i-mode
i-mode

i-mode

Train 'em up early: kids' phones rock!

I was talking to my accountant last week; she’s a smart, self-employed mid-career professional with a husband and kids and she’s definitely one of the more practical-minded Europeans I know.

We were talking about ‘handys’ (keitai, in Germany), and I told her about the huge success the mobile Internet and 3G are having (still) in Japan, versus in Europe where no one’s making a single (Euro) cent on UMTS. Her reaction was typical, but interesting: “I’m not going to use the phone for sending mail or anything but talking. The keypad is far too tiny. It’s just not in the mindset of my generation.”

Flat-Rate Data Plan Saved 10,000 Euro

We noted an interesting post on a local mobile developer’s site, which points out out how much money their flat-rate data plan saved the company in January. According to the scanned statement of the DoCoMo bill; “By using the pakehoudai option [a JPY 3,900 service plan option for unlimited usage of i-mode data traffic] you saved 1.67 million JPY this month.” They calculated the data packets used total just over 1GB (that’s hardcore — Eds) which would have cost approx. 10,000 Euro under the regular per packet billing model. Yikes!

Mobile Music Moves Off-Portal

Ever since the first ringtone sites began appearing on NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode menu back in 1999, most mobile music content providers in Japan have pushed to have their services appear on the ‘main menu’ of the wireless carriers. This ‘closed garden’ model has been widely criticized for putting too much power in the hands of the wireless carrier. However, it has still been attractive to CPs because of the enormous traffic that comes from the carrier’s menu, as well as the convenience of having customer billing handled by the carrier.

For the past seven years, CPs have flooded Japan’s three major wireless carriers with thick, 150-page proposals, in the hopes of getting their ringtone, mastertone, or other content listed on the menu. Despite the high barrier of entry and heavy restrictions, this method has until recently been the preferred way to operate a mobile music service in Japan.

January Carrier Stats Released

The latest subscriber figures were announced today with good news for SoftBank Mobile and what must be disappointing results for DoCoMo while KDDI continues to lead the pack in over-all performance again in January. We had mentioned that many industry watchers were expecting SoftBanks new flat-rate voice plan – announced in early January – would have an positive impact, and it certainly did. Most surprising was the small month-on-month loss of i-mode customers, the second time in 3 months, for the incumbent.

Warner Music Launches Rhino on i-mode

Warner Music has partnered with Catalyst Mobile to roll-out Rhino Music Service as an official content offering on DoCoMo’s i-mode menu. The service will provide monthly subscribers – at 315jpy – with search, recommendation, preview, and downloading of individual assets. Other features also include ‘This Day in Rock History’ trivia and ‘Songs You Know Ring Tone Corner.’

Napster Mobile Launches on KDDI

Napster announced the launch of it’s mobile music service on KDDI so Au brand customers can access Napster library through the EZ web network. Programming features, include personalized recommendations, featured artists and new releases, exclusive music and chart information. Napster Mobile made its Japanese debut this past November when it launched on DoCoMo’s i-mode platform.

Psycho-Analyse Your Mobile Messages

Have you ever received a message on your phone from someone special but weren’t sure whether the text represented their true feelings? It’s this kind of problem that Animo is trying to solve with its new i-mode service Email Truth Checker which is similar to the Feel*Mail handset function I posted on yesterday. To use the service, you choose your gender and the relationship between you and the person whose message you want to analyse (you can chose from partner, crush, superior, family etc.). After you’ve uploaded the message in question, the system analyses the language used and rates the authenticity of the feelings expressed.

93% Subscribe to Mobile Magazines

INFO PLANT recently conducted a nationwide survey during a one-week period of mobile phone users, via the Toku-suru menu on NTT DoCoMo i-mode, and based the following results on 4,987 valid responses. 93.2% of all respondents had subscribed to receive mail magazines on their phones. 39.6% of them have signed up to 3-5 different ones. The largest portion of the users have signed up for 3-5 mail magazines (39.6%), followed by 6-9 (19.1%), and 1-2 (16.2%). Looked at by gender and age, over 20% of those subscribed to over 10 mail magazines were males and females in their 40’s, which was higher than any other age group.

Japan's Mobile Year in Review

It was the best of times, it was… well, it really was the best of times! Also, as the famous line from Dickens goes, it was the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness and the season of.. Mobile!

Looking back on 2006, it’s hard to decide which news from Japan’s mobile scene was the most spectacular. Vodafone pulled out, Softbank stood up, mobile number portability struck, a record number of new handsets hit the street and – as December winds down – Motorola and Samsung are shipping first foreign-made 3G units into Japan.

A ‘quick’ look at what caught WWJ’s attention in ’06 after the jump.

DoCoMo to Raise Stake in PLDT

NTT DoCoMo announced today that it plans to acquire approximately 6 million shares of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company – PLDT – or 3.2% of total issued and outstanding shares, for an estimated 30 billion Japanese yen. The investment will further strengthen DoCoMo’s relationship with PLDT and Smart Communications, PLDT’s wholly owned mobile subsidiary. Smart, with DoCoMo’s backing, intends to launch the i-mode service and expanded 3G services in the Philippines.