The 3G CDMA award winners were announced in Miami last night and several Japanese companies are coming home with some shiny hardware. KDDI for International Leadership; winning top share of net subscriber increase in the Japanese market and its leadership in 3G in Japan, as well as for its launch of 1xEV-DO services, branded as WIN. Sanyo Electric won the Subscriber Technology Innovation award for their innovative Infobar handset design.
The CDMA Development Group today announced the winners of the 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Awards, presented yesterday during the CDMA Americas Congress, taking place this week at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Both companies and individuals were recognized for excellence in deploying CDMA2000. The awards were presented by Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG, and Gerry Flynn, vice president, industry relations of the CDG and director, advanced technology strategy/standards for Verizon Wireless.
According yesterday’s press release, KDDI will roll out FeliCa IC chip-enabled handsets by Q42005. DoCoMo launched four models that utilize Sony’s non-contact solution earlier this summer and has stated that all future phones must have this feature. The Mobile FeliCa system allows users to make small cybercash transactions; it can also be used as an ID pass to access secure areas and for marketing programs such as retail customer loyalty point programs.
In his 14 September WWJ Viewpoint, Philip Sugai raised some valid criticisms of the new TV cell phones and points to both technological and end-user behavior limitations that he believes doom TV phones to “DOA” status. Of these, the behavioral problems appear to be the most difficult to overcome. These criticisms, however, seriously underestimate both the technological developments that the devices will undergo in the next 18-24 months as well as the imagination and creativity that Japan’s end-users and broadcasters will apply to receiving and delivering, respectively, useful content via mobile TV (and FM radio).
Part 2 of a two-part series. Previously: MobileTV: Hype or Reality?, by Professor Philip Sugai.)
ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced the immediate availability of its new i-mode Global Profile, an integrated software solution that is optimized for the i-mode services deployed NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode alliance partners. i-mode Global Profile is a new profile that forms part of ACCESS’ NetFront Mobile Client Suite. i-mode Global Profile includes ACCESS’ market-leading NetFront technology as well as a Multi-Media Messaging Client, Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and an SSL encryption module. All technologies comprising i-mode Global Profile were developed by ACCESS and offer tight integration and functionality optimized specifically for i-mode.
KDDI has just announced a new 3G handset, the A1403K by Kyocera [.jpg image], which will be available in Japan at the end of October. Touted as a “Friendly oval form which is comfortable to hold,” it was designed by Ichiro Iwasaki. We have a quick peek on video of what looks like an early prototype of this model at CEATEC 2002. See the press release [in Japanese] Here.
