Vodafone
Vodafone

Vodafone

3D Moji Mail – Icing on the Cake

3D Moji Mail - Icing on the CakeHere’s a quick video clip we shot at the Vodafone press conference when they introduced the new V804SS handset by Samsung — the first Samsung handset in Japan — going on sale here finally today. It has a few up-close examples of the company’s new dynamic email application, “Deru Moji” 3D Pictogram Display with pop-up animations, that we thought were pretty interesting.

While the functionality is only interoperable between a few handsets so far, this is a mobile mail nation and ‘cool factor’ really does count. Look for more discussion online about this next-gen offering — centered on when will it hit EU and US markets. Remember you saw it here first on WWJ!

Our 5th Birthday!

Our 5th Birthday!This week marked a major milestone for WWJ! In one form or another, I’ve been writing this email newsletter for five years — and what a five year term it’s been!

I spent a couple hours last night looking over past WWJ newsletters, and was struck by how much Japan’s mobile scene has changed. In 2001, when I started writing a weekly mobile-focused newsletter for J@pan Inc, i-mode had just celebrated its second birthday, KDDI had yet to roll out CDMA 1X services and the No. 3 competitor in the market was known as “J-Phone.”

Today, DoCoMo is far in the lead with their 3G FOMA service and music and TV are the new hot trends; i-mode itself has become almost dasai (uncool). KDDI have created one of the mightiest and most unified mobile platforms on Earth, with GPS-based blogging, shopping and PC Internet integration drawing huge usage. The company formerly known as J-Phone is about to become the company formerly known as Vodafone as Masayoshi Son attacks 3G mobile with the same successful discount focus with which he attacked NTT and home broadband.

Bonus ‘those were the days’ tidbits via the WWJ Newsletter after the jump!

Samsung 3G Handset in Japan

Vodafone Japan just announced that on 25 March 2006 it will commence nationwide sales of the Vodafone 804SS, a new 3G handset by Samsung Electronics. The V804SS represents Samsung’s first mobile phone for the Japanese market and is touted as the world’s thinnest clamshell 3G handset, measuring just 14.9mm and weighs only 98g. Users can view PDF, Microsoft Word and other file types on the handset, it also supports PC Link and has a full-fledged music player functions with external controls.

NEC Looking for Global Partner

According to a story in the Daily Yomiuri, NEC’s next president Kaoru Yano told a recent press conference that “It’s bizarre that there are more than 10 cell phone makers in Japan. We’ll definitely go for a tie-up”, showing his enthusiasm for a rearrangement plan. Following the Nokia-Sanyo announcement and as mentioned in our Predictions for 2006, we are not surprised to hear about his plans for consolidation in the Japanese OEM market.

Softbank-Vodafone Content Share

According to an article on EE Times, during talks that led to Softbank’s acquisition of Vodafone’s Japan unit, the companies also agreed to form a joint venture to deliver data services. The joint venture will be the base of Softbank’s Internet service that will leverage Vodafone’s mobile phone network. The combined effort will challenge NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service, said Masayoshi Son, president and CEO of Softbank.

Vodafone sells Japan unit to Softbank for $11.9 bn

The news just hit the wires: Vodafone Group has agreed to sell its stake in its struggling Japanese unit to Softbank Corp. for $11.87 billion in cash. The deal announced on Friday values Vodafone Japan at around 1.8 trillion yen ($15.30 billion) including debt and will allow Vodafone to return 6 billion pounds to shareholders.

Editor’s note: This news will be all over the Web in a few minutes. What a sad end to what could have been a highly valuable synergistic move into the world’s most advanced 3G market! Defeated by fickle consumers, the lack of a low-end tier in the segment, and the challenge of coordinating terminals and technologies across borders, Vodafone is heading home. The price of the deal, a whopping 15 billion bucks, proves that Vodafone KK is a valuable commodity — in the right hands. — Eds.