Feb 28th - Japan To Use Russia's Glonass Satellite System

The government plans to start using Russia's Glonass satellite system in fiscal 2011, in addition to the U.S. Global Positioning System, for land surveys, to expand coverage and improve accuracy, it has been learned.

The former Soviet Union began developing Glonass in the 1980s to compete with GPS. Although the system was initially set up for military use, Russia is now promoting Glonass for civilian purposes.

It is unusual for Japan to use Russia's satellite technology, although more than 20 years have passed since the end of the Cold War.

Signals from Glonass can be used free of charge, just like those from GPS.

Over the 10 years or so from fiscal 2011, the Japanese government will upgrade satellite signal receivers in about 1,200 locations nationwide for land surveys, enabling them to receive Glonass signals as well.

The government hopes using Glonass will allow satellite signals to reach more places, including behind tall buildings and in valleys. It also aims to get faster and more accurate data on movements in the earth's crust near volcanoes.

Feb 28th - Docomo to launch tablet computer in late March to counter iPad

The Optimus Pad L-06C

TOKYO —

NTT Docomo Inc said Thursday it will offer a multifunction tablet computer in Japan next month to compete with Apple Inc’s iPad.

The Optimus Pad, made by South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, will use the latest operating system that Internet search giant Google Inc has developed for tablet computers.

The tablet with an 8.9-inch display weighs 620 grams. It cannot be used as a phone. Its retail price is estimated at between 30,000 and 35,000 yen.

NTT Docomo, the largest Japanese mobile phone service provider, also said it will put on sale two new smartphones selling for between 25,000 and 30,000 yen in Japan in March.

One of them is the 7.7-millimeter Medias made by NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd, which NTT Docomo said is the world’s thinnest smartphone. The other is the Xperia arc by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

Feb 27th - Taxi Firms Offer New Mobile Services For Customers

Major taxi companies in Tokyo are ramping up efforts to attract more repeat customers by providing new services that offer greater convenience to mobile phone users.

Tokyomusen, a taxi association in Shinjuku Ward that has a fleet of roughly 4,500 taxis, will launch a new service as early as June that helps customers quickly find cabs by dialing a phone number on their handsets. Customers will not need to tell the dispatcher where they are, as drivers will be able to pinpoint their locations with the global positioning systems in mobile phones.

Nihon Kotsu Co., meanwhile, will launch a service Tuesday that allows customers to make reservations with an application on smartphones equipped with U.S.-based Google Inc.'s Android operating system. This service is already available through U.S.-based Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

Nihon Kotsu, the largest taxi company in Tokyo, also plans to expand its lineup of taxi stands at hospitals and large buildings to about 20 locations in fiscal 2013, up from 15 at present.

Taxi sales reached about 1.8 trillion yen in Japan in fiscal 2009, down more than 60% from the fiscal 1991 peak.

Feb 19th - KDDI To Unveil WiMAX-Compatible Smartphone

KDDI Corp. in April will release Japan's first smartphone compatible with WiMAX high-speed wireless communications.

Japanese enjoy an ever-broadening array of smartphones to choose from.

The cell phone service provider will sell EVO, a WiMAX-compatible phone made by Taiwan's HTC Corp. KDDI affiliate UQ Communications Inc. has set up WiMAX base stations. With around 600,000 current subscribers, the system has ample room for more.

WiMAX enables data to be sent and received at five times the speed of regular cell phone service. This could make smartphones more convenient, since many are used to access the Internet. The growing popularity of smartphones is squeezing cell phone companies' service capacity, and WiMAX compatibility could ease the burden on the mobile communication networks.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone enjoys popularity in the smartphone market, but KDDI aims to fight back by offering models equipped with unique functionality. KDDI also seeks to set itself apart by the enhanced convenience of being able to send and receive large volumes of data at high speed.

Dec 2nd - Softbank moving ahead of competitors

Thanks to its exclusive contract with Apple, Softbank is powering ahead of its rivals in the mobile phone market. 
The group's operating profits rose 37% to JPY315.5bn, marking its fifth straight half-year increase. As of September 30th, Softbank had sold 3.7m iPhones, of which 900,000 iPhone 4's were sold in just the previous three months. As a result of the iPhone, and users propensity to access the carrier's servers more often, Softbank's data revenues surpassed voice revenues in Q1 this year.

Nov 7th - DoCoMo's Next-Gen LTE Service To Compete On Price

-NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to offer competitive pricing for the high-speed cellular phone service it is rolling out Dec. 24, The Nikkei learned Sunday.

Many industry insiders speculated that monthly charges for the service, which will employ the Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology, will come to around 10,000 yen. But the leading Japanese cell phone carrier has decided to set the effective monthly fee at 6,510 yen, just 9% higher than what it charges for its existing service.

That amount is expected to cover up to 5 gigabytes of data transmissions, which is sufficient for listening to 1,250 4-minute songs or watching normal-quality online videos for 23 hours. DoCoMo believes that the 5GB threshold will be enough for 99% of its customers. For the small number of heavy users, each additional 2,625 yen will buy them an extra 2GB of data volume.

DoCoMo's LTE service coverage will be limited to major cities until April 2012. During this initial period, customers signing up for two-year contracts will receive an even better deal of 4,935 yen per month.

The LTE service is expected to offer data transmission speeds that are 5-10 times faster than DoCoMo's existing service, or comparable to speeds delivered by fixed-line broadband services.

Major cellular phone carriers around the world are expected to begin offering LTE services in the coming years.

In Japan, Softbank Mobile Corp. and KDDI Corp. are working toward launching their LTE services in 2012 or later.

In Europe, LTE services are already being offered in Stockholm and some areas of Germany, but their charges amount to more than 7,000 yen per month.

4th Nov - Softbank Mobile To Offer 3-D Cell Phones

Softbank Mobile Corp. said Thursday it will release 24 new cell phone models, including the Galapagos 003SH, a smartphone that can offer 3-D images without special glasses.

All the smartphones to be launched will run the latest version of Google Inc.'s Android operating system. New Galapagos models, made by Sharp Corp, will have such capabilities unique to Japanese mobile gadgets as "one-seg" digital TV broadcasting and e-wallet functions.

Facing competition from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and KDDI Corp, Softbank Mobile aims to further expand its market share, which it has built on the popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The Softbank Corp. unit is the exclusive Japanese service provider for the Apple smartphone.

3rd Nov - KDDI, Softbank Mobile and SK Telecom to introduce NFC standard services in Japan and Korea

The three mobile network operators are to move away from the non-NFC mobile contactless technologies they currently support in favour of an NFC standard solution.

Korean mobile network operator SK Telecom and Japanese operatorsKDDI and Softbank Mobile have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see the three companies working together to switch from their existing non-NFC standard mobile contactless services to an NFC standard approach.

Japan and Korea are the current world leaders when it comes to providing consumers with mobile contactless payments services. KDDI and Softbank Mobile currently participate in the widely used Osaifu-Keitai service, developed by rival operator NTT DoCoMo and based on Sony's FeliCa technology. SK Telecom currently has 3.28 million users of its mobile payments service, developed in-house.

Both technologies enable consumers to use their mobile phone to make payments in stores and on public transport but are incompatible with each other and do not include tag reading functionality — a key driver of the three operators' decision to move to NFC.

Now the three carriers plan to use NFC technology to develop a range of compatible mobile payments, customer loyalty and promotions services that can be used by customers of all three operators in both Japan and Korea.

"Customers will be able to enjoy easy and convenient payment and additional services such as coupon benefits seamlessly without the need of renting and changing phones when visiting each other's country," says SK Telecom. "When the NFC- based payment system roll-out is completed, NFC phone users in Korea and Japan will be able to make mobile transactions after a simple downloading of a mobile payment application to their phones."

"Various services — mobile coupons, membership discounts and mobile gift vouchers — already in use in Korean and Japanese markets will also be available via NFC handsets," the operator adds. "Customers will be able to seamlessly use the convenient payment service as well as additional mobile services without any service interruptions or geographical limitations."

While Korea already has an installed base of 25,000 contactless card terminals that are compatible with NFC phones, the switch to NFC in Japan will require retailers to install new payments terminals that meet NFC and contactless card standards.  And the key to the success of that is likely to lie with how NTT DoCoMo reacts to the news that KDDI and Softbank are to defect from Osaifu-Keitai. The operator has already developed an NFC standard service offering, which it has been demonstrating at industry events for several years, but is yet to announce any move towards introducing NFC services commercially in Japan.

KDDI announced a major NFC trial in April, with an impressive list of partners including Toyota, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), Hitachi, various card issuers — and NTT Data.

SK Telecom, meanwhile, introduced a next generation service called T Smart Pay in March. The new service enables customers to store up to eight credit cards in their mobile phones, as well as up to 30 membership/point/mileage cards and 50 coupons and is expected to form the foundation of the new NFC services offered by KDDI, Softbank and SK Telecom.

"It is encouraging that mobile carriers of Korea and Japan have joined hands to promote mobile payment business," says Hong Sung Chul, executive vice president and head of service division of SK Telecom. "We hope this cooperation can become a strong springboard for boosting the overseas growth of SK Telecom's comprehensive mobile payment service, T Smart Pay, starting with the Japan market."

Nov 1st - Toppan Printing demonstrates a credit card with colour screen and keypad

Toppan Printing has demonstrated a credit card with a colour screen and keypad, claiming that you don't need a mobile phone to manage mobile commerce.

The card, which at 3.9mm thick squeezes into the definition of such, has a 2.2-inch colour screen with a 320x240 resolution, but most importantly Toppan Printing reckons it will cost under $25 when production ramps up next year. As highlighted by NFC World: a card like this makes proximity payments viable without relying on a mobile telephone.

Toppan's card, demonstrated at the Tokyo International Forum

N-Mark (the standard formerly known as NFC) combines a battery-powered tag reader with an induction-powered tag. So if the in-built battery runs out, the card will still work - you just won't able to check your balance or authorise higher-value transactions that might require the use of the keypad. Toppan's card will support FeliCa too, as a manufacturing option.

Interaction is limited to a few keys, unlike Visa's effort to put intelligence into a credit card. Visa CodeSure was demonstrated in July and while we've not used one, it would seem that wear and tear would quickly show which keys were used most regularly.

Press gently, don't want to leave any indicative marks

Toppan's card can do a lot more than take a PIN. One could use it to control the level of transaction to be authorised automatically, or control which of the multiple payment schemes that could be installed should be used by default. Toppan says it's also working on showing video on the screen, which seems excessive to us. Just as long as it can play Doom we'll be fine with that. ®

25th Oct - DoCoMo To Release 3-D Smartphone

NTT DoCoMo Inc. is introducing about 20 new cell phones and seven smartphones for the winter 2010 and spring 2011 seasons, including Japan's first handset with 3-D capability.

The company is expanding its product lineup with sleek new models to try to stimulate consumer buying appetite and win in competition with Apple's iPhone, sold in Japan by Softbank Mobile Corp.

A new Sharp Corp. smartphone running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system will enable users to see 3-D images without special glasses.

Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Akiba outlet in Tokyo's Akihabara district: DoCoMo will bolster its smartphone marketing operations.

Other new cell phones in the pipeline will have upgraded features including being water- and shockproof in line with U.S. military standards. They are being developed by NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd., a joint venture between NEC Corp, Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi Ltd. . Casio technology used in its G-Shock brand watches will be applied to these new models.

DoCoMo will also release a touchscreen model with a Japanese cypress exterior in an attempt to win over environmentally conscious customers.

According to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, domestic cell-phone shipments totaled some 31 million units in fiscal 2009, about 60% of their peak in 2000.

Despite sluggish demand, Softbank continues to expand the number of iPhone subscribers.

KDDI Corp., which provides the au cell phone service, is also stepping up product development and will debut a smartphone with e-wallet functions in late November.

7th Oct - Softbank Wins Subscriber Crown For 6th Month In Row

Softbank Mobile Corp. said Thursday it gained 332,600 new subscribers on a net basis in September, taking the top spot among mobile carriers for the sixth straight month.

The Softbank Corp. group firm continued to see strong sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4 smartphone. Softbank Mobile is the exclusive mobile service provider for the iPhone.

Softbank Mobile's subscriber base grew at a record monthly pace, excluding the month of March, which is the busiest month for sales.

For the April-September half, the company gained a total 1.598 million new subscribers on a net basis, a record high for a fiscal half.

NTT DoCoMo Inc. came second with 109,400 new subscribers. Its net gain was smaller than a month earlier, because more and more DoCoMo subscribers shifted to rival carriers, due partly to the popular iPhone, according to the company.

KDDI Corp. placed third, gaining a net 91,400 new subscribers.

Coming in fourth was eAccess Ltd. an affiliate Emobile Ltd. with 68,500.

KDDI Launches Bubble Motion's BubbleBlog -- Introduces Japan's First Voice-Blogging Service

Named "Koe-Now™" (meaning 'human-voice now'), Japan's only voice-blogging service makes it easy and fun for fans to follow their favorite celebrity voices through their phone.

Mobile audio social networking pioneer Bubble Motion is today announcing KDDI as its latest operator partner to deploy its industry-leading BubbleBlog voice-blogging platform. Deployed by systems integrator NEC, KDDI's "Koe-Now™" service launches today and is Japan's first consumer service in the explosive voice-blogging space.

Bubble Motion's BubbleBlog platform delivers a voice-blogging phone service so that people can share status updates in their own voice with fans and followers. These 'bubblers' just record their voice update into their phone, and instantly their followers everywhere are notified by SMS and prompted to click and listen. BubbleBlog, already hugely popular in India with more than 2-million users, has been described as a voice-based Twitter.

How It Works
Japanese stars such as actors, musicians, comedians and other celebrities have agreed to use the service as a unique and innovative way to connect with fans and followers. It's simple and fun for celebrity voice-bloggers to use; they simply dial a code, record their update and hang up their phone - and all of their fans and followers will get notified to listen to their update.

Meeting at DoCoMo HQ

I attended a meeting at DoCoMo HQ in Tokyo to hear the Managing Director of Corp Marketing Strategy Dept (Miki-san) give a talk on DoCoMo's vision of the future. As you can imagine, it was pretty mind blowing stuff, far beyond the current limitations of mobile devices. I picked up many ideas for our clients, and was particularly pleased to see how important GPS will become in DoCoMo's world (music to the ears of one of our new clients who have lading edge GPS technology!). I have a public copy of DoCoMo's presentation, so drop me a line if you would like one.

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.

DoCoMo Uses Handset to Show PC-stored Content on Remote TV

NTT DoCoMo Inc developed the "MH2H (mobile home to home)," a technology to enable its users to display the content stored in the PCs in their homes on the TVs in their friends' homes when they visited them. The company expects that the technology will be used to show pictures and movies taken by a camera to users' friends. It exhibited the technology for reference at CEATEC Japan 2008. With the MH2H, a mobile phone equipped with a wireless LAN function acts as a virtual media server in the network in a user's friend's home, and transmits the content stored in the user's home via the Internet. The technology is based on the "DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)," a standard to share content in a home network. NTT DoCoMo is now providing the "Pocket U" service with which users can watch or listen to the content stored in their homes by using their mobile phones away from home. This time, the company developed the MH2H as the next-generation function of the Pocket U. "Thanks to the Pocket U service, we can now watch and listen to content whenever we want even if we do not have any content stored in our mobile phones," the company said. "However, displays of mobile phones are too small to be watched by multiple people at the same time. So, we decided to show the content on a large screen of a TV and make it possible to share the excitement."
Handsets become virtual DLNA servers
The MH2H enables a user's mobile phone with a wireless LAN function to act as a DLNA's "digital media server" in the network of his/her friend's house. As a storage place of content, the IP address of the user's PC in his/her home was sent to a "digital media player," which streams content (PlayStation 3 in the demonstration). At this point, the mobile phone orders, via a mobile phone network, the PC installed with software for the Pocket U service to accept an HTTP request from a device outside the user's home. Those techniques enabled the DLNA, which is usually used for home networks, to transfer content between homes. Any device can be used for the service without changing its specifications, as long as it has DMP capabilities.
In addition, with the MH2H, a mobile phone can periodically check if it is connected to the network in the user's friend's home. Therefore, the user's friend cannot watch the content without the presence of its owner, NTT DoCoMo said.

Renesas to Announce Full HD Video Processor for Mobile Phones

Renesas Technology Corp will announce an application processor that enables mobile phones to process 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution 30fps full HDTV video at ISSCC 2009, which will take place in San Francisco, California, from Feb 8 to 12, 2009 (session code 8.7). Renesas announced in May 2008 that it was developing a full HDTV video processor. The session is titled "A 342mW Mobile Application Processor with Full HDTV Multi-Standard Video Codec." The processor's CPU core has the maximum operating frequency of 500MHz. It supports MPEG-4AVC/H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video formats. The 6.4 x 6.5mm chip was manufactured using 65nm CMOS technology. Its power consumption is 342mW when it is processing full HDTV video in real time via 166MHz 64-bit DDR-SDRAM. Some overseas semiconductor manufacturers have already started sample shipments of their HDTV-compatible application processors. Broadcom Corp announced its HDTV-compatible processor in October 2007, while Nvidia Corp and Texas Instruments Inc announced theirs in February 2008. All these processors can encode and decode 1280 x 720 resolution 30fps HDTV video but are not compliant with full HD video.

Nokia to pull out of Japanese market

Nokia, the world’s leading mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it would stop selling and marketing its mobile devices in Japan because its market share there remained below expectations. “In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific product variants is no longer sustainable,” Timo Ihamuotila, executive vice president at Nokia, said in a statement. However, sales of the Vertu luxury mobile phones, a brand owned by Nokia, will continue in Japan, the Finnish company said. Its global research and development as well as sourcing operations in Japan will also continue.
“In Japan we have had a low market share, below our own targets also. We have been investing in the market for a long time, but we are still in that situation,” Thomas Joensson, communications executive vice president, said. He added the company continued to believe its exclusive Vertu brand would succeed in the Japanese niche market segment despite the global financial turmoil. Vertu makes expensive handsets that are often embellished with titanium, gold, jewels and crystal. In October, Nokia said it estimated its global market share in July-September was 38%. The Finnish firm has done very well in emerging markets such as China and India, but has failed to attract technology savvy Japanese consumers. Handsets designed by foreign manufacturers have traditionally been unpopular among Japan’s notoriously finicky consumers. The country’s top mobile operator NTT DoCoMo and number three Softbank Mobile sell Nokia handsets, but the Finnish giant’s market share is limited. Many consumers are accustomed to Japanese-made mobile telephones, which are also widely used as electronic wallets, train tickets, and even to watch television. Japan’s mobile phone market has developed differently than those in other countries, with mobile operators, rather than handset makers, developing software and services. The Yomiuri newspaper reported last week that Nokia planned to launch its own mobile phone service in Japan in February initially for Vertu handsets.
Kyodo News said Nokia was considering starting a mobile phone service as a virtual network operator, using communication lines owned by NTT Docomo. Nokia will boost its sales network in Japan and present its own price plans for the mobile telephone services, the report said.

Softbank launch iPhone 1Seg TV accessory

Apples iPhone has come up short in Japan for various reasons, including its lack of the TV function available on the newest generation of mobile phones.

Softbank is tackling this shortfall with a new gadget that works with an iPhone and allows it not only to pick up 1Seg TV broadcasts but also pull double duty as a battery booster. The unit includes a TV tuner and aerial and it retransmits the signal via Wi-Fi to the iPhone, eliminating the need for a physical connection, unless you need the battery booster. Users will need an extra software application, but that will be available free of charge when the device goes on the market in mid-December. The new Softbank gadget measures 50×85×16 mm and tips the scales at about 80 grams. It delivers enough power for up to three hours of viewing on each charge. The device can be recharged in four hours via a computer USB port or in two hours when connected to an AC outlet. It is expected to cost around ¥10,000.

Japan outstrips other industrial nations in mobile technology

Japan far outstrips other Group of Seven industrial economies in terms of mobile technology with a massive 83% of cellphone users in the country already having a third-generation connection, according to a survey report released Thursday.The finding was shown in the third report on the international communication market by the Office of Communications or Ofcom, the independent regulator of Britain’s communications industries.

Nokia to launch mobile phone service in Japan next spring

Finnish cell phone maker Nokia plans to start mobile phone service in Japan, probably next spring, with an eye to expanding the market share of its own handsets, sources close to the matter said over the weekend. It would be the first time a cellphone handset maker made inroads into telecommunication services in Japan, the sources said. The move is likely to intensify competition among other domestic cell phone carriers such as NTT Docomo Inc, observers say. According to the sources, Nokia is contemplating starting the mobile phone service in a form called mobile virtual network operator, under which the Finnish manufacturer will use communication lines owned by NTT Docomo.The world’s largest cellphone maker will sell high-end handset models in Japan, targeting wealthy consumers, to strengthen its brand image, the sources said.