Category: telecommunications
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DoCoMo speeds up 3G by 10 times
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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Vodafone Japan rebranding to SoftBank
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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NTT Docomo CEO: Wall Street Journal “Leadership Question of the Week” – Japanese leadership
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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SoftBank rebrands Vodafone Japan
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…
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BlackBerry for Japan
DoCoMo plans to sell BlackBerry to corporates in Japan With the RiM/NTP patent infringement lawsuit settled with a US$612.5 million payment, DoCoMo and Research in Motion (RiM) announced on June 8, 2006 that DoCoMo plans to start selling BlackBerry in Japan from autumn 2006 to corporate customers. Will RiM invest US$ 612.5 million to build…
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Blackberry comes to Japan (interview for Red Herring)
On June 8, 2006, DoCoMo and Research in Motion (RiM) announced that DoCoMo will start marketing RiM’s BlackBerry to corporate customers from autumn 2006. DoCoMo will offer a version of BlackBerry which will use wCDMA (FOMA) 3G network connection in Japan, and will also be able to operate on legacy GSM/GPRS networks which are still…
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SoftBank turnaround program for Vodafone-Japan
SoftBank acquires Vodafone’s Japan operations, announces turnaround strategy SoftBank turnaround for Vodafone-Japan: Focus on customer service and increased investments by Gerhard Fasol SoftBank has acquired Vodafone-Japan (Vodafone KK) and will change the name to SoftBank Mobile. SoftBank‘s alliance with APPLE to develop iPod-mobile phones is the latest in a string of actions to take the…
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iPod mobile phones for Japan?
According the headline report in Nihon Keizai Shinbun (the world’s largest business daily) on Saturday May 13th, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and SoftBank’s Chairman Masayoshi Son met recently, and are developing a joint mobile phone with iPod and iTunes functions. On March 17 SoftBank announced the full acquisition of Vodafone’s Japan subsidiary – the former…
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EU Government contract awarded: benchmarking broadband in EU vs Japan
As a consequence of our CEO’s briefing entitled “Why Japan is several years ahead of Europe in telecommunications and what Europe can do to catch up” on March 23, 2006 for the Technology Attaches of the Embassies of the 25 European Union countries here in Tokyo our company has been awarded a project contract by…
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1-SEG
1-SEG? One-Seg? wansegu? In Japan the nickname for digital mobile TV is written in Katakana: ワンセグ (pronounced wansegu). Japanese people love to abbreviate – oneseg is short for One Segment. Why? The reason is technical: digital TV is broadcast in certain radio frequency channels. Each TV station (e.g. NHK, Fuji-TV, TBS etc) uses one particular…
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Mobile TV
Digital mobile TV started officially in Japan on April 1, 2006 after several months of testing. Japan’s media industry is large – Japan’s broadcasting industry alone is about US$ 40 billion sales/year, so mobile-TV will probably develop into a multibillion-$ industry over the next few years. At the moment there is a chicken-and-egg situation: content…
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Why Japan is several years ahead of Europe in telecoms and broadband?
Briefing at the European Union Embassy following Vodafone’s failure in Japan and what Europe can do to catch up? by Gerhard Fasol Today (March 23, 2006) I was invited to brief the Technology Attaches of the Embassies of the 25 European Union countries here in Tokyo about the topic “Why Japan is several years ahead…
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Softbank acquires Vodafone Japan with co-investment from Yahoo KK
The Deal seals Vodafone’s exit from Japan Softbank acquires Vodafone Japan in an approx. US$ 15 billion deal – worth an estimated US$ 83 billion ten years later SoftBank and Yahoo-Japan acquired 97.7% of outstanding shares of Vodafone Japan (Vodafone KK) in Japan’s largest M&A transaction (the remaining 2.3% are owned by other investors). In…
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Vodafone Japan fail: Why did Vodafone lose the opportunity of US$ 83 billion value, and help jumpstart the growth of SoftBank
Vodafone’s opportunity cost of US$ 83 billion, asset write-down by £28bn (= approx. US$ 50 billion) in 2006, and kicking off SoftBank’s meteoric rise by Gerhard Fasol Vodafone Japan fail: learn from the missed US$ 83 billion opportunity in Japan Vodafone Japan fail: a painful lesson for the Vodafone group, and the jumpstart for SoftBank’s…
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Mobile music taking off in Japan
i-Tunes Music Store (ITMS) kick-started internet music downloads in Japan i-Tunes Music Store (ITMS) kick-started internet music downloads in Japan, which were falling just before ITMS arrived: i-Tunes & i-Pod themselves are under attack in Japan i-Tunes & i-Pod themselves are under attack by KDDI‘s “au Listen Mobile Service” – LISMO!, which includes sophisticated viral…
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Vodafone in Japan? A dramatic change of Vodafone’s mind?
“Vodafone K.K.’s Tsuda, 津田志郎, seeks growth in Japan, not sale” However, sale to SoftBank may be the way forward About one year ago, in an interview with Bloomberg (“Vodafone KK’s Tsuda seeks growth in Japan, not sale“), I mentioned that a sale of Vodafone’s Japan operations to Softbank might be the way Vodafone will go…
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On Germany’s national network about FeliCa wallet phones and other mobile trends
Got interviewed about mobile FeliCa and other mobile trends in Japan by Germany’s largest broadcasting network ARD: read text of program here listen to the broadcast here (in German) Much of this broadcast is based on our presentation: Japan’s telecom sector Mobile payment Japan, e-money and mobile credit report: Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All…
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SANYO – NOKIA CDMA2000 JV (Interview for CNBC)
Was interviewed today about the announced JV between SANYO and Nokia for CDMA2000 phone handsets (I added some corrections here): [Q1] How will SANYO benefit from this, since they are the ones who have the technology, what do they hope to gain from working with Nokia? Or is this merely a way to reduce costs…
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Why are keitai so hot in Japan?
Innovations in Japan’s mobile phone sector Why is Japan’s telecommunications sector leading? Seminar announcement The European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS Academy in Tokyo) of the Stockholm School of Economics will hold a seminar in Tokyo-Marunochi on Thursday, February 16, 2006: Topic: “Why are Mobile Phones (Keitai) so hot in Japan? – and How European…
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Music phone for KDDI LISMO! mobile music service including 4 GigaByte Hard Disk launched
Music player phone for KDDI LISMO mobile music service LISMO! competing with iPod and iTunes (Tokyo, Feb. 6, 2006 by Eurotechnology Japan KK) In the last few days KDDI/AU‘s “MUSIC-HDD” phone (W41T by Toshiba) went on sale nationwide in Japan. The W41T includes a 4 Gigabyte 0.85 inch (22.6mm) diameter Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and…
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Japan’s mobile operators’ profits
Overall Japanese mobile operators generate on the order of US$ 10 Billion/year in profits with a rising tendency. US$ 10 Billion/year profits attract three new entrants to Japan’s mobile markets (eMobile, YAHOO-BB and IP-mobile), mobile virtual operators, and attracted Vodafone to acquire J-Phone some time ago. DoCoMo’s domestic profits in particular have been continuously rising…
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Japan’s full 2005 cellphone subscriber data
Japan’s 2005 cellphone subscriber data show: Japan’s cellphone market continues to grow by more than 4.5 million subscriptions/year DoCoMo and KDDI are continuing their head-to-head race Since June 2005 Vodafone is consistently gaining customers again (but losing market share) Willcom’s turn-round is continuing, and Willcom is consistently gaining market share. Willcom is outperforming Vodafone as…
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SMS is a staggering success – mobile email in Japan is a three times more staggering success
The Mobile Data Association (MDA) announced in a press release on November 25th, 2005 under the headline “Text messaging soars during October” that SMS sent in the UK during October 2005 “have soared … to a staggering … 93.5 million SMS/day”. Read below to find out that Japan’s numbers are at least three times more…
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Wireless internet grows by about 0.5 million/month in Japan
Japan’s mobile internet is a growth market with about 0.5 Million new subscriptions/month – Japan’s mobile internet grows by about one Finland per year, and even more in terms of ARPU! This growth today is shared almost 50%/50% between DoCoMo’s i-Mode and KDDI’s EZweb. Vodafone’s subscriber numbers on the other hand have been more or…
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Mobile marketing with QR-code
QR codes (QR = “quick response”) have a lot more capacity than conventional bar codes: Marketing i-Pod-nano with QR-code: QR-code takes you directly to the mobile Apple store to buy your i-Pod-nano here and now on the road (read a detailed description of the Apple i-Pod QR-code campaign in our QR-Code report): More about:– QR-codes…
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NTT Docomo acquisitions: Tower Records – No music, no life!
Docomo acquires music retail know-how and a laboratory for mobile payments at the point-of-sale NTT Docomo acquisitions: 32.34% of Tower Records a major share of Japan’s second largest Credit Card issuer Nikkei reports several NTT Docomo acquisitions: DoCoMo will use a total investment of around YEN 10 Billion (approx US$ 100 million) to acquire 32.24%…
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BBC TV interview about FeliCa wallet phones
Read our CEO’s interview on BBC World TV about FeliCa wallet phones. Watch the movie of the interview:Windows Media Player – Bandwith = Low|Medium|HighReal Player – Bandwith = Low|Medium|High Read our report Mobile payments in Japan. Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
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Presentations at CIAJ and CEATEC
The Communications and Information Network Association of Japan (CIAJ) and the CEATEC trade exhibition invited our CEO to brief Japanese executives on the differences between Europe’s and Japan’s mobile phone markets, opportunities for Japanese mobile phone companies in Europe and difficulties for Japanese companies to overcome in Europe Presentation at CIAJ Headquarters on Friday, September…
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"What is hot in mobile in Japan?" (Executive Briefing)
From time to time our CEO is asked to brief top executives of major corporations – or even the President of Germany, or the Vice-Minister of Industry of France. Several times this year we gave a presentation on “What’s hot in mobile in Japan”. Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
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Japan media landscape restructuring
Japan’s broadcasting is a US$ 40 billion/year industry There have been many attempts over the years for Japan media landscape restructuring by Gerhard Fasol Japan’s broadcasting markets (commercial TV + NHK + CATV + satellite + AM & FM radio) have annual combined revenues on the order of US$ 40 billion. The main players in…