Today, TechFaith employs 1,800 designers and hardware and software engineers, occupying four floors of an old TV factory in a grubby industrial district near Beijing’s Fourth Ring Road. The company has developed more than 100 handset designs for 9 of the top 10 Chinese manufacturers as well as Japan’s NEC, Kyocera, and Mitsubishi.
Japan’s Willcom will launch four PHS mobile handsets this November packed with many of the same functions as high-end DoCoMo or KDDI models. Functions for the WX310K and WX300K both by Kyocera; Sanyo’s WX310SA; and JRC WX310J include a PC document viewer, NetFront V3.3 internet browser, Intellisync for Outlook, fingerprint authentification, music player, pixel reader, macromedia flash, even Bluetooth — all at rates the bigger carriers will find hard to match.
PHS (personal handyphone system) subscriber numbers, long in free fall against 3G mobile carriers, are slowly climbing back from the abyss thanks to low-cost fixed-rate subscriber packages that are saving consumers bundles of yen. Currently Willcom has an inter-service flat call rate under 3000 yen ($26) per month. The company has announced they will introduce a flat rate mobile data fee of just 3,800 yen ($33) to coincide with the release of the new 300/310 series. PHS subscribers will be able to dig in to a full buffet of mobile services for around 6,700 yen ($58) a month.
The Associated Carrier Group (ACG) and Kyocera Wireless announced the debut of the Kyocera Slider Remix KX5 wireless phone. The feature-rich, music-enabled handset is exclusively offered for a limited time by the recently united ACG, and is also the first phone offered by the alliance. “By forming the ACG alliance, our members collaborate with manufacturers – like Kyocera – to provide cutting-edge products, quicken market entry and to leverage costs,” said Greg Latour, president of ACG. “It’s proving to be a smart and successful alliance for our member companies, which ultimately benefits our customers. We are pleased to be the first in the U.S. to offer the Slider Remix.”
In the latest move amid industrywide reorganization, Square Enix Co., the maker of the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy video games, announced Monday it will acquire smaller rival Taito Corp. for 67 billion yen. Kyocera Corp., Taito’s parent with a 36 percent stake, said it has already agreed to Square Enix’s bid. Taito, which operates 270 arcades nationwide, is known as the creator of Space Invaders, the arcade video game that became a phenomenon in the early 1980s. Square Enix was born from a merger of the two major role playing game makers two years ago. The combined sales of Taito and Square Enix stood at 158.42 billion yen for the year ended in March.
The recent guest article, Mobile Music Best Practices from Japan and Korea, has resulted in some interesting comments on the web. It seems that the long- wrong-held belief about Japan’s mobile success story is still being attributed to the “There are relatively few people in Japan with a home-based Internet connection, making the mobile Internet more attractive” syndrome. However, it’s clear according to the ITU that Japan’s Internet and PC adoption rates have been much the same as, or even better than, the adoption rates in European countries such as France, Germany and the UK since at least 2001. Another comment we saw regarding the Chaku-uta Full song downloads explained in the article said “it seems to me it may be being marketed (and more importantly used) more as a next-generation ring-tone service than as a true music service”.
This is incorrect. Today in Japan, marketing to encourage customers to upgrade and listen to full-track music on their new mobile devices is everywhere; in print, outdoor and on television commercials, we are seeing massive “i-pod-meets-mobile-phone” promotions. Hence the stereo headphones and J-pop artists making regular appearances to help push the product. Sure, people can use full songs as ring-tones as well (that’s a bonus), but that is not how Chaku-uta Full is be marketed or — more importantly — being used. (And you don’t have to take our word for it. Visit KDDI’s Ad Index site and surf around to watch their current selection of TV commercials.)
Kyocera Corp. is planning to implement a capital investment program worth 100 billion yen [about USD$1 billion] in fiscal 2005, an increase of 60 percent from fiscal 2004, according to Kyocera President Makoto Kawamura. “We are pushing a plan to build a factory for liquid crystal-related products in Kagoshima Prefecture” and other parts-making facilities elsewhere, Kawamura said in an interview.
Amp’d Mobile and Kyocera Wireless Corp. today announced the Jet, an affordable high-speed EV-DO handset for rapid downloading of Amp’d’s unique 3G content launching later this year. Jet marks the first EV-DO mobile phone for Kyocera Wireless, a leading global manufacturer of CDMA wireless phones and devices, and will be the lowest-priced handset at Amp’d Mobile, the first fully integrated 3G mobile entertainment company for youth/young adults.
Internet firm Livedoor Co. said today it plans to apply for a new mobile licence that the Japanese government is expected to issue later this year, with the aim of starting a data service. Livedoor will apply for the licence on the 2 gigahertz band, a company spokesman said. It will be competing against mobile broadband startup IP Mobile Inc. and Willcom Inc., a wireless service operator owned by Kyocera Corp. and U.S. fund Carlyle Group.
Willcom Inc. has decided to bid for use of the 2GHz band that the Communications Ministry plans to offer to one 3G cellular phone service company this year, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Monday. If approval is granted, Willcom plans to launch next-generation PHS service that will realize a data speed of 20-30 megabits per second — about 100 times as fast as current PHS services and equal to that of ASDL.
Mobile phones may be an all access pass to fun for most of us but for the physically or visually impaired it’s one more ‘no entry’ barrier. Vodafone Japan along with TU-KA Cellular in Tokyo, Kansai, and Tokai are making mobile services a little easier for people with disabilities through a new free directory service [.pdf]. Dubbed ‘Smile Call’ subscribers punch in 104 to connect to a directory service operator who can assist them in placing calls. Generally 104 calls through mobile lines are fee-based but this system developed with Japan Multimedia Services Corporation creates free access to registered users. After completing the registration process, subscribers punch in 104, identify themselves to the operator and once their name has been verified, proceed with questions and assistance.
