Category: telecommunications

  • NFC prepaid fare cards are Nikkei Marketing Journals most popular product of the year 2006

    NFC prepaid fare cards are Nikkei Marketing Journals most popular product of the year 2006

    Annual Nikkei Marketing Journal (NMJ) ranking list of most successful products NFC prepaid fare cards ranked near the top of most popular products for 2006 Every year Nikkei Marketing Journal publishes a ranking list of the most successful products of the past year in the form Sumo wrestling results are traditionally displayed: there is a…

  • Customized QR code using in-built redundancy to display color and embedded graphics

    Customized QR code using in-built redundancy to display color and embedded graphics

    QR codes in color and with embedded graphics using in-built redundancy by Gerhard Fasol QR codes for mobile phones started in Japan in August 2002 QR codes have been developed around 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave – about 20 years ago- for car parts management at Toyota’s factories, and the first applications of QR…

  • PASMO: IC cards for transport

    On March 18, 2007, more than 100 transportation companies (26 railway companies and 75 bus companies) – moving 30 million people of the Tokyo region – will switch to the IC card ticketing and e-cash system named “PASMO”. PASMO will interoperate and partially compete with SUICA. Preparations go back more than 20 years, when Japan’s…

  • 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…

  • FeliCa and Mifare cooperation

    Paying with the mobile phone in shops and trains, unlocking doors, security check in offices, paying the air ticket and checking in, all just by waving the wallet phone close to a reader/writer unit is addictive – and daily life in Japan today. SUICA in Tokyo, Octopus in Hong Kong and Oyster in London are…

  • "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…

  • Outsourcing Japan market research and strategy consulting to India, Philippines?? – a recipe for business failure in Japan?

    Outsourcing Japan market research and strategy consulting to India, Philippines?? – a recipe for business failure in Japan?

    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…

  • 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…

  • SoftBank a small fry, writes BusinessWeek …. really??

    SoftBank a small fry, writes BusinessWeek …. really??

    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…

  • 3G RAZR for DoCoMo and i-Mode

    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…