Qualcomm has announced that Digital Hollywood will host the upcoming BREW developers’ seminar event to be held in Tokyo on 26 April. KDDI is also on board as co-sponsor offering workshops at their Harajuku Designing Studio for two days in June. Full details [in Jpn.] from their Press Release; access BrewJapan.com site, which has a limited English section available.
Wireless Watch Japan will produce the third Mobile Intelligence mission to Tokyo, 17-22 April 2005, providing an in-depth study of the success factors, companies and technologies that have boosted Japan’s mobile Internet into the world’s No. 1 position. Full Press Release Here
In the past year, new third-generation (3G) wireless Internet services have won millions of mobile consumer customers with QR bar-code readers, e-wallet-based m-commerce, mobile TV, and CD-quality music downloading all enjoying fast consumer uptake. Furthermore, flat-rate data pricing, convergence between cellular, VoIP and fixed wireless services, and per-event billing are all fundamentally reshaping mobile business models. Nonetheless, as Japan’s carriers perfect their 3G survival strategies, they find that 3G ARPUs are actually higher than on older 2G systems.
In a telephone interview with a research company in Toronto last night, I was asked for examples of the coolest new applications or services in Japan. Without a doubt, I answered, mobile music and the Chaku Uta Full song download services are really eating up packet bandwidth. The week before last, KDDI announced that the cumulative downloads for EZ Chaku Uta Full (provided via the CDMA 1X EV-DO WIN network) had surpassed 3 million as of 1 March 2005, less than four months after the 19 November 2004 launch. The company added that the 1 million and 2 million milestones were achieved on 5 January and 5 February, respectively.
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KDDI has just announced a new addition to their line-up of 3G handsets made by Sanyo [.jpg image] to go on sale starting tomorrow in the Kanto region. Aside from glowing candy colors like “Pink Mousse” and “Mango Pudding” — sure to please the young, hip, teen crowd — it also has a unique GPS function so the parents will know where the kids are located when they send email. The ultra-high-density QVGA display combined with ‘Smart-Mode’ and ‘friendly design’ also has BREW, QR code reading and Navi-Walk functions onboard, making it a certain smash hit with the ‘tween crowd this spring.
Japan’s KDDI/au introduced two different prototype smart-tag mobile phones to the media. One handset is equipped for close-up scanning from just a few centimeters and another reads data as far away as 10 meters. Combined with GPS global positioning networks these handsets could download coupons and ads from nearby stores, receive and store data for distribution companies or scan merchandise right over the phone to link up with detailed shopping info on the Internet. Of course QR codes are already doing some of these things but smart tags bypass a lot of intermediate steps to cut to the encrypted chase.
QUALCOMM Incorporated, pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the open call for submissions for the BREW® 2005 Developer Awards. BREW publishers and developers are encouraged to submit their top BREW applications by completing an online entry form and providing a demo of their application. The deadline for online nominations is March 11 and submission materials must be received by March 28. Finalists will be announced on the BREW 2005 Awards Web site on May 9, then winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony hosted during the BREW 2005 Conference, June 1-3, in San Diego. For more information, visit: www.brew2005awards.com.
