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Gracenote and Muze Partner to Create Integrated Offering

Gracenote and Muze today announced a multi-year partnership to offer the industry’s most comprehensive and accurate global media identification and rich content solution for consumer electronics and mobile phone devices, as well as PC applications. Offering a comprehensive collection of content for entertainment products currently available in North America, Europe and other parts of the world, Muze provides album art, album reviews and artist biographies for the industry’s most influential and popular artists of all time. Integrating Muze’s award-winning editorial content with Gracenote’s industry-leading music identification technology, services and global information database will allow digital entertainment companies to easily offer their customers an enhanced media experience anywhere they ship products in the world.

Wireless Watch Japan – Top Stories for 2005

Wireless Watch Japan - Top Stories for 2005We published 596 articles on Wireless Watch Japan in 2005 and thought you might enjoy looking back at the most popular Japan mobile industry highlights from the year. The links below, three from each month, represent the two top stories (by volume of visitor requests) and a third which we consider a significant development in that 30-day period.

It’s been a year of explosive year in the mobile world and 2006 is set to be even much more interesting with faster mobile networks, more powerful handsets and compelling contents settling into the mainstream. Here in Japan, we are expecting a dramatic increase in m-commerce adoption, driven in part by Mobile Suica’s launch, set for later in January and the start of ‘One-Seg’ digital TV broadcasting starting — on all three carriers — on 1 April (no joke). We also see a potential increase in churn as a result of the (belated) introduction of number portability and with three new carriers entering the market, even DoCoMo is concerned.

One of the more obvious action areas in 2006 will be the increase of M&A activity at all levels; in particular, look for consolidation in the Japanese handset market. Meanwhile, lets boldly predict that we’ll have at least a few 3.5G (HSDPA) phones on the streets of Tokyo by this time next year. Interesting times ahead, indeed. Get all the skinny after the jump!

KDDI to Study Qualcomm's MediaFlo

KDDI will establish a planning firm to study the potential of alternate mobile TV broadcasting business opportunities with Qualcomm Japan, according to press release posted today. The joint venture, headed by President and Representative Director Masuda Kazuhiko, will launch on 27 December with 10 employees. Media Flow Japan, will be capitalized at 10 million yen, of which 80 percent will be put up by KDDI and 20 percent by Qualcomm. The joint venture will ask the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry for a frequency assignment after considering the profitability and service contents of the new business, as well as targeting a possible start date in late 2006.

Bluetooth Cell-Phone Santa Brings Seasons Greetings!

Bluetooth Cell-Phone Santa Brings Seasons Greetings!Here’s a fun web video for everyone to enjoy from all of us here at Wireless Watch Japan! We stopped by KDDI’s Designing Studio in Harajuku yesterday afternoon with our long list of groovy gadgets we wanna have for Christmas and to sit on their robot Santa’s knee. As it turns out, maybe we’re getting a bit too big for that — but it was fun anyway! Dressed up for the holidays, this robo Santa-san unit made a splash during the 2005 International Robot Exhibition held recently at Tokyo BigSite. According to Designing Studio’s Manager Natsuko Kimura, the robo Santa was created by KDDI’s partner company I Bee K.K., which develops products based on Bluetooth technology. While we were there, it seemed like a good idea to send best wishes to our faithful WWJ visitors, recorded from under KDDI’s three-story tall Christmas tree.

Major Mobile Commerce Trials Announced

Major Mobile Commerce Trials AnnouncedA group of major m-commerce companies announced a large-scale U.S. trial last week to include contactless payment, mobile content and premium arena services at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The companies claim the trial will be the first large-scale test of next-generation mobile-phone applications in North America. The grouping includes Chase, Cingular Wireless, Nokia, Philips, Visa USA and others. The contactless payment functionality will be based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology first developed by Sony and Philips. Other NFC trials are underway in Germany and France.

Wireless Watchers will know that the Sony/Philips NFC technology is also powering the super-successful “FeliCa”-branded mobile contactless payment services in Japan and has been adopted by NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone as the de facto market standard for m-commerce, e-wallets, transportation and other peer-to-peer data transfer services. Sony first deployed NFC on the Octopus card in Hong Kong in 1997 and rolled their mobile handset trial ran in Japan in December 2003 — see WWJ video here. Today, over 7 million FeliCa-enabled phones have already been sold by DoCoMo alone.

One might think the two-year jump on deployment and commercial experience, not to mention brand equity, in Japan would motivate Sony to transplant an obvious success story from Tokyo to markets elsewhere. Instead, it looks like the wheel is being reinvented all over again.

University Students Trial Free IC-Phone

The Kanagawa Institute of Technology (KAIT) announced it would adopt a student ID card system utilizing contactless IC cards and mobile phones equipped with the equivalent functions. The IC cards and mobile phones can be used for automatic record of attendance, admission to buildings and issuance of various certificates. In addition, the system allows purchase of goods by using “Edy” electronic money. According to KAIT, it will be the first university in Japan to use mobile phones as student ID cards. As a first step, the university will provide 1,200 newly enrolled students with free mobile phones.