The new AH-H407P PC card [.jpg image] made for DDI Pocket by Honda Electron [Press Release] is set to start selling in Japan on September 10. It appears they will offer a flat-rate monthly fee for the 128-kbps PHS connection, which (if true) would mean we’ll be lining up to get one for ourselves. It could well provide a real challenge to the existing carriers’ 3G data-card pricing strategy.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced that they will add English language capability to the i-mode® Disaster Message Board service beginning September 1, 2004. DoCoMo set up this electronic bulletin board service in Japanese last January, to be activated in the event of a major calamity such as a high-magnitude earthquake. The bulletin board will enable i-mode subscribers within the disaster area to post messages in order to notify family and friends of their personal safety and whereabouts. The service was launched in order to ensure communication and prevent a degradation in network performance, since an overflow of voice calls and data packet transmissions would likely follow a major disaster.
Toyota Motors announced today that it will sell a new Pipit Phone model, a unique PHS handset [.jpg image] it has developed with PHS carrier DDI Pocket and Kyocera, at its auto dealers as well as its mobile phone shops across Japan, beginning on September 4. The new model has a security alarm built into the back side of the handset, an emergency call function to send out an emergency alarm to up to three pre-registered numbers. The handset also supports free access to PiPit Web, a location information site operated by Toyota, as well as email.
Earlier this week, NTT DoCoMo showcased a prototype 3G/WLAN combination phone carefully configured to make it useless for public hot spots. Against this, Fujitsu Labs and spinoff Net-2Com Corp. have developed something much more useful — a VoIP/PHS phone aimed at the consumer market to be commercialized this fall, with CDMA, GSM, and other versions to follow “depending on market demand.” WWJ treked over to the Fujitsu Solution Forum event in Tokyo recently to have a look at this breakthrough phone; we also took a test ride on Fujitsu Lab’s new PDA unit running a virtual hotspot application that should be coming to reality near you sometime soon.
My discussion with Steven Graff, who recently joined WWJ as marketing guru and maker-of-all-things-happen, suddenly turned technical. “Imagine being able to throw the switch on a network of several million WiFi hotspots located all over Japan. What if Yahoo’s modems permitted Yahoo to pass traffic through the user’s DSL connection and WiFi air interface independent of the home network? Today’s Viewpoint is a fable which, were it true, would shake Japan’s mobile market to the core.
IDG reports that Fujitsu Labs and Fujitsu spinoff Net-2Com have this week been showing the world’s first mobile IP/PHS dual-mode phone in central Tokyo. We’ve already shot a program and did an interview with the phone’s developer, we’ll have great video of the device coming up soon. Meanwhile, take a look at this story from IDG for some angles on the phone, which is still a prototype but could be on sale within a year. P(H)S. Did someone say China?
