones to feature the Sony developed “Felica” peer-to-peer payment system. To debit the cash stored on the phone’s IC chip, all you do is swipe the handset in front of a reader; more cash can be downloaded via the i-mode network. The trial, using 2,500 each of the N504iC and SO504iC handsets (engineered by NEC and Sony) will run from today and until mid-2004, when full commercial service is expected to start. DoCoMo have lined up 27 e-payment service providers, including banks, convenience stores, TV broadcasters, game software publishers, and a retail ticketing outlet. There are already 17 million Japanese happily using Felica-based IC cards for train tickets and convenience store payments, many of whom have – surprise! – cell phones. We think the synergy and revenue potential of the two technologies is obvious – and so do DoCoMo’s accountants. Watch our first-on-the Web video report from Monday’s press event – and rethink your i-mode forecasts. Full Program Run-time 3:00

DoCoMo Starts FeliCa i–mode Trial Service

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it will launch a trial, called the “i-modeｮ FeliCa preview service,” using mobile phones equipped with FeliCa contactless IC chip technology developed by Sony Corporation. The phones will be used for public transport tolls, electronic money, personal identification and other trial services between December 17, 2003 and the summer of 2004.

KDDI Joins FeliCa Bandwagon

The news is out that KDDI has decided to adopt Sony’s FeliCa, thus removing a major barrier to the contact less IC card’s promulgation outside of DoCoMo in Japan– and also bringing the technology into a major cdma carrier. For us at WWJ, this is the biggest news of the month! Last week we talked to Shusaku Maruko, Senior Manager of Sony’s FeliCa Business Center and got the lowdown on what FeliCa will be. Please wait for that program, and before that, we will post the only FeliCA i-mode service video available for you, our loyal subscribers, around in the world on or around December 17. Sorry to hype this, but you just can’t get our action anywhere else in the world and, Goddam, we are so happy!

Magic Machine for Camera Phone Photos

Magic Machine for Camera Phone PhotosJapan is famous for cool camera-phones and its massive vending machine industry, put them together and you’ve got a significant business opportunity. We visited Pinchange Co. Ltd, and got a step-by-step demo. of their lean, mean Print Club Sticker making vending machine. Spun out of Panasonic’s Central Research Institute in 2001, the company is making a digital photo printing unit thats sure to follow in the foot steps of digital cameras – on phones or otherwise – around the world. By allowing users to input their photos from almost any type of memory card or even straight from the handset IR Port, we think they’ve tapped into a global goldmine. But thats not all we saw, they also gave us a sneak preview at a prototype LED virtual keyboard for mobile devices set to hit the streets here in 2004.
Full Program Run-time 13:49

NEC's V601N: Japan's First TV CellPhone

NEC's V601N: Japan's First TV CellPhoneIt’s sassy, not clunky – but analog only. If this sounds like an ode to Japan’s first Tellycelly, please make your call swift: The TV will only run about an hour before the batteries poop, but the sales potential is, we think, killer. Vodafone’s V601N [.pdf] from NEC, on sale in December, follows Japan’s long consumer electronics tradition; namely, a cool, high-tech gadget that will sell at a premium by the truckload. Watch the tube, no pesky packet fees, grab screen shots and capture live video from broadcast programs, access TV guides via browser, and use it as a remote to control your karaoke machine. Watch our exclusive WWJ video clip of the ‘next big thing’ in action at Vodafone’s October press conference when the unit was introduced.

Japan Mobile Phone Internet Marketing (Part 2)

Last December, professor Philip Sidel of the International University of Japan served up some nasty lessons for believers in location-based marketing strategies (WWJ video here). Last week, Sidel and professor Glenn E. Mayhew presented their latest findings on mobile Internet (MobileNet) usage in Japan, and have come up with a new set of surprises, some nasty… and some nice. At a lecture at the American Chamber of Commerce Japan’s e-Business forum, the Sidel/ Mayhew team again cut swaths through several layers of hype and slashed up several misconceptions marketers might have. In our recent Viewpoint article, we noted how surprised some European consultants were about the lack of business apps in Japan’s MobileNet. Now prepare for some more; data gleaned in their most recent study shows that less than half of Japan’s MobileNet users plug in to keitai Internet for more for more than 5 minutes a day, and, perhaps, only a quarter of users are willing to pay for content and this is just the beginning.