Tag: docomo

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.

SoftBank replaces Vodafone-Life by Yahoo!-keitai as part of the acquisition of Vodafone-Japan

YAHOO!-keitai is a fresh start to revive the mobile internet service, previously known as Vodafone-Live!, and which had been losing market share to competitors i-Mode and EZweb for about 4 years. Previous to the Vodafone-Live! period, Jsky had been successful in gaining market share both from i-Mode and EZweb.

Market share in Japan’s mobile internet market: Vodafone-Life was continuously losing market share before it was acquired by SoftBank, while KDDI’s EZweb was winning market share over several years

Understand Softbank: our report: “SoftBank today and 300 year vision”

pdf file, approx 120 pages, 47 figures 18 photos, 7 tables

SoftBank today and 300 year vision (20th edition)

Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

October 9, 2006
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 RAZR for international roaming (shown on the right hand side of the image below), which includes a FOMA/3G/wCDMA/UMTS modem and a GSM modem
Motorola’s RAZR for NTT docomo

Motorola’s RAZR for NTT docomo’s 3G network

Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
July 26, 2006
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. HSDPA upgrades will come to the Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe) region from autumn 2006.

DoCoMo announced that during 2007 the data uplink (sending data from mobile phones) will be upgraded to 1 to 2 Mbps, which is a substantial improvement to FOMA’s present 64 kbps upload speed.

DoCoMo/FOMA download speed: 3.6 Mbps (summer 2006 in the Tokyo region, Osaka/Kansai and other regions to follow)

DoCoMo/FOMA upload speed: 1 … 2 Mbps (from 2007)

NEC mobile phone handset N902iX for NTT docomo’s HSDPA network

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

July 26, 2006
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 Embassy here in Tokyo, with Dr. Keiji Tachikawa (立川敬二) – then CEO of NTT-DoCoMo (Dr. Keiji Tachikawa has since then moved on to become the head of Japan’s Space Agency JAXA).

Please find the unedited manuscript here (the actual published version was shortened a bit).

Leading in Asia:

What was the best business advice you received and who gave it to you?

The best business advice I received in Japan was from the former NTT Docomo CEO, Dr. Tachikawa – he taught me that when two parties do business, both parties have to profit/benefit – not just one party. He also taught me to go straight to the point, not waste time with irrelevant things.

Here the story in more details:

I had met Dr. Tachikawa at a reception at the German Embassy – purpose of the reception was to bring together German and Japanese leaders in telecommunications and mobile phones.

I noticed that Dr. Tachikawa, then NTT Docomo CEO, was standing for quite some time at the window, looking out into the beautiful garden of the Embassy with no one to talk to.

Why was Dr Tachikawa standing alone with no-one to talk to? My explanation was that the Japanese CEOs at this reception were mainly from DoCoMo’s suppliers, and therefore probably too shy to talk to Dr Tachikawa since Japanese business customs places these suppliers on a lower social ranking than their major customer DoCoMo. On the other hand, the German CEOs who had come from Germany, probably did not know who it was who was standing lonely at the window.

So I approached Dr Tachikawa and we talked quite a while – all in Japanese.

His first question after the initial introduction was very surprising – Dr Tachikawa asked me, how our company makes money, where our income comes from.

Having been CEO of our Tokyo based company for the last 10 years, I am very often asked where our company’s offices are located, how big our office is, how many people we employ and other irrelevant conversational detail., Dr. Tachikawa did not ask any of these irrelevant things – he went straight to the point: how do we make money. In my almost 10 years as CEO in 1000s of conversations, Dr Tachikawa was almost the only manager (Western and Japanese) who went straight to the point not losing time over irrelevant details.

A few days later I received an email from Dr Tachikawa inviting me to his office at DoCoMo’s headquarters to discuss possibilities of cooperation between NTT-DoCoMo and our very small company Eurotechnology Japan KK which I had founded about 10 years ago here in Tokyo.

I was amazed by Dr Tachikawa’s kindness. A few days later I spent about one hour in his office at the top floor of Sanno-Tower at DoCoMo’s headquarters, right next to the Prime Minister’s Office.

I had prepared four proposals and towards the end of our conversation I showed these four proposals to Dr. Tachikawa. He rejected three of them, and decided that DoCoMo was interested in one of my proposal.

I learn a lot from his way of action – he immediately took three decisions about the one proposal he was interested in:
1. he said that we must now find a way that both our company profit from this plan
2. he decided who within DoCoMo would be responsible to carry this project out with our company, and
3. he decided where the source of the budget for this project should be
I have been working 20 years with Japan now – and Dr. Keiji Tachikawa is certainly the Japanese manager I learnt most from, in the meetings I was lucky enough to have with him.

Best regards

Gerhard Fasol PhD
Eurotechnology Japan KK
http://fasol.com/

Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
June 15, 2006
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 business in Japan? Less? or more?

Over the last years I was asked 100s of times by foreign CEOs and expatriate managers why BlackBerry does not work and does not exist in Japan. Several large global corporations also asked us for work arounds to get solutions in place for Japan which fulfill the job of BlackBerry. Finally, also several venture companies came to us which supply secure corporate email solutions and corporate scheduling applications similar to BlackBerry’s offerings.

Which BlackBerry device will DoCoMo offer

Although we have not seen an official announcement of the precise BlackBerry device DoCoMo will offer, we assume that it will be based on the Blackberry 8707 device.

We have also heard the following details:
- The planned BlackBerry for Japan will work on DoCoMo’s FOMA (wCDMA) network in Japan, and will also have in-built connectivity for GSM and GPRS (2G legacy networks which are and will be in use for a long time to come in most countries outside Japan)
- The initial BlackBerry device will have no Japanese input, which restricts the device to foreign expatriates in Japan, and guarantees to keep BlackBerry initially out of the mainstream Japanese market. This means that the initial market will be mainly managers in foreign subsidiaries in Japan. Those managers who are integrated into Japan’s business world and private world, will need a separate local Japanese mobile phone to communicate and exchange email messages with their Japanese colleagues
Why was there no BlackBerry in Japan?

For a number of reasons:
- RiM did not invest in Japan
- RiM reached no agreement with Japan’s mobile operators
- BlackBerry until recently did not work with 3G (wCDMA/UMTS) which dominates in Japan
- Also, BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard gives no advantage for Japanese language input
- and finally, Japanese mobile phones with added software already provide most functions of a BlackBerry (and a lot more functions which BlackBerries cannot do)
What are BlackBerry’s prospects in Japan? Will BlackBerry be successful in Japan?

The key issue will be whether RiM invests sufficiently to succeed in Japan. Foreign telecom firms – including some of the most famous – have a record of underinvesting in Japan, and as a consequence to fail, or to remain trapped with a 0.5% market share. Will BlackBerry remain focused on the niche foreign executive market, or will BlackBerry expand into the much bigger mainstream in Japan?

The success of Willcom’s W-ZERO is an indicator that BlackBerry might be successful beyond the expatriate market.

What will make success difficult for BlackBerry in Japan?

Success is not at all guaranteed for BlackBerry in Japan. We see as key issues:
- according to our information BlackBerry will not allow Japanese language input
- apparently BlackBerry will not support i-mode. Lack of i-Mode automatically cuts BlackBerry out of Japan’s mainstream
- RiM will need to fulfill DoCoMo’s quality requirements, which tend to be higher then those in other markets
- RiM’s art will be to balance necessary investments and profitability requirements
Read an article in Red Herring about BlackBerry’s announced entry to Japan, partly based on an interview with our CEO.

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
June 11, 2006
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 in common use in other parts of the world (there is no and there has never been any GSM network in Japan).

Read an article in Red Herring about BlackBerry coming to Japan,

and read our “eurotechnology.japan.blog” about BlackBerry coming to Japan.

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

June 11, 2006
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 of Europe in telecoms and broadband?”, about Japan’s telecommunications sector (both fixed net and wireless) in a one hour presentation + discussion, following Vodafone’s failure in Japan, and sale of Vodafone-Japan to SoftBank.

I had offered several alternative topics and the conference of EU Technology Attaches selected the most provocative title I had offered:

Why Japan is several years ahead of Europe in telecommunications and what Europe can do to catch up

Vodafone KK’s Chairman and former NTT-DoCoMo Vice-President Tsuda, who had worked 34 years at NTT and DoCoMo (and who resigned from his Vodafone-Japan CEO position a few weeks after being head-hunted), said in a recent interview with Bloomberg that “Japan is way ahead in 3G”. – therefore, although this title is clearly provocative, it’s clearly worthwhile examining this question. With the sale of Vodafone KK to SoftBank last week, the timing of this briefing was particularly interesting. My presentation discussed the following questions:
- Is Japan ahead of Europe in Telecommunications?
- Why?
- What is the impact?
- Is this important?
- What Europe can do to catch up
Japan telecommunications industry report

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved
March 25, 2006
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 companies in all sectors can profit from Keitai”

Speaker: Gerhard Fasol

Gerhard Fasol “Why are keitai so hot in Japan?” Embassy of Sweden

Agenda:

Japan created the most passionate and most advanced mobile communications (keitai) market in the world. Recently, almost all innovations in mobile communications have been developed or brought to market first in Japan. Fasol’s talk will explain why this is, and how European companies in all fields, from retail to publishing can profit by building keitais into their business models.

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2006
Time:

6.15 – 7.00 p.m. Drink and Snack (served before the lecture)

7.00 – 9.00 p.m. Lecture and Discussion

Place:
Marubiru Conference Square, Room 2 (Tel: 03-3217-7111)
8th floor of Marubiru, 2-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
One-minute walk from JR Tokyo Station, Marunouchi South Exit

Fee: JPY2,000 per person, payable at the door
Free for students, please bring your student ID
Free for those who are from sponsoring companies

Advance registration required: Please sign up (via email) or fax to (FAX 03-3212-1530) for the attention of Ms. Futagawa (EIJS Tokyo Office.)

Japan telecommunications industry report

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

February 12, 2006
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 to reach the spectacular figure of US$ 8 billion/year recently. However, conspicuous is a US$ 10 billion hole (shown in bright red color in the figure below) in DoCoMo’s otherwise impeccable record. This US$ 10 billion losses are DoCoMo’s write-offs for investments in KPN-Mobile (Netherlands, Germany and Belgium), Three-Hudginson (UK) and AT&T-Wireless (US). DoCoMo has withdrawn from all three investments and has written off about US$ 10 billion. Most companies on planet earth will not survive a US$ 10 billion write-off – however, DoCoMo’s incredible domestic performance allowed DoCoMo to survive this US$ 10 billion write-off without much trouble.

Vodafone’s performance in Japan is rather mixed – the results show a zig-zag line with profits one year and losses the next and average profits around zero, if performance is averaged over several years.

Net income of Japan’s mobile operators showing NTT-DoCoMo’s losses on international investments in red

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

January 13, 2006
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 far as gaining new subscribers is concerned
Month-by-month gain/loss for 2005:

Annual subscriber growth for 2001-2005 shows DoCoMo’s and KDDI’s head-to-head race, Willcom’s turn-round and Vodafone’s difficulties to apply GSM-style management to Japan:

Month-by-month growth during 2005 shows that KDDI is moving TuKa customers to AU. (TuKa uses a legacy PDC network – a technology developed by KDDI’s competitor NTT, while AU uses Qualcomm’s CDMA2000):

More details in our J-Comm report

Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·
January 12, 2006
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 less stable around zero growth.

Growth of mobile internet subscriptions for DoCoMo’s i-Mode and KDDI’s EZweb combined stabilizes at 0.5 million/month, while Jsky stopped growing after acquisition by Vodafone and renaming to Vodafone-Live!

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

November 19, 2005
NTT Docomo acquisitions: Tower Records – No music, no life!
NTT-Docomo acquires Tower Records Japan

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% of Tower Records Japan’s shares from Nikko Principal Investments Japan Ltd, and additional shares in a third party allotment taking it’s stake to around 40%. Tower Records Japan plans an IPO, and DoCoMo apparently intends to keep a 33.4% controlling stake even after the IPO.

Tower Records Japan was founded by the US-company Tower Records in August 1979 in a pioneering entry by Tower Records into the Japanese market. At that time, almost all foreign companies entering Japan formed a joint venture with a Japanese company or licensed their brand to a Japanese company. Tower Records instead acquired an unrelated Japanese company with the same name (“Tower Records”) and built it’s business in Japan successfully alone without a Japanese joint venture partner.

In October 2002, Tower Records Japan became independent of the US mother company through a Management Buy-out by Japanese management.

NTT Docomo acquisitions strategy

Repordedly, DoCoMo aims to implement many synergies including:
- promotion of mobile FeliCa wallet phones for mobile payments
- use of mobile FeliCa wallet phones for customer relationship management (CRM), reward points, and customer data collection for marketing purposes
- Napster Japan: Since about 1/2 of official content sales of i-mode is from mobile music, and since Tower Records Japan is about to launch Napster-Japan in a joint venture with Napster, we expect DoCoMo to become involved in online music distribution through Napster Japan.
NTT Docomo acquisitions: The bigger picture

Acquisition of a controlling stake in Tower Records is the latest step in a string of investments by DoCoMo, to expand revenue into new areas independent of ever shrinking voice and data traffic related charges. Recent investments include:
- Mitsui-Sumitomo Credit Cards (Japan’s No. 2 credit card issuer)
- joint venture with Rakuten for mobile auctions
With more than 100 stores the Tower Records Japan investment will give DoCoMo an excellent experimentation ground to develop many new ways of using FeliCa wallet phones in a real-life retail environment.

More about:
NTT Docomo acquisitions: Tower Records – No music, no life!

Copyright (c) 2005 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved
November 7, 2005
Tokyo Game Show TGS2005: Playstation vs Microsoft XBOX vs absent Nintendo DS

Nintendo wins on mindshare despite traditional absence from TGS

Tokyo Game Show TGS2005: Battle of the console and handheld platforms, while native mobile game applis on the path to disrupt

by Gerhard Fasol

Here some highlights of this year’s Tokyo Game Show TGS2005:

SONY vs Microsoft.

At last year’s TGS2004 Microsoft’s XBOX exhibit was pretty low-key in a secondary hall. This year, at Tokyo Game Show TGS2005, Microsoft moved with a much bigger exhibit up into the prime position of the main hall right next to (current) market leader SONY Computer Entertainment (SCE)… While in 2004 and before, SCE was the uncontested leader of the market, Microsoft is not accelerating efforts with XBOX-360. While SONY’s PSP is fantastic, it’s being outsold in Japan by Nintendo’s DS…

XBOX at Tokyo Game Show 2005

Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

XBox as a broadband home entertainment machine:

XBOX home entertainment system at Tokyo Game Show 2005

wLAN hotspot for PSP (SONY PlayStation Portable) for game sharing and
download. However, with a little bit of software, PSPs could be used to hold VOIP telephone
calls via these (or other) wLAN hotspots:

SONY Playstation WiFi spot at Tokyo Game Show 2005

Japan’s game industry consolidates

This year is the first appearance of merged BandaiNamco, which used to be separate companies until recently:

Bandai and Namco merged – at Tokyo Game Show 2005

The following figure summarizes some of the recent mergers in Japan’s game software industry:

Consolidations and mergers in Japan’s game industry (Tokyo Game Show 2005)

SONY staff greeting customers at the end of the first day of the show
(while greeting customers there were facing Microsoft’s impressive Xbox360 exhibition area…):

SONY at Tokyo Game Show 2005

SONY at Tokyo Game Show 2005

SONY at Tokyo Game Show 2005

For a summary, see: Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

September 28, 2005
Wireless Japan 2005 Show (July 13-15, 2005 in Tokyo)
Six years into the wireless internet revolution which started February 1999 in Japan

Docomo’s and KDDI’s latest wireless innovation, concept mobile phones, mobile payments

Wireless Japan 2005 marks six years of mobile internet in Japan, which started February 1999 in Tokyo. Now in the sixth year, wireless internet, i-Mode and EZweb and J-Sky are maturing, mobile payment solutions are being introduced.

Some highlights:
- VOIP – 3G
- fixed line – wLAN integration
- first push-to-talk (PTT) appearance in Japan – will PTT arrive in Japan?
- KDDI joined DoCoMo’s mobile FeliCa camp, and demos first EZ-FeliCa handsets and mobile SUICA
- new 3G-entrant e-Mobile shows it’s flag
- PHS-carrier Willcom from strength to strength
- Vodafone again absent – focuses on turn-round
Wireless Japan 2005: Mobile FeliCa wallet phones and mobile payment

KDDI has timed it’s entry to DoCoMo’s mobile FeliCa camp to coincide with the time, when the railway nearfield payment card SUICA with 10 million users will join the mobile FeliCa system. KDDI demonstrated the first EZ-FeliCa phones:

EZ-Felica: RFID payments for KDDI’s AU mobile phones

DoCoMo is expanding the penetration for mobile FeliCa, demonstrating “TownPocket”: TownPocket is a FeliCa terminal, where users can link their phones via the FeliCa reader/writer interface to pick up local information. Possibilities are to bookmark automatically the URL of a shop or a sightseeing spot, or to send or receive an email with local information.

“TownPocket”: information terminals linking RFID equipped phones to local area information

EZ-FeliCa: RFID mobile payment gates for KDD-AU mobile phones

Townpocket RFID check-in point

Popularity of DoCoMo’s 901iS series accelerates DoCoMo’s transition to 3G.

3G phones by Fujitsu: F3091iS

Fuel cells for mobile phones

With mobile phones quickly becoming pocket sized music centers in competition to iPod’s but in much larger numbers, battery life is a problem. Fuel cells give hope for longer life till the next recharge. As you can see in the picture, the prototype fuel cells are still too large for daily use:

Fuel cells for KDDI phones: fuel cell demonstrations for mobile phones have been demonstrated for many years at trade shows in Japan, but they have not made it to the market yet

Hitachi shows a prototype future generation phone with:
- ultra-3G
- digital terrestrial TV tuner
- hard disk
- fuel cell
also shown is the recharge for the fuel-cell:

Hitachi prototype: fuel cell powered mobile phone

Concept multimedia phones

Futuristic concept phones are a tradition at the Wireless Japan show. The following images show multi-media concept phones:

Concept phone models

This flask-stile multimedia presenter shows images on flake-like suspended displays. Presentation of particular images helps to create the mood of the moment:

Concepts

Media phone:

Concept phone

Digital rights management (DRM) concept study. Digital rights are sold in the style of wrapped sweets, and can be played or eaten. Dropping a digital-right-sweet into the receptacle plays the music or the video corresponding to this right. The sweets/DRMs can be eaten up after their value has been used up:

Digital Rights Management (DRM) concepts

e-Mobile

e-Mobile is preparing for it’s debut in Japan’s mobile phone market, most likely from 2006 or 2007. While new mobile entrant Softbank was not at the Wireless Japan show, e-Mobile had a massive prototype and concept presentation.

First presentations by new market entrant “em” eMobile

First presentation by new entrant eMobile “em”

New entrant eMobile

e-Mobile showed a range of concepts for the services being developed with partners Fujitsu and Lucent. Good phones and solid concepts, but nothing surprising yet at this stage.

KDDI

KDDI had a very large impressive show of AU’s range of mobile phones, business software applications, it’s range of mobile portals including comics, books, auctions, music and shopping, and EZ-FelIca’s debut as shown higher up. An attraction was a robot display, the robot is controled via blue-tooth by mobile phone:

KDDI demonstration: mobile phone as a remote control for robots

KDDI presents mobile phones as controllers for robots

Mobile phones control robots

Mobile phones control robots

We have substantial documentation about the Wireless Japan 2005 exhibition, and most other year’s Wireless Japan exhibitions. If you need information or documentation for prior art or other investigations, please contact us.

Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved
July 25, 2005
IP backbone for Japan’s mobile operators

Japan’s telecom operators are investing to build IP (Internet Protocol) backbone networks:

IP backbone networks of Japan’s mobile telecom operators

More: Japan Telecommunications report

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

June 15, 2005
Mobile operators invest US$ 15 billion

Japan’s top three mobile operators DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone announced plans to invest about US$ 15 billion during FY 2005 (April 2005 – March 2006):

Infrastructure investments (capex) by Japan’s mobile phone operators – Vodafone’s investments were systematically reduced and are by far the lowest of Japan’s three large operators

For recent financial data and analysis of Japan’s telecom and mobile sector: Eurotechnology report on Japan’s telecom industries

Find details about SoftBank’s acquisition of Vodafone KK (Vodafone’s Japan company) in our SoftBank report

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

June 15, 2005
Japan’s mobile subscriber data for March 2005

March is the month when new subscriptions peak in Japan. During March 2005 around one million new subscribers signed up for mobile services in Japan, the net gain (new subscriptions minus cancellations) was 930,500. New subscribers were shared as follows between carriers:

DoCoMo: + 480,200 (+ 51.6%)
KDDI/AU: + 436,100 (+ 46.9%)
WILLCOM: + 33,300 (+ 3.6%)
KDDI/TuKa: – 2,600 (- 0.3%)
Vodafone: -7,400 (-0.8%) (previous counting method: -58,400)
Astel: – 9,100 (- 1.0%)

TOTAL: + 930,500 (100%)

Vodafone announced a new method to calculate numbers. Without this new way of calculating, Vodafone’s loss would have been: -58,400

Net growth (loss) of subscribers per month for Japan’s mobile operators – Vodafone drops into the red, losing subscribers despite a new way of counting them

Net growth (loss) of mobile internet subscribers (i-Mode, EZweb and Vodafone Live!): since Vodafone renamed Jsky to Vodafone Live!, its rapidly losing market share

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

April 8, 2005
Japan mobile subscriber data for Feb 2005

Japan’s mobile subscriber numbers for Feb 2005 came out yesterday…

DoCoMo is ahead again after a soft period on the strength of services and handsets, and KDDI/AU is still going strong driven by the designer series, good tariffs/discounts, music, WIN etc.

Willcom (the former DDI-Pocket) is strengthening under new management, new name and new campaigns and network upgrades, TuKa is falling back after it’s great “TuKa-S” success… and Vodafone succeeded to stabilize subscriber losses somewhat which is a mild step in the right direction and might be the first indication of Mr Tsuda’s influence…

Stimulated by the needs of our customers, who need to roll out services across the networks in Japan, we have started market surveys, interviewing mobile phone customers of all kinds on Tokyo’s streets in “focus groups”, as we do when required for our customers to get a feel for the market. I always make a point to take part personally in such consumer research, and often do some myself. In the case of mobile phone habits, the first approach at interviewing just reflects back the messages of the commercials and publicity campaigns. Only in-depth interviewing and discussion then reveals the real thoughts which are normally quite different. We learnt a lot about what average Japanese consumers think about DoCoMo, AU and Vodafone, building up a good picture. But the numbers also tell a clear story:

Subscriber net growth/loss for Japan’s mobile phone and PHS operators

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

March 8, 2005
Financials: DoCoMo, KDDI, Vodafone

The following figure compares Sales (Financial year ending March 31, 2004), Net profits after taxes(Financial year ending March 31, 2004), and market capitalization (as of February 17, 2005) for DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone (in each case consolidated for the global company):

Sales, net income and market cap for docomo, KDDI and Vodafone for the financial year 2004

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

February 19, 2005
Music on mobile – as a killer application

More Chaku-Uta mobile music downloads by KDDI in Japan than by Apple’s iTunes globally

Turns out that music is a killer application on mobile – we are working on a number of projects in the mobile music field. We just completed our “Mobile Music Japan” report.

With an incredibly much smaller potential customer base KDDI/AU delivered more downloads of 20-30 second songs (chaku-uta) than Apple’s i-Tunes. Motorola reportedly announced a mobile phone incorporating i-Tunes at the recent CES show in Las Vegas. KDDI/AU‘s tremendous success with chaku-uta indicates that combining Motorola phones with i-Tunes will be very successfull indeed. AU reported 1 million Chaku-Uta-Full downloads within the first 48 days of service (chaku-uta-full started on November 19, 2004).

Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

January 11, 2005
Version 8 of the "i-Mode report"

Completed version 8 of the “i-Mode Report” (260 pages, 45 figures, 120 photographs, and 25 tables)

Main changes and additions:

updated most statistics and graphs
added a section on mobile games on i-mode
updated the international section
updated the 3G section
updated the i-mode-FeliCa wallet-phone section
corrected many errors
updated the section on Japan’s telecom landscape: added recent transactions, and updated graphics

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

October 4, 2004
Vodafone not so big in Japan – The Economist says

The Economist looks at Vodafone’s real situation in Japan’s very advanced and hyper-competitive telecommunications market

Vodafone not so big in Japan: Vodafone is struggling to catch up with Docomo’s introduction of 3G in Japan

An article in The Economist about Vodafone is partly based on our analysis:

Vodafone not so big in Japan: “Vodafone- Not so big in Japan” (The Economist, Sept 30th, 2004)

Understand Softbank: our report: “SoftBank today and 300 year vision”

pdf file, approx 120 pages, 47 figures 18 photos, 7 tables

SoftBank today and 300 year vision (20th edition)

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

October 2, 2004
Prepaid mobile phones in Japan…

Prepaid mobile phones are a huge business in Europe.

In Japan prepaid mobile phone numbers are tiny, and NTT’s new CEO just announced that NTT-DoCoMo is planning to stop offering prepaid mobile phones altogether.

Find detailed statistics and market shares per operator for Japan’s prepaid market in our report on Japan’s telecommunications sector.

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

October 1, 2004
Tokyo Game Show TGS2004 (Sept 24-26, 2004): breakthrough for native mobile games

Mobile phone games at the center of TGS2004

by Gerhard Fasol

Docomo at the center of attention with JAVA native mobile games for i-Mode

The annual “Tokyo Game Show” sets trends and is a must for game professionals and fans. More than 100 companies exhibit.

This years highlight is the SONY “PlayStation Portable” – PSP – to be introduced towards the end of 2004. SONY prepared a huge arena with an gigantic models of a PSP hanging overhead where visitors to the show could try out advance models of the PSP.

SONY also displayed the new “Gran Turismo 4” game, the release is scheduled for Dec 3, 2004. “Gran Turismo 4” was not the only car racing game at the show, we counted at least three more in this hugely popular category.

Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Docomo dominates Tokyo Game Show TGS2004 with JAVA native mobile games for i-Mode

The DoCoMo pavillion highlighted 15 of the most important i-Mode game partners. These 15 were selected from over 4000 i-mode content partners. Games are one of the most important sectors on the i-mode menu – many customers are driven by games to buy the next handset upgrade. Therefore DoCoMo has a great interest in mobile games. DoCoMos focus at the game show were games for the 900i FOMA/3G series.

SONY previews PSP – Playstation Portable:

SONY PSP mock up for Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

In a stunning arena around a gigantic hyper-real model of the PSP PlayStation Portable (PSP), visitors try out the PSP. PSP is announced to be released towards the end of 2004.

SONY PSP arena previewing the PSP at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

SONY offered a preview of “Gran Turismo 4” representing the enormously popular segmet of car racing games with realistic landscapes and surroundings.

SONY’s Gran Tourismo at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

DoCoMo presented an intense show of 15 key i-mode partners focusing on games. The map immediately below shows the lay-out of DoCoMos exhibition area, together with small pictures of the main display of each of the 15 DoCoMo partners

NTT DoCoMo exhibit at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

One of the most important DoCoMo game partners is Square Enix with the best selling Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy is a “role playing game” where the player joins a group of fighters. This photograph shows the Square Enix presentation in the DoCoMo display. Square Enix also had its own presentation area – complete with models, preview area, shows etc.

SquareEnix at DoCoMo’s exhibit at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

“Rumble rose” is the most spectacular representative game of sexy games – Rumble Rose is about women wrestling…

Rumble Rose at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

ATLUS shows stunning color and illumination effects.

ATLUS at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

ATARI at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

ATI at Tokyo Game Show TGS2004

Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

September 26, 2004
21.6 million 3G subscribers in Japan (31 August 2004)

The mobile phone subscriber statistics for August 2004 in Japan came out:

3G subscribers:

KDDI/AU: 15,511,800 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 86.1%
DoCoMo: 5,900,200 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 12.6%
Vodafone: 237,600 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 1.6%

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

September 13, 2004
KDDI/AU has 80% of users on 3G

80% of KDDI/AU users are now converted to 3G, and KDDI/AU does not sell any 2G phones any more: only 3G and 3.5G (2.4Mbps data download).

Conversion to 3G in Japan: AU leads, DoCoMo and Vodafone follow. Vodafone’s 3G conversion has stalled because of lack or attractive handsets in Japan and too low investment in 3G base stations

Here is KDDI/AU‘s newest 3.5G phone – the W21SA, for 2.4Mbps data download:

KDDI 3G mobile handset W21SA

More about Japan’s mobile telecom sector:Eurotechnology Japan report on Japan’s telecom industry

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

September 8, 2004
3G: "Vision, meet reality" (Economist on ITU vision for 3G)

Just read an article in the Economist:

“Mobile 3G telecoms: Vision, meet reality”

which quotes ITU’s 2000 vision for 3G (ITU = International Telecommunication Union):

The device will function as a phone, a computer, a television, a pager, a videoconferencing centre, a newspaper, a diary and even a credit card…it will support not only voice communications but also real-time video and full-scale multimedia. It will automatically search the internet for relevant news and information on pre-selected subjects, book your next holiday for you online and download a bedtime story for your child, complete with moving pictures. It will even be able to pay for goods when you shop via wireless electronic funds transfer. In short, the new mobile handset will become the single, indispensable “life tool”, carried everywhere by everyone, just like a wallet or purse is today.

Interestingly, every single detail of ITU’s 2000 3G-vision has now been realized now by DoCoMo in Japan.

Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

September 6, 2004
Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition (Tokyo, July 21-23, 2004)

FeliCa mobile payment wallet phones at the centre of attention

by Gerhard Fasol

Wireless, mobile phone industry trends years before they reach outside Japan

Every year the Wireless Japan sets global trends in wireless communications and mobile phones. Mobile phone industry professionals cannot afford to miss this trend setting show. It is here that Japanese carriers and handset makers introduce their latest products and show design studies and concept phones which set industry trends for the next months and years.

There were some surprises: In recent Wireless-Japan shows usually the KDDI/AU-design project prototypes were at the center of attention – this year I could not find any. For example, at Wireless-Japan-2002, KDDI/AU showed “Infobar” prototypes a full 16 months before market introduction. Did KDDI/AU decide to keep future design-project releases secret until they hit the market? Could well be so, given Japan’s increasingly ferocious mobile phone competition. Another surprise was Vodafone’s absence – Vodafone in recent years used to have the biggest show.

On the other hand this time most handset makers showed impressive concept phones, Matsushita/Panasonic under the heading “Beyond 3G”. The image shows NEC’s concept design study of a flexible multimedia phone: this phone has two screens which can be bent together, and used jointly as a larger screen.

Wireless Japan 2004 Highlights: “Beyond 3G”

Beyond 3G: SANYO 3.5G phone for 2.4Mbps data download (for KDDI/AU):

KDDI/AU 3G phone W21SA

SANYO show at Wireless Japan 2004

Wireless Japan 2004: NEC “tag” wrapping multimedia design concept phone:

Concept model phone by NEC at WirelessJapan-2004 exhibition

“Wireless Japan 2004” – much was expected: for example, it wasn’t surprising for anyone that DoCoMo’s i-Mode-FeliCa wallet-phones were center stage of the DoCoMo exhibit with lots of partners demoing wallet-phone applications.

NEC concept phone

NEC concept phone

Matsushita/Panasonic “Beyond 3G” design concepts:

Panasonic concept phone

DoCoMo UbiButton and UbiChip:

DoCoMo’s UbiButton and UbiChip

DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones – for electronic cash:

the world’s first commercial wallet phone: P506iC – by DoCoMo and Panasonic

DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones – as an electronic door key:

Mobile phone as a RFID key to lock and unlock doors

We have substantial documentation about the Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition, and most other year’s Wireless Japan exhibitions. If you need information or documentation for prior art or other investigations, please contact us.

Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

July 23, 2004
Wireless Japan 2003 exhibition (Tokyo, July 16-18, 2003)

Japan shows advanced applications of 3G wireless communications

3G concept phones, 3G video, mobile payment, doorlooking via 3G

by Gerhard Fasol

Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

July 18, 2003