Japan's Cellphone Edge

Push-to-Talk failure in Japan

2009-05-08T03:30:00.000-07:00

Mesmerized by the US Nextel's success with its PTT service running on Nextel's proprietary iDen network in early 2000's, Japanese carriers including DoCoMo and KDDI au also introduced similar services utilizing existing cellular networks in Japan in 2005. However, the concept never really took off in Japan. According to DoCoMo, about one hundred thousand users use the service on a monthly basis. As the result, both carriers announced the pending retirement of PTT services with KDDI au shutting down its in August this year, followed by DoCoMo with the plans to close the service in September next year.

Source: IT Media

NHK joins iPhone app craze

2009-05-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

NHK, the Japanese analogue of British BBC, joined the ranks of iPhone application developers by releasing the replica of its iconic clock. The clock application doesn't only keep the authentic looks but it also provides the time tone similar to the original sampling. It's available free for download from the iPhone appstore.

Source: CNet Japan

iPhone sales in Japan estimated to hit 1 million in three months

2009-04-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

While Apple doesn't release iPhone sales by region, there are some indicators that iPhone is doing pretty well in Japan as Softbank's agressive sales tactics and viral marketing are starting to bring new customers to Softbank shops. According to Business Media, which refers to some internal sources at Softbank, the iPhone sales should easily achieve one million devices after one year from iPhone's landing in Japan. Given that the iPhone went on sale in Japan nine months ago, the one million milestone should be reached in the mid of summer.

Source: Business Media

Blackberry Bold makes it into the Top 10 of weekly sales at DoCoMo

2009-04-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

I was quite surprised when I looked through the DoCoMo's top weekly handset sales published by Keitai Watch via ITC Network. I saw something I don't recall seeing for a long time - a foreign model making it to the top ten. Living up to its name the maverick was Blackberry Bold, which went on sale in February this year. It is already May but as you can see it is still kicking.

Advanced Media launches voice-to-text Email app for iPhone

2009-04-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

Tokyo-based Advanced Media has released beta voice-to-text Email application for iPhone. Since the application is in beta, it is distributed free via iPhone store. Advanced Media intend to charge for the app once Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0. The app on iPhone is just a nice interface to establish a connection to the server where all the heavy-lifting is done. Advanced Media has developed an in-house speech recognition engine Amivoice, which learns end-user's speech patterns and allows to record geographic and personal names in advance. It is one of the fewest apps out there to cater to users with a need for voice-to-text emailing in Japanese. Good news is that Advanced Media plans similar app for Android and Windows Mobile platforms.

Source: Advanced Media press release

KDDI au signs up one million fitness fans

2009-04-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

In penetrated markets you need to dig deeper past the usual gender and age demographics to uncover untapped user segments. The proven method is to utilize a lifestyle marketing catering to different user needs. The first thing that would come into mind is probably sport and fitness lifestyle. And KDDI au recent endevour with au Smart Sports service shows that it works - the carrier has just announced one millionth subscriber. The au Smart Sports service offers two options Run & Walk and Karada Manager (Body Manager). With Run & Walk compatible phones you can set various modes like running or cycling mode and track and upload the data onto the web. Karada Manager offers means to set your personal health goals and provides advices on achieving them. KDDI au also partnerd with Adidas to provide branded phone pouches for au Sport Smarts users.

Source: KDDI au press release

Nico Nico Douga finally launches iPhone app

2009-04-28T04:49:00.000-07:00

Given the fact that Nico Nico Douga is considered to be Japanese YouTube, it took awfully long time for them to release iPhone application. What is interesting is that iPhone is not even the first device to be optimized for Nico Nico Douga Mobile experience. Users of various models from DoCoMo, au and Softbank had the opportunity to watch videos and leave comments for some time. Actually, the mobile service accounts for about 3.2 million users. Now, when it is iPhone's turn to foray into Japan video sharing marketplace via Nico Nico Douga Mobile, users have a broad set of functions embedded into iPhone app, including the ability to leave comments, search, rank and tag videos. And yeah, it's free. Just type Dwango in iPhone App Store search to find it.

Source: Niwango press release (pdf) via Keitai Watch

Toyota, KDDI link phones with car navigation systems

2009-04-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

Driving Toyota has just become funnier as the company partnered with KDDI au and Navi Time to provide EZ Navi Link service bridging mobile phones with car navigation systems. With EZ Navi Link service, au users can search for driving destinations on their mobile phone and then push the search results to car navigation via Bluetooth connection, which should improve the user experience with Toyota cars and au phones and save time by not typing in destination address. The service is free but users will access mobile web search services that will contribute to au's data revenue stream.

Source: KDDI au via Keitai Watch

Twisting Mickey's ears will get you some music

2009-04-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

Aimed at Mickey Mouse-loving crowd the iRiver Mplayer+ hit store shelves in Japan. Featuring 2gb of memory and shaped as mickey's head with music controls in its ears, the miniature mp3 player sells for about $60. What caught my attention is a promo image showing the mplayer+ attached to a cell phone strap (see below). Taking into account that nowadays phones are capable of mp3 playback it seems strange that you will carry another player along with your phone. Or maybe iRiver has uncovered a niche of music phone-shy users?

SoLiVE24 launches a 24-hour weather streaming service

2009-04-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Weather info is always in demand and now Japanese Internet and cell phone users will be able to access the latest weather updates in real time 24 hours a day. Weather News and Fuji Television are launching SOLiVE24, an Internet weather info streaming service that offers a desktop Adobe Air widget for download. It also has an interactive feature like chat. Besides getting pushed weather updates, mobile phone users will have an ability to report back weather conditions from their locations, which will make possible to pint point the rain spread in almost real time. In addition to a very clean and nice UI, the SOLiVE24 hired a team of weather ancorwomen who can surely make the gloomiest weather forecast a little bit brighter.

Source: IT Media

Japan's biggest SNS Mixi opens APIs for mobile Mixi

2009-04-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

One might asks what took them so long? Nevertheless, Japan's biggest social networking service mixi announced it would provide APIs for its mobile version to third party developers to write applications. Early it did the same for its PC version. While in beta the mobile mixi will be officially open to outside developers in September. APIs to be open are as follows:

Person & Friends API
Activity API
Persistence API
Message API
Community API
Album API

Get a mixi presentation in Japanese here.

Source: mixi Developer Center via IT Media

NSW releases Android multimedia player

2009-04-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

Nippon System Ware (NSW) announced the availability of nswPlayer for Android devices. nswPlayer is a multimedia player capable of playing back video, audio and album art. NSW claims that there are not so many all-in-one multimedia players in Android marketplace right now, which makes their product a kind of special. Another appealing point is the simplicity of nwsPlayer's UI.

Compatibility
File formats:	H.264/AVC、MPEG4、3GPP、MP3、AAC、AMR、PNG、JPEG、GIF、BITMAP

Source: NSW

Mobile marketing primer: coupon service Toruca in baseball promo

2009-04-23T05:06:00.001-07:00

Local baseball team Seibu Lions claims to be the first in Japan to implement a mobile content distribution system to please their fans. The system is using NTT DoCoMo's Toruca service, which allows Seibu's fans to get players' pics, their profiles and team schedule onto the phones via NFC terminal installed at the fans booth in the stadium. All they need to do is just to wave their Toruca-compatible phones in front of the reader and the data will be pushed wirelessly to them.

Source: Seibu Lions

Mobile phone sales drop by 29% in Japan in 2008

2009-04-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

According to MM Research Institute, the cellphone shipments decreased by 29.3% YoY in Japan in 2008, totaling in 35.8 million units. Sharp was leading the pack for four years consecutively, shipping over 8 million handsets last year. International players failed to make a big impact in 2008, grouped in the Other category where Apple iPhone and HTC Diamond were notoriously visible. The 2009 outlook doesn't look bright as the handset shipments are expected to drop by another 7.5% hitting the low of 33.2 million units.

Source: MM Research Institute via Keitai Watch

Japanese propose a fridge running on Android

2009-04-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

Android group in Japan proposed to equip refrigerators with Android in order for the them to communicate with the cloud. In a futuristic scenario, the Android fridge would have LCD, cellular radio, browser, barcode reader and RFID sensor to intelligently track the expiration dates of food and decide what dishes to cook based on the fridge's contents and online recipes. If some ingredients are missing, the fridge would take the initiative to do online price comparison and order the delivery. As an additional responsibility, the fridge might have a sensor to detect an earthquake and communicate the data to the server.

Source: Android group

First waterproof phone with solar panels to go on sale in six months in Japan

2009-04-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

In six month the world or at least people in Japan will witness the first phone featuring solar panel to go on sale. Manufactured by Sharp the new wonder will hit the shelves of the second biggest operator KDDI au. The companies claim that 10 minutes of charging by the sun will be enough for 1 minute talk or two-hour standby time. The solar panel will be able to charge the battery to 80% of its capacity, serving as an alternative to electricity and thus reducing the potential carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere. But being greenish wasn't enough for Sharp as it also made its phone waterproof, which added uniqueness to the product.

Source: KDDI au press release

One millionth user subscribes with DoCoMo's iConcier service

2009-04-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

In five months after the launch of iConcier service, DoCoMo boosted its number of subscribers to one million. iConcier is a content push-type service delivering various information to user's phone screen. It updates local, traffic and weather information along with the integration of DoCoMo's other services including Calendar, coupon service Toruca and Address Book. It costs 210 yen on a monthly basis and can be personilized with a mascot of your choice.

Source: IT Media

Mobile music downloads dominate the music landscape in Japan

2009-04-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

When it comes to any type of music, be it ringtones, music videos or singles Japanese users prefer to download it and playback on mobile phones. The recent numbers from RIAJ show a whooping 90% of paid music digital content in 2008 being consumed on mobile phone devices. Taking a closer look at mobile music consumption, we can see that ringtone and ringback downloads along with full-track purchases lead in popularity.

Source: RIAJ

Japanese are quick to feature Obama's dog in mobile game

2009-04-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Japanese game maker Hudson Soft quickly reacted to the news about Obama's dog by releasing a free Flash game for DoCoMo's FOMA handsets featuring Obama himself and his pet cheering up the player to finish the game successfully. The White House is yet to issue an official statement in regard to this matter.

Source: Hudson Soft via Keitai Watch

Mobile Suica reaches another milestone: 1.5 million users

2009-04-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Contactless train fare payment service Mobile Suica made another stride to reach 1.5 million subscribers. Offered in 2006 by Japan Railways in eastern Japan and commonly used by DoCoMo, au and Softbank users Mobile Suica service is spreading across country and adding retails POPs accepting Mobile Suica for payments. It will soon become compatible with the similar payment systems used in parts of Hokkaido, Kyushyu and Western Japan. It will also be possible to purchase small items in Lawson shops by using Mobile Suica-enabled phone starting from April.

Source: JR East

Forecast: Mobile WiMax will find its niche in Japan

2009-03-27T16:23:00.001-07:00

Mobile broadband services are getting set for deployment in full swing in Japan. There are currently three competing technology camps including mobile phone operators with their sight on LTE upgrade from 3G, PHS phone service provider Willcom with its evolution path towards Next Generation PHS service dubbed as CORE, and a newly formed UQ Communications consortium with Mobile WiMax ambitions. With a 40% CAGR forecasted by research outlet ROA Group, the mobile broadband market is going to reach a 10 million milestone by 2013. Note: the forecast doesn't include mobile phone contracts.

Source: ROA Group

Japan finishes 2008 with 110 million mobile phone subscribers

2009-01-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

The “low-baller” competition led by Softbank and eMobile is on in Japan and DoCoMo seems to be back in the game while KDDI and Willcom are out of steam. The December 2008 new adds data from TCA shows just that (see above). Overall, Japan carriers including PHS operator Willcom added 401 thousand new subscribers in December 2008 boosting the country’s total number of mobile phone users to over 110 million equal to 87% of population penetration.

As for the carrier market shares, DoCoMo is in comfortable first-class seat with over 49% of the market while the second and third contenders KDDI and Softbank are chugging behind with 27% and 18% market shares correspondently (see below).

Source: TCA

Features aside, Japanese users value design most when buying a smartphone

2009-01-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

According to a market research by Impress R&D, 61.8% of respondents look at the design when buying a smartphone. The next thing they check after the design is the price they are going to pay for the device (45.2%). Among other important things are the crispiness of the display (40.9%), form factor (40.1%), responsiveness (39.2%), size of the display (39.2%), etc.

Source: Impress R&D

iPhone in Japan turns into TV tuner

2009-01-01T18:55:00.000-08:00

Now you can't blame iPhone in Japan for not being capable of oneseg TV reception, a must-have feature for Japanese phones. Softbank is shipping a stand-alone oneseg & battery hardware box that will serve as a TV tuner and battery for iPhone. It can send over the TV signal to iPhone using the WiFi connection or be connected to iPhone via a cable when used as an extra battery. It sells for around 100 dollars. Additionally, users will need to download a free oneseg app from App Store in order to watch oneseg TV.

Handset replacement cycle to get longer in Japan

2008-12-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

Market researchers at MM Research Institute in Japan found out that almost half of domestic cell phone users intend keeping their current handset for a little over two years, which will lead to the longer replacement cycle and, therefore, will depress handset manufacturers' sales. On average, only one out of three users will buy a new handset within a year.

Source: MMRI