NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today a new 2G/3G service, called “i-mode My Box,” for easy linkage to customized web pages via “iMenu,” the official i-mode portal. The service will be launched on a trial basis beginning at 9:00 a.m. on June 2, 2003.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that the companies will launch an on-line payments service, named “DoCommerce,” at 9:00 a.m. on May 26, 2003, enabling both 2G and 3G SSL-compatible i-mode handset users to enjoy mobile shopping and pay online with their VISA, or JCB credit cards.
In the US, data speeds rock: “With my Sprint PCS service I’ve had long downloads with speeds of 59 to 84.4 kbps. In a video test I had a burst of up to 104 kbps.” But is culture significant? “People in the United States have less trouble talking to each other than do people in Japan – many teenagers here actually prefer sending mail to talking, not only because it’s cheaper, but because it’s easier for them to say what they want to say.”
We’re hard at work preparing our new site and July line-up which will include an exclusive look at NTT DoCoMo’s 505i-series launch event held in Tokyo to announce the latest of their super-sophisticated i-mode handsets, visits with several mobile technology-focused ventures being fledged at Tokyo’s Venture Habitat, and a profile of a unique mobile health-care management service. Make sure you’re subscribed to the Wireless Watch Japan mailing list to stay up-to-date on our relaunch activities and to receive the first issue of the new and improved WWJ mail magazine.
Go ahead and feel free to mail me with your notes on which US/Canadian companies, technologies, business models, and content services bear watching. Can m-mode delivered via GSM/GPRS by AT&T Wireless sweep the US? Or does the backwards compatibility and high speed of CDMA 1x technology have an overwhelming advantage – making the CDMA carriers the ultimate market winners? Republishing your collected, collective wisdom on the European and North American mobile Net markets in the final two WWJ newsletters strikes me as being the best way I can pay back your loyal readership and spread around some of the local-market knowledge that WWJ subscribers have amassed.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight subsidiaries announced today that they will launch V-Live(TM) service for videophones beginning May 1, 2003. M-Stage V-Live is a one-to-many video streaming service that enables users to download or stream a variety of live and archived content via 64 Kbps circuit-switched wireless transmission. The new offering will be available for P2101V, P2102V, D2101V, SH2101V, and T2101V FOMA handsets.
