Last week, sr. contributing editor Michael Thuresson sent in a user-level review of his new Sanyo handset that he uses on the Sprint network. As you scroll through a list of tones, you cannot sample them before you buy them. Hard for people new to this idea to get interested if they can’t do that!
In Japan, phones and PDAs are viewed within the industry as separate vertical markets. DoCoMo and other carriers – who control the development and sale of cellular devices – have not seen fit to create a hybrid phone/PDA. Is it fear of loss of control over the subscriber billing relationship? Fear of allowing foreign makers – like Nokia – into the market? Is it the lack of Japanese third-party developers who have worked with overseas platforms (like Symbian)? Today’s program looks at a company helping to stir up a market that needs some stirring.
The level of roaming in particular is a new feature for the market, and they face a sales challenge in figuring out how to sell this to a high-end business crowd – radically unlike J-Phone’s traditional youth target. But I think that today, almost 4 years after the invention of i-mode, provision of wireless Internet is an absolute requirement for success in the Japan market, and the absence of J-Sky access – both Web and mail – with some ill-defined “later in 2003” target is a major weakness.
“They have high-speed network links back to planet Earth. The architecture diagram of Mars Rover looks just like the architecture diagram of any ol’ Earth-based, end-to-end enterprise app. And they’ve got this problem that the network link is very slow… it has high latency.” Well of course. It covers a hundred million kilometers. In today’s program, we bring you a special year-end wrap-up including a couple of clips that didn’t make it into our regular programming. Join us for WWJ’s special year-end web video! Thanks to all for your comments and support, we look forward to another super year in 2003.
NTT Communications doesn’t expect to generate large revenue from WLAN itself, says senior executive vice president Shuji Tomita. Instead, the company will bundle hotspot access via high-speed WLAN base stations with landline connectivity and value-added services including roaming, security, and IPv6. The company’s software will also offer secure communications into the Internet itself and into corporate intranets using IP-based VPN (virtual private network) technologies via a security server that is co-located with the corporate client’s network. They’re also busy boosting their 250-base-station network to 1,000. Phew!
You can watch streaming video on cellys in Japan, and it isn’t often that tech providers flip back the cover to show how it works. In October, NTT DoCoMo launched their V-Live service on 3G, powered by Fujitsu and US-based NMS Communications. We show the details behind the magic, then drop in on Gartner Japan to get the skinny on the business of mobile streaming. The provision of live or archived video and audio streams to mobile phones using the third-generation IMT-2000 network standard has yet to gain wide usage. Nonetheless, in October, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. strengthened its multimedia content offerings by expanding services provided under its “M-Stage” brand name. It’s still early days, but this stuff really works!
I picked up the November cell phone catalogs from several carriers the other day, including DoCoMo (for 3G FOMA), KDDI, and Tu-ka, as well as the J-Sky service catalog from J-Phone. You really needn’t look much further than these monthly catalogs if you want a concise, full-color, and neatly packaged window into the marketing plans and keitai sales hopes of the major Japanese carriers. Depending on which handset you have, you can now access data networks at 9.6, 28.8, 64, or 384 Kbps – and many devices can access two networks. Note that 64 Kbps data is available via FOMA (the 3G network) and via PHS (not formally called “2G” but certainly not 3G). Finally, there’s the Mzone WLAN service that operates at hotspots inside the Yamanote line and at a few other locations.
DoCoMo’s recent troubles highlight a fundamental aspect of Japan’s wireless Internet revolution that I haven’t seen discussed much – namely, the sheer improbability of it all. In 1999 and 2000, during the ascendancy of i-mode, headlines and media quotes from interested parties were quick to praise the insight and innovation of those involved in i-mode’s creation, including the famous Enoki-Matsunaga-Natsuno troika as well as sundry network engineers, Internet-savvy marketers, and handset designers both inside DoCoMo and out.
One of the best aspects of working at WWJ in Japan – the country most responsible for creating the post-war consumer electronics revolution – has to be covering the trade shows. October’s CEATEC is one of Asia’s coolest (and largest) electronics showcase events, and Japan’s cell-phone makers rolled out their very best gear. We speak with Sharp about camera keitai (What’s the cost to add a camera-thingy to a phone?), Hitachi about cell phones morphing into computers (cellys now have 133-MHz CPUs – same as PCs used to), and take a look at J-Phone’s first 3G handset from Sanyo. One of our best programs to date!
The past few days have seen Japan’s big electronic makers releasing their quarterly and semiannual results, and the news from Sony, NEC, Fujitsu, and others has been mostly bad where cell phones are concerned. There have also been a lot of media reports on Japan’s ailing phone tanmatsu (terminal) market, and it appears that majors changes are underway. First, the media reports. On October 10 JEITA announced that domestic shipments of cellular phones fell 18.3 percent in August 2002 from a year earlier to 3.26 million units. The drop resumed a 13-month-long decline that was only broken (briefly) in July 2002 due to sales of camera-equipped models. Moreover, shipments of PHS handsets fell by 64 percent to 73,000 units (extending their losing streak to 18months!).
