Category: Mobile

  • SoftBank and KDDI win market share, Docomo loses

    SoftBank and KDDI win market share, Docomo loses

    SoftBank from 4th to 1st position within less than 12 months… SoftBank‘s turn-round of x-Vodafone-Japan, went faster than many expected. Within less than 12 months SoftBank went from last place to first place in customer sign-ups, overtaking even KDDI‘s super-popular AU. Willcom recently suffers from SoftBank‘s revival, as well as from eMobile‘s flat rate data…

  • First half FY2008 results: SoftBank and KDDI profits increase, DoCoMo’s trends is downward

    In the last few days NTT, NTT-DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank announced their first half financial results. SoftBank and KDDI are the winners both for market share and for profits, while DoCoMo‘s results and market shares are sinking, and pulling the NTT-Group down at this time. Extrapolation indicates that DoCoMo‘s net profits may fall into the…

  • KDDI Set To Post Record H1 Profit (CNBC TV interview)

    Need to know more about KDDI? Read our Report on KDDI Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • SuiPo – linking posters to mobile phones and IC cards

    JR-East introduced SuiPo (Suica Poster). People who want to participate need to register and link their plastic SUICA card, or their mobile SUICA (wallet phone with installed SUICA application) with a registered mobile or PC email address. Whenever a registered participants touches the SUICA reader/writer on the side of a poster, links to a campaign…

  • Nanaco – e-cash and m-cash for Seven-Eleven

    Nanaco – e-cash and m-cash for Seven-Eleven

    Seven-Eleven rolls out national electronic money and mobile payment system Retail chain AEON follows with WAON e-cash and mobile money This week two of Japan’s largest retail chains roll out electronic and mobile cash: Monday April 23rd, 2007 the Seven & I Holdings Group started “nanaco” and tomorrow, Friday April 27th, 2007, the AEON retail…

  • eMobile – mobile disruption in Japan

    On March 31, 2007 eMobile will start high-speed (3.6 Mbps, HSDPA) mobile data services in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, bringing disruption into the mobile data market in Japan. While Willcom offers a flat data rate of YEN 9000 (US$ 77) per month for unlimited data transmission at 128kbps, eMobile will offer 30 times higher speed…

  • “Help – my mobile phone does not work!” – Why Japan’s mobile phone sector is so different from Europe’s

    “Help – my mobile phone does not work!” – Why Japan’s mobile phone sector is so different from Europe’s

    Presentation at the Lunch meeting of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (FCCJ) on March 16, 2007 at the Westin Hotel, Tokyo. Summary of the event and photographs here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160815232148/http://www.fcc.or.jp/lunch160307.html The presentation is not available any longer on the FCCJ website however you can download our report about Japan’s telecom sector. An abbreviated version…

  • Mobile subscriptions grow by 5 million in Japan during 2006

    Japan’s mobile subscriber numbers grew by about 5 million in 2006. Because of the much higher ARPU, Japan’s mobile market again grew by a couple of Finlands during 2006. A growing number of people have more than one mobile phone, to take advantage of the best rates, eg for mail, voice and data. We expect…

  • Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan

    Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan

    Mobile number portability created winners and losers in only two months – the main business challenge for Japanese operators is to avoid a price war. KDDI is the clear winner in the first round, DoCoMo suffers a setback, and SoftBank (which acquired Vodafone-Japan) did better than expected. Today we released the 23rd edition of our…

  • NEW YEAR on i-Mode and EZ-web

    Both docomo’s i-Mode and KDDI’s EZweb top menu pages display Season Greetings and reflect Japan’s seasonal mood: autumn sports days in schools, skiing in winter, Halloween and New Year. Here are this year’s New Year greetings for the Year of the boar on i-mode and EZweb which were displayed from January 1, 2007 for a…

  • "au design project 2006": TRILOGY

    KDDI is unique among mobile operators in creating value from design for phones with the “au design project”. 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. au design project 2006: The KDDI Designing Center showed the…

  • "au design project": INFOBAR-2 by Fukawasa Naoto

    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…

  • Ericsson Strategy & Technology Summit Tokyo

    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…

  • Barcodes for mobile payment

    Barcodes for mobile payment

    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…

  • Mobile number portability in Japan: SoftBank’s Zero YEN campaign

    Mobile number portability in Japan: SoftBank’s Zero YEN campaign

    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…

  • Finland-Japan Ubiquitous Society Conference

    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…

  • Briefing TeliaSonera top management

    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,…

  • SoftBank’s Gold Plan – Zero Yen?

    SoftBank’s Gold Plan – Zero Yen?

    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…

  • KDDI’s "Customer Satisfaction" campaign

    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·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Yahoo!-keitai replaces Vodafone-Live!

    Yahoo!-keitai replaces Vodafone-Live!

    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…

  • ACCESS CEO Toru Arakawa (Oct. 6, 2006)

    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…

  • SoftBank Shibuya flagship store

    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·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • u-Japan and Japan’s Mobile Phone Industry

    u-Japan and Japan’s Mobile Phone Industry

    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,…

  • Japan’s telecom sector briefing for the European Union Technology Attaches at the EU Embassy in Tokyo

    Japan’s telecom sector briefing for the European Union Technology Attaches at the EU Embassy in Tokyo

    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…

  • Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan

    Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan

    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…

  • SoftBank accounting adjustments – a Red Herring interview

    SoftBank accounting adjustments – a Red Herring interview

    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…

  • SoftBank rebrands Roppongi store from Vodafone red to SoftBank white/silver

    SoftBank rebrands Roppongi store from Vodafone red to SoftBank white/silver

    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…

  • YAHOO and Google’s mobile strategies

    YAHOO and Google’s mobile strategies

    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…

  • SoftBank transforms former Vodafone Roppongi flagship store

    SoftBank transforms former Vodafone Roppongi flagship store

    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…

  • iPhone for Japan? iTunes/iPod phones?

    iPhone for Japan? iTunes/iPod phones?

    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…