m-commerce
m-commerce

m-commerce

Wireless to Transform How We Communicate

Enormous advances in wireless communications are ushering in a new era wherein organisations can dramatically improve productivity and efficiency, enhance competitive advantage and greatly benefit from more efficient communications with customers, vendors and key staff. New analysis from Technical Insights states: “Enterprises today are seeing real benefits from the use of mobile devices and applications. However, for m-commerce to grow significantly, a fully developed mobile communications network, ever more sophisticated devices and killer applications that enable ‘anytime, anywhere’ access of information [are] essential.”

Japan Developers Win BREW Awards

At the BREW 2004 Developer Conference in San Diego, awards to honor stand-out BREW products and services were announced in six categories. EZFM and EZ Naviwalk won 1st prize in the Best Entertainment and Best Location-Based categories, respectively. Other Japanese entries from Edia Co., MediaSeek Inc., and Namco were selected as finalists in the information, entertainment and productivity categories.

QUALCOMM Announces Finalists for Annual BREW Developer Awards

QUALCOMM Incorporated pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the finalists for its annual BREW Developer Awards, which recognizes outstanding applications developed in the past year for the Company’s BREW solution. QUALCOMM will reveal the award-winning applications during the BREW 2004 Developers Conference, June 7-9, held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina.

DoCoMo's Paradigm: Flat Rate Forces Shift

DoCoMo's Paradigm: Flat Rate Forces ShiftLast Friday’s NTT DoCoMo press briefing was an eye-opener as President Keichi Tachikawa hinted at the tectonic changes reshaping Japan’s mobile data market. After reviewing the company’s stance on US W-CDMA launch after the AT&T Wireless sale, he offered some insight into the giant carrier’s plans for dealing with the the flat-rate data pricing “paradigm shift” instituted, he alleged, “too early” by an unnamed player (which would be arch rival KDDI). Finishing after just 10 minutes, Tachikawa’s comments were brief, but the ensuing half hour of Q&A with the press offered a golden opportunity to quiz the prez on these and other issues—including e-commerce, 3G subscriber numbers, and FOMA handsets. If you want to know what Japan’s #1 mobile operator is thinking, don’t miss this program. Program Run-time 20:17

KDDI/ DoCoMo 3G Phone Wars Simmer

At his regular press briefing yesterday, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa said that DoCoMo’s ongoing battle with KDDI to make the best 3G mobile phones is a battle that sometimes KDDI wins and one that sometimes DoCoMo wins, but that strategically, in terms of new services, it’s a war that DoCoMo will win. As of February 2004 the handset battle pits KDDI’s W21H, A5405SA and A1402S against DoCoMo’s 900i series, with the latest, the Panasonic model out about now. Behind that, there’s a speed war, with DoCoMo hastening the rollout of HSDPA initially at 3.6Mbps then 14.4 Mbps vs. CDMA1X WIN’s best-effort 2.4 Mbps. The more important issue for Tachikawa, however, is which carrier will successfully develop a new era (or as he mentioned-about 8 times- a “paradigm shift”) of services over the next two years.

Mobile Intelligence Tour Announced

The Wireless Watch Japan Media Project will co-produce the Mobile Intelligence Tour (MIT) to Tokyo from 12-16 April 2004, promising to be one of this year’s premiere events for extracting business intelligence from the Japan mobile market. MIT aims to expose participants to the best and brightest individuals and companies making mobile work in Japan, the world’s No. 1 wireless market, and will include highly focussed company briefings, presentations, visitations, end-user demonstrations, access to local experts, and industry-related social events.

SK Telecom Selects Gemplus' USIM Card for 3G

Gemplus International S.A., the world’s leading provider of smart card based solutions, today announced its selection by SK Telecom, the leading provider of mobile telecommunications in Korea, to deliver USIM card technology for the commercial launch of its 3G W-CDMA network. The Gemplus "GemXplore 3G" USIM cards deployed for SK Telecom support all three primary networks currently available: 3G W-CDMA, CDMA 2000 1X and GSM. They also support WIM (Wireless Internet Module) as an additional security feature for WAP based mobile commerce transactions and the VSDC (VISA Smart Debit Credit) application by VISA International for the world’s first mobile proximity payment service on USIM card, MONETA.

WWJ to Host 3G Teleseminar

Slots are still available for the “Japan Mobile Goes Global” teleseminar (Th., Feb. 5, 15:00 UTC), shaping up to be one of this quarter’s best intelligence events direct from Japan. Hosted by the Wireless Watch Japan Media Project the “Japan Mobile Goes Global” teleseminar will bring five of Japan’s top industry experts together to discuss, debate, and forecast how local developments in 3G, m-commerce, downloadable applications, and handset technology will affect Europe, GSM markets, the US/Canada, and elsewhere. The teleseminar will permit callers to listen live to exclusive commentary and ask questions to obtain expert advice direct from savvy Japan insiders.

AT&T Wireless Moves Ahead With 3G Network

AT&T Wireless today announced agreements with Nortel Networks and Ericsson to deploy what is expected to be the first commercial W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple band Access) wireless network in North America. The W-CDMA network can support high speed VPN access, audio and video applications, as well as advanced location-based and m-Commerce features.