Internet Will Evolve Around Mobile Phones, Says DoCoMo VP

Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, senior executive vice president of NTT DoCoMo, delivered a keynote speech titled "Present and Future of Mobile Phones" at CEATEC JAPAN 2008.
In his speech, Tsujimura pointed out the "shift of Internet media to mobile phones" as one of the key concepts explaining future mobile phones. The current PC-based Internet will evolve utilizing the features of mobile phones, Tsujimura said. He also referred to the "shift to broadband," the "fusion of real and cyber" and "globalization" as three major driving forces for this evolution. In respect to the shift to broadband, he predicts that LTE will be introduced in most parts of the world in the future. He said that NTT DoCoMo plans to introduce LTE in fiscal 2010. The introduction of HSDPA and LTE will enable the downloading and streaming of movies. In addition, if upload speeds are enhanced, real-time communication, which PCs failed to achieve, will be possible, Tsujimura said. For example, a person who comes across a train accident can post a video shot by a mobile phone to the Internet so that people can view the video and obtain information about the accident. This is made possible by a camera and a display, which are usually equipped in mobile phones, he explained. The adoption of LTE also changes the load balance between the terminal and the server, Tsujimura said. Because the "pipe" that connects the terminal and the core network will be increased by ten times in diameter, delays will be minimized, allowing the server to take care of saving and calculation, which are currently carried out on the terminal. This enables the user of the terminal to concentrate on input/output operation of the display and may change the direction of the terminal's evolution, Tsujimura said. As introduced above, Tsujimura pointed out the "shift of Internet media to mobile phones" as one of the driving forces for the evolution of mobile phones. This enables users to switch between real life and the Internet through a mobile phone, allowing them to take the optimum action. For example, Tsujimura referred to the Osaifu-Keitai services. If the user utilizes the services, a railway ticket reservation can be changed as many times as he/she wants, which allows the user to take appropriate action responding to unexpected situations such as delay of a train by using a mobile phone. He also said those functions of mobile phones "are not specific to Japan and we are just moving ahead of the world. We think the global market is generally heading in the same direction." Furthermore, he introduced NTT DoCoMo's marketing business via mobile phones carried out in collaboration with McDonald's Holdings Co. In this business, part of customer attribute data and purchase information are obtained from the coupons downloaded to mobile phones to utilize the information for marketing, Tsujimura said.
In respect to globalization, he said the standardization of terminal platforms will be advanced, explaining the current situation in which the burden of software development for mobile phones has been increasing. The structure of software will be changed so that "global applications" common to telecommunications carriers and equipped with the "operation pack" of each carrier can be loaded into a common OS, he said. He explained that standardization will reduce terminal cost and promote Japanese manufacturers' entry into foreign markets, as well as overseas manufacturers' entry into DoCoMo's market.