You may have noticed that we’re experiencing a quiet news period here with the summer holiday and war-time-memorial anniversary season in full swing. There are a handful of wireless notes after the log in that we clipped over the last few days and more international (Japan-related) stories coming through again later today. Yoroshiku!
Nokia has started deliveries of Nokia N71 (Vodafone 804NK) in Japan. The Nokia N71 customized for Vodafone K.K. will be marketed in Vodafone K.K.’s 3G lineup under the name “Nokia N71 (Vodafone 804NK)” and became commercially available in Japan from August 12. Nokia has provided Vodafone K.K. with three 3G models so far: The Nokia 6680 (Vodafone 702NK II) which became available in December 2005 and the Nokia 6630 (Vodafone 702NK) which became available in December 2004, and the Nokia 6650 (V-NM701), which was added in August 2003.
Softbank recently announced, in Japanese only, more information about their new branding strategy to take effect on 1 October. The SoftBank Mobile portal site will change from Vodafone live! to Yahoo Keitai!, while other Vodafone live! services will change to S! services – for example, S! Mail and S! GPS Navi; even V-appli will become S!-appli. We also noticed that all new handsets will include a Y! button (like DoCoMo’s famous i-mode shortcut key) that will take users straight to the Yahoo Japan portal and other Softbank services.
Despite growth in data transmission revenue due to an increase in 3G subscriptions, consolidated operating revenue in the period has recorded 352,321 million yen, a decrease of 11,451 million yen (3%) as compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, due to a decline of voice revenue affected by a new price plan launched in the previous fiscal year and other factors. In total, VKK reports 15,240,200 customers at the end of June 2006 with positive net customer additions of 30,300 for the quarter ended 30 June.
The International Herald Tribune ran a couple of gloomy 3G-related articles last week (see “3G cost billions: Will it ever live up to its hype?” and “Operators in Asia learn from mistakes”). It’s the height of the summer vacation slow-news cycle, and maybe the IHT was just fishing for some headline attention, but we couldn’t let these egregiously faulty items pass without comment.
3G cost billions: Will it ever live up to its hype?
European mobile phone companies spent $129 billion six years ago to buy licenses for third-generation (3G) networks, which were supposed to give people the freedom to virtually live from their cell phones, reading email, browsing the Internet, placing video calls, enjoying music and movies, buying products and services, making reservations, monitoring health — all from the beach, the bus, the dentist’s waiting room or wherever they were.
But today, most people use their cell phones just as they did in 2000 — to make calls — and the modest gains 3G has made do not begin to justify the massive costs of the technology, which has strapped some mobile operators financially, bankrupted entrepreneurs, spurred multibillion-euro lawsuits against governments and phone companies, and sapped research spending.
Over the long term, 3G runs the risk of becoming the Edsel of the mobile phone industry — an expensive, unwanted albatross rejected by consumers and bypassed by other, less costly technologies, some experts say.
These articles are worse than merely wrong: they help fuel the flawed thinking and misguided strategies to which 3G license holders are addicted (helping cause the continued malaise). So widespread user apathy and risible revenues must prove that 3G’s a loser, right? Wrong. And to see why, you need look no further than Japan. Why have 3G carriers elsewhere in the world not realised: you don’t have to be DoCoMo to succeed like DoCoMo does.
WWJ paid subscribers: Log in for our 10-point rebuttal to the first IHT article (‘3G Hype’). Note: it’s a little long, so best to print out and read poolside!
The good folks over at CIAJ (Communications and Information Network of Japan) issued a press item last week to announce results of their annual study on cellular phone use. According to CIAJ, “The study aims to capture on-going changes in the domestic mobile communications market and has been conducted since 1998.”
The study includes some interesting results related to actual usage of mobile Internet services, including email, music, GPS, mobile TV, e-wallets, number portability and more. The organization says they mailed questionnaires to 600 cellular phone users (male: 303, female: 297; by age group, under 20: 102, twenties: 101, thirties: 108, forties: 95, fifties: 95, sixties and above: 99) residing in the larger Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas from the end of March through April, 2006…
