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Sony Music, Artificial Life close 3G mobile music deal

Sony Music and Artificial Life go for 3G Mobile Hong Kong-based Artificial Life, Inc., creator of hit 3G mobile games and environments, has come to terms with Sony BMG Music Entertainment in a licensing deal to provide music from the Sony play list to its 3G mobile V-disco product. V-Disco is a wireless subscription site combining chat, music streaming and music downloading to mobile phones with interactive 3D graphics and animated virtual avatars. Users and visitors to V-Disco select an avatar for themselves and join the fun. Club-goers choose genres and songs from the club list, listening to their tunes while their avatar strolls along chatting with other party people in real time.

In an e-mail to WWJ, Eberhard Schoeneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, said the company is already in testing with operators in Japan and he thought they were not too long away from launch in this market. V-disco users select songs and 3D animated avatars, watching them funk it up on any of several virtual dance floors. “It is a completely new and very entertaining way of presenting and delivering high-quality music to 3G mobile phones,” Schoeneburg commented in a prepared statement.

Wireless Watch Japan Intelligence from CEATEC

Wireless Watch Japan Intelligence from CEATEC

The Mobile Intelligence Japan (MIJ) team spent Wednesday at the CEATEC show, checking out some of the most innovative mobile tech and services the Japanese ecosystem is currently developing. To start, Hitachi’s methanol fuel-cell handset for KDDI [ close-up image here ] was one of the major announcements made during this year’s event. Several Japanese electronics manufacturers, including Toshiba and Fujitsu, are working on a fuel-cell solution for powering and recharging cell phones and other portable devices; Fujitsu’s rather large (as big as a shoe?) version for DoCoMo provides up to 9 Watt-hours of juice.

There were also big line ups to view the new digital TV cell phones made by Sanyo, Panasonic and Sharp (for each of KDDI, DoCoMo and Vodafone) with plenty of people crowded around the NHK booth to test drive one of the units; all are due to launch by next spring and run for around 2 hours.

Later, we spotted Net2Com’s new IP-and-Skype handset available (since last week) for Livedoor mobile customers and were surprised to see a prototype streaming satellite handset from DoCoMo. The Mobaho! compatible phone — a full FOMA 3G device — will receive music and other programming direct from Mobile Broadcasting Corp.’s bird high above Tokyo and will launch next spring; the Mitsubishi-made device has about 2 hours of continuous playback time and appears intended to steal some of KDDI’s Chaku-Uta-Full thunder. Be sure to watch our latest video program featuring EZ Channel.

Finally, your WWJ crew had a chance to sit down and speak with Dave Graveline to record a radio interview covering some of the show’s highlights to be broadcast on 10 October.

KDDI's EZ Channel at CEATEC

KDDI's EZ Channel at CEATECCEATEC, otherwise known as ‘Disneyland for mobi-keeners,’ is possibly planet Earth’s most intense concentration of mobile goodies. KDDI’s “EZ Channel” system, launched together with flat-rate data billing and the high-speed 1X EV-DO “WIN” 3G network in late 2003, is one of the few content services optimised for the network’s 2.4-Mbps nominal speed. WWJ went to CEATEC to grab the details on EZ Channel, which includes a unique overnight download feature that makes use of the quietest time of the day to deliver up to 3 megabytes of video programming to subscribers’ handsets while the network snoozes.

The EZ Channel service allows subscribers to select 3 programs from a menu of 53 channels (by end-October 2005), including news, weather, sports and entertainment favorites such as “Chaku Uta Ranking” (Label Mobile), “Sponge Bob Mobile” (Viacom) and Disney Mobile Wave. A single channel typically runs up to 1MB, and is refreshed 1-3 times per week (some, like weather, are new daily).

Willcom Launches Feature Packed Mobile Phones for Fall

Willcom Launches Feature Packed Mobile Phones for FallJapan’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.

Mobile Monday Tokyo: Hot Flash and Cool Java

Mobile Monday Tokyo: Hot Flash and Cool JavaThe first full day of our Mobile Intelligence Japan tour has wrapped up with yet another stellar turn-out at Mobile Monday Tokyo’s OktoberZestEvent in Ebisu tonight. After a jam-packed schedule that included our visit to DoCoMo for a hands-on product demonstration and a meeting with Japan’s first (and still only) MVNO, the MIJ team settled down for a few margarita’s with bratwurst and sauerkraut to take in the evening’s feature presentations from G-Mode and Macromedia. Akio Tanaka and Dwight Rodgers (photo, right) from Macromedia Japan provided a fantastic overview of FlashLite and their new FlashCast mobile service (branded i-Channel on DoCoMo) to the almost 250 MoMo attendees.

Mobile Internet: See it. Hear it. Breath it. Understand it.

We really hit the ground running today with a detailed market introduction from WWJ’s editor-in-chief (and MIJ host) Daniel Scuka, followed by a mobile music report and then a working lunch before heading out into the jungle. Tomorrow, we focus on mobile payments and we will visit another carrier before winding down for a relaxed ‘local experts’ dinner.

Mobile Intelligence Japan – Akihabara Walking Tour

Mobile Intelligence Japan - Akihabara Walking TourAfter months of preparation, our MIJ mission to Tokyo kicked-off Sunday afternoon with a casual walk-about through the famous Akihabara electric town district. Over the coming week of scheduled meetings and events, we plan to post a daily update — right here on WWJ — of the highlights to provide subscribers a current snapshot of Japan’s mobile space. MIJ has an extensive agenda lined up, including company visits and presentations from many of what we believe to be the most interesting local players, a major networking event at Mobile Monday tomorrow night and a whole day out at Tech Disneyland — the CEATEC trade show.

You’ve got to experience it to believe it!

While most of these discussions will be held ‘off-the-record’ to gather info just for MIJ participants, we are looking forward to gaining an even deeper insight of where the industry is today and how things are shaping up for 2006 and to sharing what we can.