Eurotechnology.com news & events
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KDDI is unique among mobile operators in creating value from design for phones with the “au design project”. Read more about KDDI in our KDDI report. Creating value for which consumers are willing to pay premium prices is a key to success in the rapidly growing global US$ 150 Billion mobile phone business. INFOBAR was…
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Eurotechnology’s CEO was invited to attend Ericsson’s Strategy & Technology Summit in Tokyo on November 15, 2006. Ericsson’s CEO, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson CSO – Chief of Strategy, Japan-CEO Rory Buckley and other Ericsson top management presented Ericsson’s strategy and vision. About 100 investors and investment bank analysts were invited to attend. I was given the…
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Mobile operators expand into mobile payments and mobile credit Mobile phones use qr codes for payments Japan’s mobile operators DoCoMo, KDDI/AU and SoftBank are expanding their business into mobile payment and mobile credit, traditionally the realm of banks, credit card companies, financial institutions and cash. With the bubble/post-bubble bad loans problem largely resolved and the…
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Mobile number portability was a major factor forcing Vodafone out of Japan MNP is the first challenge for SoftBank Mobile – read how SoftBank approaches the MNP battle Mobile number portability (MNP) was introduced in Japan on October 24, 2006. Mobile number portability means that Japanese cell-phone subscribers (excluding PHS subscribers) can move their subscriptions…
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October 27, 2006 the Finland-Japan Ubiquitous Society Conference was held in Tokyo. Tero Ojanpera, Exec VP and CTO of NOKIA, gave an overview of NOKIA’s vision of communications, other speakers and panelists included Juho Lipsanen, Finland CEO of TeliaSonera, KDDI Chairman Murakami. The day before I briefed and had a long discussion with the top…
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The day before the Finland-Japan Ubiquitous Society Conference in Tokyo, I briefed the top-management (CEO, CTO and other top managers) of TeliaSonera, on October 26, 2006. The next day, October 27, 2006, the Finland-Japan Ubiquitous Society Conference was held. Tero Ojanpera, Exec VP and CTO of NOKIA, gave an overview of NOKIA’s vision of communications,…
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SoftBank acquired Vodafone KK for about US$ 15 billion, essentially with a very large loan. Thus SoftBank is under enormous pressure to succeed in Japan’s very competitive mobile phone market, where Number Portability was introduced on October 24, 2006. Recent subscriber number statistics and our observations indicate that SoftBank looks likely to succeed in turning…
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Contrary to SoftBank‘s “Zero YEN” campaign, which plays with the fire of a price war, KDDI centered AU’s number portability campaign on “customer satisfaction” emphasizing services. The “customer satisfaction campaign” uses a symbolic customer as the campaign theme: More in our Report on KDDI Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved
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SoftBank replaced Vodafone-Live! by Yahoo!-Keitai. SoftBank phones have a “Y!”-button which links to Yahoo!-keitai. Yahoo-Keitai! offers a list of official sites, new services (e.g. a new communicator service), and also access to free mobile internet sites through the YAHOO directory, as well as access to YAHOO services, such as YAHOO-auctions. YAHOO!-keitai is a fresh start…
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Toru Arakawa, CEO and Founder of ACCESS, gave a keynote speech at this years CEATEC show in Makuhari on October 6, 2006, outlining ACCESS strategies. ACCESS is the maker of NetFront browsers and other software at the core of DoCoMo’s i-mode. ACCESS acquired PalmSource and is developing the Access Linux Platform (ALP) based on the…
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On September 29, 2006, a few days before the official name change from Vodafone KK to SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank opened the rebranded Shibuya flagship store: Because of the crowded streets in Shibuya most of the building work was done during the night: More about SoftBank in our “SoftBank Report” Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK…
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u-Japan follows i-Japan and e-Japan to take Japan to the forefront of global IT developments Presentation at the EU-Japan Center for Industrial Cooperation, 12 October 2006 Title: “Japan’s Mobile Phone Industry and u-Japan” Date and Time: Thursday, 12th October 2006, 17:00-19:00 Location (tentative, please check closer to the date for changes): Main Conference Room 4F,…
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Comparing EU and Japan in broadband Why did Vodafone quit Japan and sell Vodafone-Japan to Softbank? Following Vodafone’s decision to end business in Japan and the announcement of the sale of Vodafone-Japan to SoftBank, this author has been asked to brief the Technology Attaches of the 25 EU Embassies in Tokyo on Japan’s mobile phone…
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Business decisions unrelated to market realities are a prime reason for failure of foreign companies in Japan In a quest to reduce market research costs, Japan market research is often outsourced to India, Philippines, Indonesia etc With shock and surprise we recently found out that a very famous telecom and IT industry market research and…
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Mobile Number Portability (MNP) started in Japan on October 24, 2006 Mobile Number Portability increased competition between mobile operators and forced Vodafone to give up in Japan and sell to SoftBank On October 24, 2006 Japan’s government regulators order the mobile phone operators to introduce number portability (MNP). KDDI/AU seems to be the winner in…
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On 5 September 1906 Ludwig Boltzmann died in Duano, Italy Ludwig Boltzmann: 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906 Ludwig Boltzmann (20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) is our company’s founder’s great grandfather – and one of our company’s great inspiration. We are working hard to continue his tradition of innovation and excellence and…
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SoftBank accounting adjustments Vodafone Japan turn around under SoftBank – Interview for Red Herring Helped RedHerring with an interview on the recent SoftBank accounting adjustment. The article is entitled “Softbank Falls on Lehman Cut” and appeared on the RedHerring website on August 28, 2006. Our company also recently advised a major global financial institution on…
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SoftBank acquired Vodafone’s Japan operations and lost no time to rebrand the company Speed is one of SoftBank’s success factors On March 17, 2006 SoftBank announced the acquisition of Vodafone Japan with co-investment by Yahoo KK, sealing the end of Vodafone’s operations in Japan, and Vodafone’s exit from Japan. SoftBank did not lose a moment…
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Japan is a couple of years ahead of Europe and US in mobile communications by most measures What are GOOGLE and YAHOO doing in Japan’s mobile sector? GOOGLE started mobile operations in Japan by partnering with KDDI (Japan’s No. 2 mobile operator with about 25 million mobile subscribers) to develop mobile search. YAHOO-Japan made a…
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Speed is one factor for SoftBank’s success Following the acquisition of Vodafone-Japan, SoftBank quickly turns round the company Today, August 26, 2006, SoftBank (read our report on SoftBank here) opened the remodeled and rebranded Roppongi flagship store. The SoftBank Roppongi store is designed in light colors using a color scheme including mainly white, silver and…
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There is a lot of discussions about whether Steve jobs is going to announce an iPhone or iPod-Phone at the Apple Computer Developer’s Conference in SF – according to the headline report on Saturday May 13th, 2006 in Nihon Keizai Shinbun ( the world’s largest business daily ) it’s already known since May this year…
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Comparing Apple and SoftBank Is SoftBank really smaller than Apple Computer? In my 20 years of business and work between US/Japan and EU/Japan, I am often surprised how Western executives underestimate economic size and strength of Japan and it’s companies – here is another example:BusinessWeek writes about the SoftBank/iPod phone, and writes that former Apple…
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When BusinessWeek interviewed me for an article about SHARP in October 2004, the journalist interviewing me was very surprised that I was talking to him on a SHARP mobile phone. While NEC and Matsushita are merging their mobile phone development, SHARP has leveraged the power to make the best displays into market leadership in Japan’s…
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At the Wireless Japan Exhibition, DoCoMo showed two types of Motorola’s RAZR phone for 3G: one RAZR purely for 3G, including i-Mode, for DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G service. This phone has similar dimensions as the standard US version of RAZR (shown on the left hand side of the image below) a second, much thicker version of…
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DoCoMo has upgraded radio networks to 3.6 Mbps in the Tokyo region, and NEC’s N902iX handsets will be released very shortly. DoCoMo has upgraded 3G networks in the Tokyo region to 3.6 Mbps (data download) in the Tokyo region using HSDPA technology (HSDPA = High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), and will soon sell NEC’s N902iX handsets.…
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SoftBank replaces Vodafone brand in Japan Vodafone quits business in Japan having sold all operations to SoftBank Photographs below show the world famous Vodafone board on Tokyo-Shibuya’s Hachiko-square being replaced by the SoftBank advertisement from June 14, 2006. Cheese phones anyone?… Vodafone “cheese phone” and “car tire phone” posters replaced by SoftBank posters on Tokyo’s…
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May 30, 2006: at the Industrial Club of Japan Panel discussion for about 200 Japanese CEOs and high level managers about the challenges of international business management. The five panelists were: James C AbbeglenAllen Miner (CEO of Sunbridge Venture Habitat, and founder of Oracle Japan) Kong Jian (China – Japan Economic Federation) Koshiro Kitazato (Chairman…
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Learning from Dr. Keiji Tachikawa, NTT Docomo CEO NTT Docomo CEO: Japanese leadership in the Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal, in the section “Leadership Question of the Week”, on Monday June 12, 2006 on page 31, published an article I wrote about a very extraordinary experience I had several years ago at the German…
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Speed of the essence: SoftBank loses no time to turn around Vodafone-Japan Vodafone’s withdrawal also shows, that the values of cross-cultural management skills are often underestimated by Gerhard Fasol SoftBank rebrands Vodafone Japan: Saturday June 10, 2006 was the first time we saw SoftBank replacing the Vodafone brand in Japan – bringing a formal end…