Wireless World Japan

Hayfever advergame beamed to mobiles by radio

2007-03-07T09:36:00.000Z

It’s still a little while before we have to worry about hayfever here in London but it seems that in Japan things are already gearing up for pollen season, possibly spurred on by the first cherry blossoms of the year. I’ve already posted about hayfever haiku of the day and today Fumakilla, manufacturers of a hayfever remedy, launched a special hayfever-themed advergame for mobiles.

The main feature of the game is not its weird plot (a kind of space invaders where you control a giant hand and must stick your finger up giant noses), but the way it’s delivered to the consumer. Fumakilla have teamed up with Tokyo Radio to beam the advergame over the digital radio spectrum. When the radio station plays a commercial for Fumakilla’s product, the minigame will automatically launch on the handset of consumers listening in on digital radio with their mobiles.

Sending mobile content over digital radio and TV signals is a great way of adding interactivity to traditional broadcast. Also, receiving the data is free to the consumer as nothing is sent over the operator network.

Medically proven Mozart music for mobiles

2007-03-05T10:05:00.000Z

I posted a little while back about Sammy’s soothing and stimulating ringtones for its muPass service. Well, last week they launched a range of therapeuti... for their standard ringtone service, Platinum Tones.

This time they’ve teamed up with Dr Wago, a professor from Saitama Medical University who has released two CDs of Mozart music called “The Mozart Therapy: Dr Wago’s music therapy - Volume 1: Hayfever” and “Volume 2: Stiff shoulders”.

Sammy have carefully selected 10 pieces from the CDs which they are releasing as ringtones. Choices include the third movement of violin sonata no. 24 in C major (the high tones of the violin work wonders on the parasympathetic nerve), first movement of the oboe quartet in F major (the high frequency tones have a soothing effect on the cranial nerves) and the second movement of 35th symphony in D major (the calm arpeggios relieve tension from the body).

For anyone doubting whether a ringtone can really influence your health, I, for one, can vouch for Crazy Frog’s effect on my cranial nerves.

et infopack four out now

2007-02-27T17:05:00.000Z

Just thought I'd mention that the February edition of the emerging trends infopack is out. This month's edition contains a few interesting stories that didn't make it up onto w2japan including a GPS chimp catching multiplayer mobile game and a keitai strap you customize to reflect your online profile.

The et infopack is a free monthly newsletter in PowerPoint format. You can check out past issues at http://emergingtrendsblog.blogspot.com/ and subscribe to receive the newsletter by email by sending a blank message to etsubscribe [at] worldforumgroup [dot] com

Live!Aurora lights up Japanese mobiles

2007-02-26T10:06:00.000Z

Ever wanted to see the northern lights but couldn’t afford the trip to the Arctic Circle? “Live!Aurora for mobile” is the site for you!

“Live!Aurora” beams the sights of the aurora borealis from Alaska straight to your mobile. Due to the time zone difference, Japanese consumers can enjoy the sites of the aurora between lunchtime and evening. As well as being able to watch streaming video of the aurora, the site also offers video on demand and still images for download.

The site is a subscription service costing 315 yen per month ($2.60).

New survey gives insights into the effects of flat rate data on consumer behaviour

2007-02-23T09:33:00.000Z

Last week Infoplant Japan published the results of their latest consumer survey on mobile usage. Here are some highlights:

• The number of respondents who use the mobile internet every day was 82% (up from 77% in the same survey last year)

• Flat rate data subscribers use the mobile internet more, with 88% accessing mobile sites every day compared to 54% of non flat rate customers

• Flat rate data subscribers are also more likely to have downloaded games (78% vs 57%), ringtones (78% vs 63%), shopped on their mobile (44% vs 26%) and signed up to subscription sites (59% vs 36%)

• However, there was not a great difference between flat rate and standard subscribers when it came to entering competitions (94% vs 93%), or receiving coupons (54% vs 50%)

Soothing, stimulating and suppressing ringtones for muPass from Sammy

2007-02-21T11:56:00.001Z

I’ve posted about muPass in the past – it’s the technology that allows you to send ringtones from your mobile to compatible everyday devices such as cookers, baby mobiles and alarm clocks

Today, Sammy, the company behind muPass, announced that they will be releasing new muPass ringtones which they developed in collaboration with the Japan Accoustic Lab and the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory (yes, it actually does exist – I checked!).

From tomorrow, visitors to the muPass mobile site will be able to download “stop the baby crying”, “dolphin therapy” and “wake up feeling great” ringtones, which the company claims are scientifically proven to work. Sammy is planning to release further ringtones in March including “get motivated” and “suppress that anger”. Personally, I look forward to the release of a “calm down it’s only a traffic jam” ringtone I can transfer to my car ;)

100 million full track downloads for au

2007-02-21T10:41:00.000Z

In a press release today, Japanese telecoms company KDDI announced that the number of chaku-uta full (full track music) downloads on their au mobile network hit the 100 million mark last week. Proving the adage that you have to give to get back, KDDI revealed that 90% of the tracks were paid for, with the other 10% given away free in promotions etc.

au launched full track music downloads in November 2004 and achieved their millionth download in just one and a half months. Recently, the operator has been strengthening their music offering with more music-focused handsets and an iTunes-esque music download service called Lismo. KDDI revealed that it has seen 170,000 downloads from the Lismo PC music storefront which opened in May 2006.

In the same press release, the company announced that the number of chaku-uta (realtones) that have been downloaded on the network now exceeds 400 million.

Smoke detector provides mobile alarm system

2007-02-20T11:31:00.000Z

In Japan, mobile technology is finding its way into all manner of everyday objects such as vending machines, snowploughs, wristwatches and even your favourite pet’s food dish. As of yesterday you can add smoke alarm to that list.

The smoke alarm in question has been developed by Japanese company Keisoku Giken and adds a mobile cradle to your traditional smoke alarm to provide a mobile emergency alert system. When the detector senses smoke, it not only makes a sound but also dials a pre-registered number to alert the owner of the fire.

According to the company, the system could be used in temples and buildings of historic interest, unmanned warehouses, buildings under construction, restaurants and holiday homes. They also predict demand from families of elderly people living on their own. The alarm is now on sale in Japan for 16,800 yen ($140) but to use it you must purchase a separate handset and subscription.

Podcast interview with Shinya Yokota of DoCoMo

2007-02-19T11:53:00.000Z

Well I'm back from 3GSM 2007 in Barcelona and one of the clear highlights of the show yet again was DoCoMo's stand. The latest spring handset collection was on display including the Mitsubishi touchscreen clamshell and there were also demos of wallet phones and the natural disaster emergency message board.

I managed to catch 10 minutes with Shinya Yokota, a member of DoCoMo's international PR team, to record a podcast interview on some of the exciting handsets and services that DoCoMo have launched and are planning for the future. You can hear the podcast at the end of this link.

The World Forum Research team interviewed an interesting mix of people from the mobile sphere while we were at 3GSM. We'll be uploading the podcasts onto our new Friday Feed Blog and updating all this week. Check the site out to find out who else we talked to!

Off to 3GSM

2007-02-12T11:49:00.000Z

In a few hours I'll be off to Barcelona to attend this year's 3GSM. I'll be doing podcast interviews at the Wireless World Forum booth in hall 2 floor 1 a16 for most of Tuesday and Wednesday. If you're passing make sure you drop by and say hi!

Hope to see you there!

First ever Japan blog matsuri at What Japan Thinks

2007-02-12T09:21:00.000Z

It turns out my Japanese-themed Matsuri of the Mobilists was picked up and entered into another blog matsuri of Japanese-themed blogs on the topic of matsuri! In other words my matsuri is part of a matsuri about matsuri.

Confused? Just go check out the first ever Japan blog matsuri over at the excellent source of trivia, What Japan Thinks. Well done for setting this up, Ken. I'll definitely be contributing to this one in the future.

Why youth use/don't use mobile communities

2007-02-09T10:44:00.000Z

Top 3 reasons why youth use mobile SNS…

1. To kill time

2. Because my friends do

3. To communicate with people I know

…and top 3 reasons they don’t:

1. Not enough time

2. Data charges too high

3. Mobile difficult to use

(According to a recent consumer study by Rakuten Research Japan)

GPS map chat application launches

2007-02-08T10:17:00.001Z

“iMapFan” is a map service for imode which offers a range of services including a map-based search, car navigation and “I’m here!” emails. Today they launched a new service, “Map Messenger” - a map-based GPS chat application.

Members of the chat are displayed on the map with according to their GPS location and the application has three modes – centre on yourself, centre on the other parties or an automatic mode which zooms in and out of the map to provide the best view of all chat members. It also has an alert function which vibrates when someone on your buddy list is near.

The service is free to use if you are invited to a chat, but you have to be a subscriber to iMapFan’s premium service if you want to start your own chat. Subscription is 315 yen (£1.50) per month, which gives you access to all iMapFan’s premium features.

Strange ears cause a stir in Japanese mobile forums

2007-02-07T09:50:00.000Z

Inputting Japanese into your mobile is a bit more complex than your average T9 and there are various competing systems vying for a place on the latest handset models. Every so often gremlins can creep into the input system and these are quickly picked up by Japanese mobile enthusiasts and do the rounds of mobile review sites and bulletin boards.

According to this article, the latest “scandal” concerns the character 穂 or “ear” (of a grain rather than the body part), which I can safely say I have never had the need to type into my mobile in my life. When you enter the character using the input system on the Panasonic P903i, launched in November last year, the phone displays the character with a rogue extra dot in the top right hand corner.

Let this be a warning to any P903i owners wanting to discuss the condition of the ears of corn from their latest harvest!

Maintain your molars with your mobile

2007-02-07T08:59:00.000Z

Nobody likes going to the dentist, but there have been a couple of dental-related mobile services recently released in Japan that make the whole ordeal that bit less painful.

First is “Let’s go to the dentist!”, a mobile dentist search. Not only can you search and find dental clinics all over Japan, you can also search for specialist dentists and view their locations on a map. After your visit, you can write a review of the whole ordeal to receive points which you can swap for goods or redeem as cashback on your next visit.

If you happen to have your own dental practice, “Pocket Reserver” by Nakatsu is the service for you. “Pocket Reserver” is all you need to mobilise your clinic – the system allows patients to search for free appointments and book from their mobile then automatically sends reminder and thank you messages. The basic system costs only 999 yen (£5) a month. Bargain!

Carnival of the mobilists 61 - mobilist matsuri!

2007-02-05T10:46:00.000Z

It’s been over half a year since I hosted carnival number 34 at Wireless World Forum. This time, I decided to host it at w2japan and so I’m giving this carnival a Japanese theme. The Japanese love a carnival just as much as anyone else (祭りmatsuri is the Japanese for carnival). Welcome to Mobilist Matsuri number 61!

Although matsuri are a lot of fun, there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly – and it’s the same for the mobile industry. This week’s postings that look behind the scenes of mobile include CEO on MIDP3, Ajit at Opengardens on using Java as a middleware to mobile Ajax, Martin Sauter on problems with Wifi congestion at conferences and Symbian-Guru on mobile voip or moip.

No carnival is complete without music and our matsuri maestro is Xen at Xellular Identity. Xen continues her series of fascinating interviews (well I would say that – I took part in one last year ;) ) on the mobile industry with John White from Portio Research. Read his thoughts on digital music at the end of the link.

There’s something magical about a matsuri and this one’s no different. Helen Keegan talks about sending marketing messages through thin air using Bluetooth. Justin at Mopocket and Tomi at Communities Dominate Brands write about turning web content into mobile content. Abracadabra! Meanwhile, Peggy Anne Salz reads consumers’ minds to find them mobile content they’ll love. They say that magicians should never reveal the tricks of their trade, but Gabe Frost bends this rule and lets us in on a few secrets of 802.11n.

On matsuri day in Japan, it’s common for teams to build floats and race them in the streets. Bill Day at Billday.com looks at the two horse race between Nokia and Motorola and wonders whether Apple can upset the balance.

Many Japanese matsuri are dedicated to gods. This week’s matsuri god (a.k.a posting of the week) is the Design Translator at Design Sojurn with a petition to bring back buttons on mobile phones.

No Japanese matsuri would be complete without food stalls. These brightly coloured shops sell a mixture of foods from all over the world and our matsuri has an equally eclectic selection of food for thought. Greg at Twofones chews the fat on whether a US ruling forcing operators to unlock their phones will really free the consumer. Wap review serves up a guide to bookmarklets in Opera Mini. Anders at Abiro gives us a bite-sized opinion piece on why the mobile is not as limited as some think. Finally, Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity provides a recipe for success for companies in the mobile data industry.

From Japan to Barcelona... don't forget the matsuri that is 3GSM next week! Mobilist events include Rudy's Mobile Monday Peer Awards and Helen's Swedish Beers. See you there!

Next week's carnival is hosted by Mike Butcher at MBites.

UPDATE: The carnival seems to have gone MIA while the dust settles from 3GSM. I believe the next edition will be at Helen Keegan's blog soon. Don't adjust your set!

I found a QR code reader that works with my N73!

2007-02-02T14:54:00.000Z

I do quite a few postings on QR codes and really believe that they will be as just as big outside Japan (I’m also writing a report which is nearly complete on how they can be used).

Recently I got my hands on a Nokia N73 and I’ve been trying to install a QR code reader on the handset. Nokia posted their own barcode reader on the N73 section of their website but it wouldn’t install on my handset (and quite a few others’, judging by the support forums) and Nokia took it down pretty quickly. Today I finally found a reader that works!

The first clue was this article on Japanese mobile news site +D mobile. It’s a selection of questions sent in by readers on the recently released 705NK (aka the Japanese N73). One reader asks whether the handset can read QR codes (as many non-Japanese manufacturers seem to miss this quite important function off their lists) and the answer is, predictably, no. However, the article goes on to say that there is a QR code reader available, bizarrely, [on the N73 page of Nokia Taiwan (the English file name gives it away).

The application seems to be built by ScanLIFE, creators of the eZcode. I tried installing it on my UK N73 and it works fine (albeit with the slight hitch that the camera automatically starts when you open the lens cover – so you have to close that before you run the app). However, it's not as good as my current favourite reader (the QuickMark reader on my Nokia 7610).

Subscribers get to choose new DoCoMushroom

2007-02-02T12:22:00.000Z

Mascots are a well-used gimmick in the Japanese operator’s marketing toolbox – and even better is a mascot whose name is a play on words. Thus we have the “au shika” (can be translated as “au deer” or “just au”), the now missing-in-action Vodaphone KK “shimakuris” (“stripy chestnuts” or “do something [i.e. call and text] again and again”) and the “DoCoMo dake” family (“DoCoMo mushrooms” or “only DoCoMo”).

Originally the DoCoMushrooms were a three-generation family of grandparents, parents and little kid mushrooms. But last February, the operator added a young female character to the lineup to great fanfare. Today DoCoMo announced that Ms. DoCoMushroom is to be given a love interest – and DoCoMo subscribers will get the chance to choose her new beau from a shortlist of potential suitors.

The candidates include “reggae boy”, “tearaway”, “wanderer” and “preppy” and subscribers can cast their vote on a dedicated i-mode site. DoCoMo are dismissive of any particular special plan for the promotion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more was to be revealed on a certain special romantic event in February (and no, I don't mean 3GSM)…

Create nail art on the go with "Nail Club"

2007-02-01T10:42:00.001Z

Japan is unique in that consumer studies show that females use the mobile internet more than their male counterparts and you can see evidence of this in the large number of content sites aimed mainly at women. “Beauty Walker” and “howzy!BEAUTY” are a couple of examples I’ve posted in the past.

Add recently announced “Nail Club” to that list. “Nail Club” is a nail art simulator for the mobile. You start with a blank canvas (an unpolished nail) and create your own design using 72 colours, 300 types of airbrush, 200 holograms, 100 3D decorations and 300 gems.

An interesting point to note about “Nail Club” is the unusual way the creators are marketing the application. Instead of the usual monthly subscription model purchased through a mobile site (hey, it’s difficult to navigate those mobile menus when you’ve got nails like Edward Scissorhands), “Nail Club” will go on sale as a retail package in stores popular with young women in the trendy Tokyo areas of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi. The retail pack will contain a link to download and a serial number to unlock the application. It’s a good tactic to get the mobile application to exactly the audience who will use it.

Use your mobile to lose weight with "Beauty Walker"

2007-01-31T09:24:00.000Z

It’s already the end of January and by now many New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and exercise more will have fallen by the wayside. Don’t fear, mobile help is at hand! Yesterday, Bandai Networks released a new GPS-enabled diet support application “Beauty Walker”.

“Beauty Walker” is an application which uses GPS to measure how far you’ve walked and displays how many calories you’ve burned. The application allows you to set goals of food that you want to eat and it will alert you when you’ve burned enough calories to eat it.

Softbank adds a splash of colour with its spring collection

2007-01-25T18:30:00.000Z

It’s the time of year when Japanese operators reveal their all-important spring handset collections and last week, DoCoMo and au announced 10 new models each. Today, Softbank announced their new collection and it’s their most colourful yet - literally.

The very bling Swarovski crystal-studded 707SC is aiming to be the jewel in the crown of Softbank’s new collection (if you’ll excuse the pun).

Unlike our phone stores which are lined with silver handsets, colour variations are very important for handsets in Japan. The new Softbank 812SH takes the colour variation game to a whole new spectrum (sorry, couldn’t resist). Sharp has teamed up with Pantone to release the handset in no less than 20 colour variations.

Slightly less colourful is the X01NK (aka Nokia E61), which is sadly only available in jewel-free silver.

Use your mobile to pay for your purchases on your PS3

2007-01-24T10:32:00.000Z

Today Edy, an e-cash service available on walletphones, announced that the latest upgrade to the PlayStation 3’s firmware will allow you to pay for your PS3 online shopping with your mobile phone.

To use your mobile to buy things from your PS3, you’ll need a PaSoRi FeliCa reader-writer, which will also work on a PC. When you get to the checkout, all you need to do is touch your mobile on the PaSoRi reader to charge your Edy account and you’re good to go.

A quick look on Amazon.jp shows that PaSoRi readers are currently selling for around 3000 yen ($25). Of course, if you don’t have one already, you’ll have to use a standard credit card to buy it from your PS3 for now ;)

Psycho-analyse your mobile messages

2007-01-24T09:48:00.000Z

Have you ever received a message on your phone from someone special but weren’t sure whether the text represented their true feelings? It’s this kind of problem that Animo is trying to solve with its new i-mode service “Email Truth Checker” which is similar to the Feel*Mail handset function I posted on yesterday.

To use the service, you choose your gender and the relationship between you and the person whose message you want to analyse (you can chose from partner, crush, superior, family etc.). After you’ve uploaded the message in question, the system analyses the language used and rates the authenticity of the feelings expressed. The service also provides a detailed psycho-analysis of the writer and gives you tips on how to respond.

“Email Truth Checker” charges a monthly subscription of 105 yen (just under $1), which is cheaper than hiring a psychologist to read your emails…

Handset that detects the mood of your messages

2007-01-23T10:13:00.001Z

While at first glance, the P703i by Panasonic isn’t the most head-turning handset in DoCoMo’s recently announced spring lineup (that prize would probably go to the touchscreen clamshell D800iDS, the waterproof F703i which you can allegedly use in the shower or the SO703i which has swappable fragranced fascias), on closer inspection, the handset has a rather novel feature – “Feel*Mail”.

“Feel*Mail” is a new function along the same lines as “Feel*Talk” which appeared in a Panasonic handset I wrote about last summer. When the handset receives a message, “Feel*Mail” analyses its text and displays one of 45 different animations depending on the emotion detected in the message.

In the unlikely event this function ever comes to the UK, I wonder how well the it would cope with txt spk?

Seminar on cameraphone codes in London next Thursday

2007-01-18T16:42:00.000Z

I’m running a seminar on cameraphone codes next Thursday afternoon at City University, Central London. The seminar will cover the basics of 2D barcodes, the technological and financial considerations and the pros and cons of the competing systems. We’ll also look at alternative mobile hyperlink systems such as image recognition, audio and RFID. There’ll be some videos, demos and case studies and hopefully it should be an interesting afternoon.

Find out more by downloading this brochure. The price for one place is £145, but if you call and mention you’re a reader of this blog I’ve negotiated a very special price (over 50% discount!).

Mistubishi launches developer contest for new touchscreen phone

2007-01-17T09:53:00.000Z

Yesterday I posted about the D800iDS – a handset from Mitsubishi with an innovative touchscreen clamshell design. With a bit of imagination, like Nintendo with their DS and Wii, Mitsubishi could produce some really great applications and games for the handset.

Well, Mitsubishi is looking to tap into the imaginations of the Japanese public to give them a hand. Today the handset manufacturer announced a competition for developers to design applications for the device with prizes of LCD TVs and DVD recorders on offer. Mitsubishi will provide 30 selected entrants with a software simulator of the D800iDS until its launch and a loan handset once it goes on sale in February.

Homebrew mobile games and applications are quite common in Japan. The operators make developing tools and guides freely available and there are aggregators such as “Appli Get” which host homebrew games and offer revenue shares for homebrew developers. It will definitely be worth keeping an eye on the outcome of the competition.

X-Series impressions

2007-01-17T08:44:00.000Z

Having used 3’s X-Series for a few days now, I have had 3 waves of nostalgia:

On the train home one evening I passed time browsing 3’s portal. Browsing the operator portal is something I haven’t done since living in Japan. Three’s portal’s quite nice :)
I ordered something from Amazon the other day and within a few seconds my phone picked up the autoconfirm email that Amazon sent my webmail address. Again, something that brought back memories of being in Japan. I’m actually really impressed with 3’s webmail service – really easy to setup and works a treat :)
After a hiatus from using a Nokia S60 handset, I have been reminded about how buggy they can be :(

Mitsubishi announces touchscreen clamshell for DoCoMo

2007-01-16T11:17:00.000Z

Today, DoCoMo and au each revealed 10 new handsets to go on sale later this year. They’re an interesting bunch as usual and designer handsets are once more a prominent trend, including the former concept-phone “Media Skin” which I mentioned only yesterday.

The most radical phone from the new DoCoMo handsets is the D800iDS from Mitsubishi (codenamed “Direct & Smooth”). When closed, the handset looks like an ordinary clamshell, but open it up to reveal that, instead of a keypad, the phone sports a touchscreen sub-display.

The phone is obviously inspired by the success of the Nintendo DS in Japan (even the model number appears to be a homage) and it will be interesting to see what applications and games developers create to make use of the touchscreen. The D800iDS is slated for launch mid-February.

Handsets become art

2007-01-15T10:41:00.000Z

Sometimes it seems that some of the handsets released in the Japanese market would be more at home displayed in an art gallery - and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. KDDI announced today that the Museum of Modern Art in New York is going to display four handsets from au’s Design Project collection of designer mobiles.

The first handset is the “Infobar” which went on sale in 2003 and was au’s first designer handset.

London designer Marc Newson’s “Talby” will also go on display.

Last year’s “Neon” with customizable LED display is the third model chosen.

The lineup is completed with the concept handset “Media Skin” which au revealed in 2005, but was never commercialised. The designers of the simple, smooth handset say it is meant to represent a “second skin”.

It’s a great chance for anyone in New York to check out some really stunning handsets from Japan.

Awareness campaign for earthquake info system

2007-01-12T10:40:00.000Z

I posted yesterday about how the Japanese are increasingly using mobiles as part of their natural disaster planning. Today the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) announced a poster campaign which positions the mobile as important as the emergency bag of food, money, torches etc. that authorities encourage people to keep in their homes in case of emergency.

When earthquakes occur in Japan, the mobile networks frequently go down due to a surge in calls and emails from worried friends and family. To combat this, all 4 major networks have worked together to develop a mobile internet natural disaster information system which puts minimum stress on the network. People in affected areas log onto the system to set their status to “ok” and this status is visible to friends and relatives who log on to search for loved ones.

The system only went live late last year and so far has yet to be tested in an actual disaster. Of course, we can only hope that it won’t be needed, but if a major earthquake should strike, the system will no doubt be a huge help in the relief effort. The posters will be displayed in government institutions and schools all over Japan from this month.

NHK uses mobile TV for improved earthquake and tsunami alerts

2007-01-11T09:32:00.000Z

Earthquakes are common in Japan and when a medium or strong earthquake occurs, Japanese TV channels will superimpose a newsflash of a couple of lines giving information on the strength of the earthquake and affected areas without interrupting the programming (of course, in the case of very strong earthquakes they will cut to a news report).

Today Japan’s public broadcaster NHK announced that it was launching a new service to display additional information on earthquakes stronger that 3 on the Japanese scale on digital broadcast TV including mobile TV. When an earthquake occurs, the interactive button will become an ‘earthquake info button’. Pressing the button will bring up detailed information on the earthquake and alerts of possible tsunami.

NHK says that the service (which launches next Wednesday) is in response to viewers’ complaints that they sometimes missed the standard text newsflashes. It’s really interesting to see how the Japanese are using technology (and particularly the mobile – the earthquake emergency system that the operators have set up there makes the mobile an essential safety device) to improve their response to natural disasters.

au announces new handsets for young and old

2007-01-10T13:50:00.000Z

The spotlight may be on Apple’s iPhone, but over in Japan today au announced three new handsets – two catering for the very young and one for the not-so-young mobile owner.

First is an update to Sanyo’s Junior Keitai– a fully functional phone aimed at kids 7+. This new model features waterproofing and a battery that can only be removed using a special tool.

Also by Sanyo is the “Sweets Cute” – the successor of the “Sweets” and “Sweets Pure” handsets aimed at teenage girls. The features are similar but, according to the designers, the theme this time is “a biscuit soaked in cream”. Hmmm.

Toshiba completes the lineup with a handset aimed at the seniors market. The A5523T is a 2G handset with big keys, big text, big icons and big volume for calls.

Au used the announcement to demo improvements to their location tracking services and a new capping service to place a limit on a contract’s monthly bill. With the new handsets and services, au is aiming to position itself as an emergency hotline between parents and kids (and grandparents).

Mobile poetry for hayfever sufferers

2007-01-10T13:10:00.000Z

Announced today, Shering-Plough's “Hayfever on mobile - a haiku a morning” has got to be the most ‘unique’ mobile service of 2007 so far. As you may have guessed from the title, the service sends you an email haiku about hayfever every morning.

The haiku are a selection of entries for the 2nd (!) annual hayfever haiku competition and the service promises “light hearted, strong and bold haiku about hayfever which can sometimes be so frustrating… great comfort for those who face the condition”.

Schering-Plough don’t just soothe the hayfever-suffering masses through poetry. There is also a section of free wallpaper downloads of the cartoon animals Clary and Tin (can anyone say Claritin®, the popular anti-allergy drug from Schering-Plough?).

Nokia announces NFC handset for Q107

2007-01-09T09:23:00.000Z

After months of trials and speculation, Nokia announced that they will be launching the world’s first NFC-enabled mobile handset in the first quarter of 2007 – the 6131 NFC at the CES.

NFC is a contactless smartchip technology developed by Philips and Sony similar to Sony’s Felica technology used in walletphones in Japan and the Mifare system widely used in transport smartcards such as London’s Oystercard.

It’s really exciting that the world’s biggest handset manufacturer is supporting NFC. There are so many exciting possibilities when this goes mainstream.

Best Japanese handset of 2006

2007-01-08T10:34:00.000Z

Japanese news site Keitai Watch have published their list of top mobile handsets of 2006 as voted by their readers. Whereas the site’s readers aren’t a good representation of the Japanese general public (they’re definitely of the more technically-minded variety), I thought it was worth posting all the same.

This year, two phones share the coveted number one spot with 536 votes each. The first is Sharp’s 905SH which was the phone which raised the bar for OneSeg digital TV handsets with its superb Aquos-branded QVGA display. The second is the Casio W41CA, another fully-functional high end wallet phone featuring the Lismo music service.

Last year’s winner was the Sharp W-Zero 3, Japan’s first Windows Mobile powered pocket pc phone and it’s no surprise that the handset’s successor, the W-Zero 3 es took first place in the newly-created smartphone category.

(L to R 905SH, W41CA, W-Zero 3 es)

Biggest Japanese mobile news from 2006

2007-01-04T09:55:00.000Z

Because of the New Year holiday period in Japan, there’s not much new news to report on at the moment. However, the Japanese mobile news sites have plenty of ‘best of 2006’ features.

The ‘Keitai Watch’ news site counts down the best news stories of 2006 as voted by the website readers. Gaining 1,169 out of 6,275 total votes, the number one accolade goes to the start of mobile number portability (MNP) in Japan.

While there wasn’t a huge exodus of subscribers changing operators when MNP went live in November, its introduction has certainly shaped the year. In 2006 all operators stepped up a gear launching a record number of sparkly new handsets, innovative services and a bewildering array of special price plans.

Other notable entries were Vodafone’s acquisition by Softbank (#2), the start of OneSeg digital mobile TV (#4) and the launch of handsets with VGA screens, HDDs and 1 gb onboard memory (#7).

Are mobile New Year's greetings going out of fashion in Japan?

2007-01-03T13:00:00.000Z

I was interested by what Bena Roberts posted over at GoMoNews about the extra pressure on mobile networks over the Xmas and New Year period from festive calls and texts.

Like O2UK, the Japanese operators have been sending out warnings that their networks may become temporarily unavailable under a deluge of ‘Happy New Year’ texts and calls. A couple of interesting things stick out from the press releases.

Firstly, DoCoMo announced that it has managed to migrate enough of its subscribers over to 3G that it didn’t anticipate any need to put restrictions on its 2G service over the new year period.

Secondly, it seems that mobile festive greetings are in a declining trend in Japan. DoCoMo reported that on New Year’s Eve 2004 there was 11 times the normal level of voice and email traffic. In 2005 it was 4.4 times 6 times respectively. For this New Year DoCoMo predicted only 3 times the calls and 4 times the emails.

Despite the warnings, a Nepro survey showed that 40% of respondents still intended to send a New Year’s greeting, with only 18% saying that they would choose to avoid the peak 12-1 hour to send then.

It will be interesting to see how the New Year mobile traffic actually turned out when the Japanese news/press releases start up again after the New Year break.

Paris Hilton recruited for Motorola's publicity splurge

2006-12-22T10:13:00.000Z

Well it appears DoCoMo and Motorola are hedging their bets just in case Mr Beckham doesn't shift enough RAZRs. According to today's news they've drafted in Paris Hilton to lend a hand. On top of that, they’ve got a “Moto Bus” patrolling the streets of Harajuku adding to the buzz.

It's Motorola's first real foray into the Japanese handset market so it seems they're leaving no expense spared in creating a good first impression. It seems to be having some effect – the black M702iS was DoCoMo’s second biggest seller last week and it was only launched on Thursday. But it’s not all good news as the Silver and Pink versions didn’t even make the top 20.

I just hope the handsets can match the hype… I’ve already seen blogs like this one which laments the handsets “fatal flaw” (the fact it can’t read QR codes). Still, the M702iG launches today and that can read QR codes, so perhaps that will fare better…

Sanyo let consumers get creative with their phones

2006-12-21T10:06:00.000Z

Today Sanyo announced a photo competition for its mobile customers. The competition itself is of little interest (the best picture wins some holiday vouchers), but it introduced be to “Pasha-Moji” – an interesting feature of recent Sanyo phones that allows you to decorate your photos with handmade designs.

“Print Club” stickers are hugely popular with Japanese youth - many teens carry a Print Club book filled with pictures of their friends and trading the stickers is a social activity.

Most handsets in Japan have a collection of icons and decorations you can use to recreate the Print Club experience with your cameraphone. Sanyo’s Pasha-Moji takes the customisation theme a bit further and allows you to design hand-drawn decorations for your photos.

First, you take a picture of your subject. Next you draw your decorations in black ink on white paper and take a picture of that. You can then recolour, resize and reposition your handmade decorations to your heart’s content and your work of art is complete.

The Mobile Payments Café: Barclays Oyser Card - ePaymentNews

2006-12-15T17:15:00.000Z

This is exciting news. Barclays Bank is teaming up with TFL to produce Oyster enabled RFID credit cards. Could this be the start of the pieces of the RFID puzzle coming together in the UK? It will get even more exciting when mobile joins the mix as in Japan.

The Mobile Payments Café: Barclays Oyser Card - ePaymentNews

Can Beckham sell the RAZR in Japan?

2006-12-15T11:41:00.000Z

Apparently Motorola is using Japanese schoolgirl favourite David Beckham to promote the recent launch of the RAZR (or M702iS as it's known there) in Japan.

Hopefully the Beckham factor will be enough to persuade Japanese consumers to part with their hard-earned cash for what is essentially a 2-year old phone with the slight oversight that its camera cannot read QR codes (pretty much a must-have feature these days!) ;)

DoCoMo to broadcast rocket launch

2006-12-15T09:39:00.000Z

Tomorrow, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is planning the ninth launch of their H-IIA rocket carrying an engineering test satellite. The local DoCoMo branch have announced that they will be relaying the launch live using FOMA’s 3G video call service.

All being well, the launch should be shown live at 3:32pm local time.

Japanese site caters for English speakers' craving for Kirk voice ringtones

2006-12-15T09:14:00.000Z

The Japanese mobile internet can be a confusing place for foreigners, what with all the crazy mobile services such as lbs hello kitty, koala-biscuit themed mobile communities, games with makeup-wielding superheros and the like. Luckily au and Axel Mark have launched a mobile site specifically targeted to English speakers living in Japan – “American Direct”.

Instead of translated Japanese content, “American Direct” has everything English speakers want from a mobile site which, in their opinion is ringtones from Destiny’s Child and Hollywood soundtracks and voice ringtones from Star Trek’s William Shatner and major league baseball players. I think they’re onto something here – if a mobile site doesn’t contain Beyoncé and Captain Kirk, I’m just not interested ;)

The site has standard and premium subscription options at 315 yen (£1.50) and 525 yen (£2.50) per month respectively.

Order takeaway over mobile TV

2006-12-14T09:30:00.000Z

Falling advertising revenue is a problem facing TV stations all around the world. Chukyo TV in Japan is hoping to use mobile TV to develop new business models tap into new revenue streams.

Chukyo TV is teaming up with Yumenomatchi – a company running online and mobile fast food delivery services to allow consumers to order food via mobile TV. As mobile TV in Japan uses the Oneseg digital terrestrial broadcast system, the service exploits the possibility to send data as part of the TV signal.

There aren’t any real differences between the mobile TV and mobile internet versions of the service, but anyone from the UK who is familiar with the M&S “food porn” ads will bear witness to TV’s power to make you hungry. You will be able to order your takeaway sushi directly from phone from the 18th of December in selected regions in Japan.

Only in Japan #1

2006-12-14T08:25:00.000Z

Glowing firefly squid usb memory sticks.

Mobile community gains 100,000 members in 3 days!

2006-12-13T10:16:00.000Z

The mobile community news just keeps rolling in from Japan. Back at the end of November, I posted about EZGree – the mobile version of the PC community site Gree which has 25.3 million members in Japan. EZGree got 100,000 mobile signups in the space of a week.

Gree is the third largest PC-based community in Japan with around 400,000 members. The largest is Mixi with 5.2 million members. Mixi has been running a mobile version of its site for a while, but as of the 4th December it improved the mobile version and for the first time allowed members to join from their mobile. In three days, the site recorded 100,000 mobile signups.

Whereas registration for EZGree is free for all, Mixi operates a strict invite-only policy, which makes this number even more remarkable.

Weird and wonderful prototypes at ITU Telecom World

2006-12-06T08:44:00.000Z

This week is the ITU Telecom World 2006 Asiaworld-Expo in Hong Kong. Several Japanese companies have descended on the event and have been showing off some pretty fancy prototypes.

NEC has a ‘back-to-front clamshell’ on display. Named the ‘Latticekey Interface’, when closed the handset’s keyboard and main display both face outwards.

NEC is also showing off a small handset with no keyboard – only a touch screen.

Not to be done by NEC, Mitsubishi has been letting visitors try a phone which is equipped with two touch screens.

Images © Impress Watch

au – mobile searches have more than doubled since partnership with Google

2006-11-30T10:41:00.000Z

At the mobidec 2006 event held today in Tokyo, Mr Takenouchi from au’s content and media division spoke about the current state of the content market in Japan and, interestingly, of how au’s partnership with Google has affected the way consumers use mobile search.

Since tying up with Google, au have moved the search box right to the top of their portal. Takenouchi showed a range of slides showing how the proportion of site accesses through search has increased since mobile Google started.

The killer slide was one showing a sharp increase in mobile search requests immediately after the launch. In less than a month, the number of daily mobile searches had increased to 2.5 times the pre-Google level.

Image (c) Impress watch corp.

Sega promote gangster video game with mobile colouring-in

2006-11-30T10:02:00.000Z

Sega have teamed up with Japanese music, game and video retailer Tsutaya to promote the launch of their hard-hitting, gangster-themed PS2 game Ryu ga Gotoku 2 (Yakuza 2) with… a virtual mobile colouring book.

There are two versions of the colouring book – one for Tsutaya’s PC site and the other for its mobile site both of which launch today. The colouring books will be updated with new pictures to colour on the game’s launch date (7th December).

Here’s the link to the PC version for anyone who wants to try it out.

Mobile music market still growing in Japan, mostly through fulltrack downloads

2006-11-29T18:09:00.000Z

The Record Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) has released its quarterly figures for music sales in Japan, including statistics on mobile music sales by members.

The figures show that the mobile music market is continuing to grow, with sales of 12.4 billion yen (136% sales from the same quarter last year) on 86 million individual downloads.

Breaking the figures down further, it becomes clear that most of the growth has been in fulltrack downloads, with sales of 4.7 billion yen (201% of sales in the same quarter last year).

The growth in fulltrack downloads isn’t surprising as operators (in particular au) have been actively pushing their new fulltrack download services and there have been a slew of new music phones leaving the handset factories.

Top mobile communities in Japan

2006-11-29T09:28:00.000Z

Mobile SNS on the radar at the moment:

1. Mobagetown (2 million, launched February 06)

2. Gocco (370, 000, launched March 06)

3. EZGree (100,000, launched November 06)

How are mobile-only communities different to their PC counterparts?

2006-11-28T16:51:00.000Z

Recently I’ve been blogging about how mobile communities are becoming big in Japan, and today there’s an interesting article about mobile communiti... posted on Japanese mobile news site “+D Mobile”. The article is written by a 28 year old female who has grown up with the internet and so “has never understood the feeling that older generations have of not getting the net”. The writer tries out “Mobagetown” – the mobile game community that is incredibly popular with Japanese teens and has recently gained its 2 millionth member and discovered that through using the mobile community it was suddenly her who didn’t get it and the frustrations of the older generation towards the web “became painfully clear”.

The first thing the writer (herself an addict of PC-based online communities) noticed was that as soon as she signed up, she was bombarded by email, all from members of the opposite sex, requesting her virtual friendship. The other thing she noticed is that Mobagetown has its own grammar – and in particular members used emoticons and smilies. Although the writer is net-savvy, even she found it difficult to understand Mobagetown members’ emails.

One of the differences between Mobagetown and popular PC-based Japanese community sites such as Mixi is that it is an open community (Mixi operates a strict invitation-only system – and the focus of the site is building online communities for friends who already know eachother in the real world). Mobagetown forbids members to make requests to meet up in real life so all friends made are truly virtual. The article’s writer notes that this has an interesting effect on the type of interaction that takes place between members.

Mobagetown members are apparently keen to establish structured virtual relationships. There are “Mobaboyfriends”, “Mobagirlfriends”, “Mobafamilies” and “Mobaschools”. There is also much more virtual roleplay on the mobile community. Among the chatrooms there are virtual restaurants where members pretend to order and serve food, classrooms where virtual school is held and hostbars where male hosts listen to female “clients’” troubles.

Another big feature of the mobile community is a Q&A board similar to Yahoo! Answers. The questions asked range from help with school home work (How do you say x in English?) to questions on love and relationships (What xmas present should I buy for my girlfriend? / I’ve fallen in love with my Mobaboyfriend, what should I do?).

The conclusion of the article is that there are big differences between the “culture” of PC-based community sites and that of mobile communities. The author writes that, once you get used to the small screen and slower navigation, Mobagetown feels very much like a virtual school common room where members can be themselves and play games together. A new generation of community that can only exist on the mobile phone is beginning to take off in Japan.

(Left to right: homework maths questions answered on a Q&A board, roleplaying in a Mobahostbar, one of the games the Mobagetown community is built around - images (c) itmedia)

Mobile SNS site gains 100,000 members in 1 week

2006-11-27T11:49:00.000Z

Gree is the third most popular PC-based social networking site in Japan after Mixi and Frepal and has around 400,000 registered members. Gree teamed up with Japanese operator au to launch EZ Gree – a mobile version of the service.

The service launched on 16th November and today au announced that EZ Gree had gained 100,000 members (including PC members accessing their accounts from their mobile) on the 23rd November – just a week after launch.

Mobile communities are definitely becoming a big thing in Japan – I posted a couple of weeks back about how the mobile gaming community Mobagetown has managed to sign up 2 million members in 9 months. au has EZ Gree, Softbank has Yahoo! Days – it will be interesting to see what DoCoMo has planned for this area.

Carnival of the Mobilists 54 at the Golden Swamp

2006-11-21T10:46:00.000Z

Carnival 54 is up over at Judy Breck's Golden Swamp and I'm honoured by her nomination for my post on FP codes in a Japanese temple as post of the week! Thanks Judy, and thanks for putting together another essential read of postings from new and familiar faces.

Also in this week's edition is my colleague, Savka Andic being interviewed my Xellular Identity's Xen Mendelsohn on mobile marketing.

This week's Carnival is taking place at the end of this link.

Controversy over NeoMedia's code scanning patent

2006-11-21T09:45:00.000Z

There has been a bit of a buzz 1 2 3 4 5 in the blog and email list world around this patent filed by a company called NeoMedia for their QR code-esque Qode.

I’m no patent expert, but I know how complex they are (I once had to translate a Japanese toothbrush patent – no it’s not a handle, it’s a plastic coated metal alloy holding part). From what I can gather, the patent doesn’t threaten codes such as QR codes (for which the patent is held, but not exercised by Toyota subsidiary Denso) and FP codes (invented by Fujitsu) as they simply decode a url rather than looking it up against some database. However, other systems such as Shotcodes and Scanbuy do use databases so this patent could potentially cause problems there.

As barcodescodes and databases have been used in retail for years, the patent could potentially cover these too and so various websites have been appealing for prior art to use to nullify the patent.

Ancient temple embraces FP codes

2006-11-16T10:22:00.000Z

Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto is one of Japan’s most famous temples and a must-see sightseeing spot for anyone visiting the country. The temple has become a cultural symbol - the Japanese equivalent phrase for ‘take the plunge’ is ‘jump off Kiyomizu’s veranda’ in reference to an old adage that said if you survived the fall, your wish would be granted. Kiyomizu was founded in 798 – but that hasn’t stopped them from taking the plunge into the 21st century and embracing FP codes which I talked about in this post.

When visiting a Japanese temple, it’s customary to have your fortune read – usually by picking a fortune scroll from a bunch of scrolls carrying various prophecies from utter disaster to happy times. A bit like a fortune cookie. From tomorrow, Kiyomizu is launching a mobile-read fortune scroll. Having a big ugly QR code on the fortune scroll would kind of spoil the design – so the temple has decided to opt to use FP codes for their mobile fortunetelling solution. The visitor selects a scroll with a fortune reading contained in a hidden FP code embedded in a picture and uses their mobile to display the hidden message contained.

When I visted Kiyomizu temple a couple of years back and had my fortune read, the fortune-teller took one look at it, put it quickly back and told me to pick another. Presumably FP technology will put a stop to such cheating monks.

Press release

Navitime launches interesting GPS application

2006-11-15T10:24:00.000Z

Today Navitime launched an interesting little GPS mobile application with three different functions using GPS to make life easier when out and about.

The first function is ‘safety alert’ and it sends a notification message to a predefined email address when the handset owner enters or leaves a predefined location. Useful, perhaps for child tracking or determining when family members leave the house and return home.

Next is ‘proximity navi’ which makes the handset vibrate and display an alert when the owner gets near to one or more predefined locations. I can’t think of too many uses for this one off the top of my head – but could be used to remind you of potholes in the road or particularly bad restaurants!

The third function is ‘last train from anywhere’ which sounds very handy when out on the town in an unfamiliar place. The service keeps track of your location and matches it with train times of the nearest station. When last train time draws near, the service will alert you and provide GPS directions to the station.

The application is part of the service Navitime provides to paid subscribers to its mobile site. Subscription is charged at 210 yen for standard and 315 yen for premium membership.

DoCoMo's credit card service hits the million subscriber mark

2006-11-14T12:28:00.000Z

Today DoCoMo announced that its DCMX credit card service has gained its millionth subscriber.

DCMX is available both in mobile RFID and more traditional plastic card varieties (although the plastic card contains an RFID chip), but the press release didn’t specify how the million subscribers break up.

DoCoMo launched DCMX at the end of April this year, so the company has managed to sign up the million subscribers in just 6 and a half months. The romance between Japanese operators and financial institution looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Mobile game community reaches 2 million members

2006-11-09T10:28:00.000Z

Yesterday, Japanese mobile site Mobagetown signed up is 2 millionth member. The name Mobagetown is a fusion of “Mobile Game Town” and the site is a mobile-only community game site, similar to Korea’s PC based Hangame site which is the largest online game community in the world, with 25 million subscribers in Korea and 17 million in Japan. Like Hangame, the site is a blend of casual games and social networking –multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.

Mobagetown launched in February this year and so has managed to grow to 2 million members in just 9 months. To put that in perspective, it took Mixi (the most popular PC based SNS in Japan) 1 year, 9 months and 3 weeks to reach 2 million members!

Mobagetown plans to increase its functionality and introduce music, video and search features to the site in the coming months. Membership to Mobagetown is free.

mobileYouth interviews over at Xellular Identity

2006-11-09T09:22:00.000Z

Comverse media expert and fellow Carnival of the Mobilists contributor, Xen Mendelsohn, has been running a special feature on mobile youth trends over at her top blog Xellular Identity.

Last week, she interviewed my colleague, Nick Wright, about how the mobile has affected the lives of young consumers. This week she interviewed me about mobile music.

Head over to Xellular Identity to check out the full interviews.

Global PHS subscribers top 100 million

2006-11-08T10:24:00.000Z

Today the PHS MoU Group announced that the global number of PHS subscribers has exceeded 100 million.

PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) is a 2G standard developed by NTT DoCoMo in 1989, but its uptake is mostly limited to a few countries in Asia.

In Japan, PHS subscriber numbers were in rapid decline, but PHS operator Willcom managed to reverse this trend in 2005 with flat-rate data and voice packages and Japan's first Windows Mobile smartfone which proved popular with business users.

Currently, Chinese PHS subscribers make up 90% of the global total and telecoms companies use the standard to set up low-cost wireless local loop systems.

PHS subscribers per country:

China 93.3m

Japan 4.9m

Taiwan 1.3m

Thailand 350k

Vietnam 200k

Japan Railways announce plans for mobile loyalty point scheme

2006-11-08T09:41:00.000Z

Yesterday, Japan Railways East (JR East) announced that they are planning to launch a mobile based loyalty point scheme next June to compliment their mobile RFID electronic ticketing and e-cash system, Suica.

JR East has been quick to embrace the opportunities offered by the increasing penetration of IC-chip embedded mobile phones in Japan. First, they made their existing card-based Suica contactless ticketing system compatible with mobiles. Next, the company extended the system to support small retail payments and offered solutions to stores wanting to use Suica as a payment option. Recently, stations in Tokyo have been trialling RFID posters, using IC in mobile marketing. Now with today’s announcement, JR East is looking to take advantage of the potential of IC mobiles as a customer retention and CRM tool.

The new system comes in two incarnations – retailers can either sign up to the “Suica Points” scheme where customers have one points balance which increases every time they make a purchase at a participating store or buy JR East railway tickets. Alternatively, retailers can establish their own independent loyalty point scheme for their customers who pay using Suica e-cash.

A lot of the excitement surrounding mobile RFID has so far been based on its function as a payment method – but its role as a loyalty card has equally exciting possibilities. Imagine the opportunities it could offer retailers with well established loyalty schemes such as Tesco and Boots…

Asahi newspaper uses mobile technology in its Tokyo Marathon coverage

2006-11-02T12:38:00.000Z

Today Asahi newspaper announced that it will be using mobile technology in its coverage of this year’s Tokyo Marathon. The company will use IC chips and GPS enabled phones to provide location information of participants for its special mobile site.

Each runner will have an IC chip embedded in their vest and escort vehicles will carry GPS enabled mobile phones. The escort vehicles will use the phones to transmit the runners’ locations back to a server and the results will be displayed as a map on the Asahi mobile sports site.

The marathon will be held on the 19^th of September and access to the Asahi mobile site is charged at a monthly rate of 105 yen.

Original article

Habbo Hotel mobileYouth networking event - impressions

2006-11-01T15:21:00.000Z

Last Friday, the mobileYouth team held our first ever virtual networking event at the popular youth hangout, Habbo Hotel. We decided to try the event as a bit of an experiment. As we highlight in the mobileYouth report, some pioneering brands are already using internet communities such as Habbo to connect with their youth consumers. We thought we’d try and use Habbo to hold a meeting of people interested in mobile and youth trends.

As with any ‘real’ networking event, there were a few technical hitches. We had emails from some people who were unable to log in to Habbo and Alan Patrick blogged about his struggles with the Habbo registration system. Later we were victim to some unwanted party crashers – Habbo hackers who would enter the room and randomly kick out our guests.

Despite the problems, we were lucky to have an interesting group of people turn up and stimulate some lively virtual discussions. Oscar from NVIDIA, Helen from BeepMarketing, Alex from SendMyTxt, Tomi from Communities Dominate Brands, Antony from Future Platforms, Werner from Jataayu and a couple of guys from the AOL UK communities team were a few of the new and familiar faces I ran into.

As for the networking experience, it was difficult to follow conversations when lots of people were typing and Habbo didn’t keep a conversation history to refer back to. Habbo wasn’t perfect, but it definitely offered something a bit extra to an email discussion or a Skype chat.

To see some pictures from the event, click here.

Willcom announce anti-bacterial handset

2006-11-01T14:09:00.000Z

Today Japanese PHS operator Willcom announced a new version of the nico. handset which has been a permanent feature of the operator’s top 3 bestselling handsets since its launch in July this year. The new version is identical to the existing handset except that it has a special anti-bacterial coating.

PHS handsets give off less electromagnetic interference when compared to their CDMA and GSM cousins and so Willcom are hoping that this, coupled with the antibacterial coating, will give their handsets appeal to medical workers.

The antibacterial nico. is slated to go on sale in late November.

Art gallery uses mobile TV, Nintendo DS as visitor guides

2006-11-01T11:08:00.000Z

On Monday, The Japanese National Museum of Western Art announced a trial of a new guide service using OneSeg-enabled mobile phones and Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS consoles.

The DS service is live in the Manet and Renoir gallery and the Monet gallery. When visitors enter the rooms, their DS connects to wireless access points which give them access to information on artists and their works and historical background information. The service also provides visitors with relevant video content from NHK art programmes.

To provide the OneSeg mobile TV service, the gallery had to obtain a broadcasting license from the Japanese government to use broadcasting frequencies with a limited output and so the service can only be picked up within the museum building. Visitors with OneSeg mobile phones pick up a welcome message from the head curator as they enter the gallery and a video tour as they progress to the first floor.

The trial will from the 3rd to the 19th November and the gallery is offering a free poster to visitors who take part in the trial and complete a survey of their impressions of the service.

Images (c) Impress Watch Corporation

mobileYouth podcast and networking

2006-10-27T10:14:00.000Z

A quick reminder that this afternoon (14:00-16:00 BST) is our mobileYouth Habbo Hotel virtual networking event. Hopefully there will be some interesting virtual conversations on mobile and youth trends.

Also on the subject of mobileYouth, this morning I've posted up another podcast on W2F. The podcast also features my colleague, Savka and we talk about some 'on the street' research she and Nick undertook this week with the youth of London. Have a listen to find out some of the interesting insights they picked up on the way.

We also took some video footage of the interviews which we're busy editing at the moment, so stay tuned for some "mobieYouth:the movie extracts" which will be posted up on W2F in the next couple of weeks!

Mobile marketing comes to kids cartoons

2006-10-26T12:03:00.000Z

Camera Search! is an interesting mobile marketing service developed by Bandai and Japanese mobile marketing agency D2C using an image recognition system developed by US based Evolution Robotics. Consumers take pictures with their cameraphone of different forms of advertising and labelling (such as pictures in magazines, CD covers, wine labels) and send them to a server using the Camera Search! application on their phone. The server then analyses the image using image recognition technology to identify the product in question, and returns information such as the url of the product’s mobile site, a link to download music or a mobile shopping site selling the product.

Since the product’s launch earlier this year, Bandai and D2C have been adding new services such as outdoor poster advertising and TV commercial recognition. This week, Bandai announced that they will start using Camera Search! with “Crayon Shin-Chan”, a popular children’s cartoon.

Fans of Crayon Shin-Chan can download a free wallpaper for their phone from the cartoon’s mobile site using Camera Search! To access the freebie, all you need to do is snap any scene in the opening credits of the show and send it to the service.

It’s not quite aggressive marketing yet, but parents may have to beware of the mobile as a new tool to enhance nag power in the future.

Can’t find a babysitter? How about a robot controlled by your phone?

2006-10-26T11:54:00.000Z

How would you feel about leaving your children in the care of a mobile phone-controlled robot babysitter? It may seem like a vision of the far flung future, but the idea took a step closer to reality this week as NTT have teamed up with NEC to carry out trials of robot childminders in two childcare centres in Japan.

The robot used in the trial is NEC’s PaPeRo which I had the pleasure of meeting at NEC’s stand in this year's 3GSM. PaPeRo has been upgraded with mobile connectivity and can send video images to parents’ mobiles and a blog about their child written by the childcare centre’s staff.

As well as receiving information, parents can give commands to PaPeRo by sending an email from their phone. The command system has natural language recognition to allow parents to move PaPeRo around and parents can even make PaPeRo sing to their child.

At a press conference, Mr Kogawa from NTT said he believed society’s reluctance to acceptance robots as a part of our lives was more of a limitation than technology itself. By placing the robot as an agent and “observer”, the trial’s organisers hope people will look at robots in a different light.

Original article

DoCoMo moves to reduce underage smoking

2006-10-26T09:51:00.000Z

It’s one of the regular finding of our mobileYouth report report that increased spending on mobile amongst early teens has led to a decrease in underage smoking as youth have less disposable income to spend on cigarettes. DoCoMo is looking to cut teen smoking down even further with a new system – “Taspo”.

It’s illegal to sell tobacco to under 20s in Japan. However, vending machines are everywhere, selling not only drinks but also tobacco. Vending machines provide an easy opportunity for underage smokers to get supplies without being challenged to prove their age – and this is what DoCoMo is looking to change.

“Taspo” is an IC card based system. To buy tobacco, consumers must first touch an “Taspo” IC card to confirm their age. The vending machine then connects to a server over DoCoMo’s wireless network to verify age and authorise the transaction.

Strangely, DoCoMo doesn’t mention any plans to extend the system to IC enabled wallet phones, but I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the case when the system is rolled out in mid-2008.

mobileYouth virtual networking event this Friday

2006-10-25T17:01:00.000Z

To celebrate the launch of part 2 of this year's mobileYouth report, we're hosting a virtual networking event over at the popular youth hangout Habbo Hotel UK.

Anyone with an interest in mobile and youth trends is welcome to come and join us to discuss the latest news and meet the mobileYouth team - including me (that's my avatar in the banner above)!

For more information, head on over to this page at W2F.

QR-la codes!

2006-10-18T13:07:00.000Z

How can you use your mobile and a packet of koala-shaped biscuits to read your fortune?

You can if you live in Japan! Confectionary manufacturer Lotte have teamed up with marketing company Index to create a unique fortunetelling service for their popular chocolate-filled koala biscuit snack. Each biscuit is decorated with a cartoon koala and in total there are 217 designs. To have your fortune told, all you do is choose a koala, take a picture with your cameraphone and send it as an attachment from your phone’s email address. An image recognition server recognises the design and sends a return email containing the fortune reading for that particular koala (in the example below the koala represents financial good fortune!).

The email you receive also includes an invitation to join the official koala biscuit community on Gocco. Gocco is a mobile only social networking site and is the biggest in Japan with over 350,000 members.

This is one of the most unique ways of extending brand presence to the mobile that I've seen and it looks like it would be great fun to try out.

Official press release

Interesting uses of the cameraphone

2006-10-18T08:48:00.000Z

Recently there have been quite a few interesting new services launched in Japan which use the cameraphone in some pretty unique ways. I wrote a little while back about the beauty site targeted at females which gives free skin consultations and the promotional app from Sega which analyses your photo to reveal which Sega character you most resemble. This week saw the launch of another two interesting camera-based services.

First is “Business Card Reader” – a mobile app which does exactly what its name suggests. The app sends photos taken of business cards to a special server which reads them using OCR software and then adds the details as an address book entry on the phone. The service costs 30 yen (around 15p) per business card or 315 yen (around £1.50) per month if you prefer an all-you-can-scan option.

The second service is a palm reading site which offers palm reading using the mobile’s camera. The site can identify and analyse the life line, heart line, head line and fate line from a photo taken of a palm and return personality and compatibility readings. The service is either billed by subscription at 315 yen per month or per reading at 210 yen (around £1) each.

Swedish Beers tonight

2006-10-17T11:49:00.000Z

For anyone who is in the London area with an interest in mobile tonight is the 5th anniversary of the Swedish Beers informal mobile networking event. No presentations, no RSVPs, just the opportunity to network with an interesting bunch of people in the pleasant surroundings of the Nordic Bar. This time the sponsors are Bango.

For more info click here.

imode site for kilt enthusiasts goes live

2006-10-16T09:02:00.000Z

If you are looking for proof that the imode ecosystem in Japan allows companies to reach deep into the longtail of niche consumer demand look no further than “Kilt Club”, a specialist imode site for kilt enthusiasts that went live today.

The site is run by Shizuko Kuroha, who is apparently an expert on all things kilt and offers a variety of kilt-themed content including one-point lessons on how to make a kilt, kilt wallpaper, a monthly kilt calendar and even dictionary on kilt terms. Subscription to “Kilt Club” costs ¥315 (around £1.50) per month.

Docomo reveal autumn/winter 06 collection

2006-10-12T10:51:00.000Z

Today DoCoMo announced their new autumn/winter handset collection of 14 new handsets for the Japanese market. This follows au and SoftBank’s new collections of 12 and 13 handsets respectively. It’s obvious that all three operators are making an extra special effort this time round with mobile number portability becoming a reality in Japan from the 24th of this month.

Some highlights from DoCoMo’s new collection:

The P903i is a music phone with up to 70 hours playback between recharges. The phone comes with a “safety key” (presumably Bluetooth based) which automatically locks the handset if the owner is separated from their mobile.

The F903iX HIGH-SPEED is a HSDPA-enabled handset from Fujitsu notable for its “swing style” form factor. Consumers can set different applications to automatically load when they “swing” the handset’s screen to the left or right.

The SIMPURE N1 is a simple, compact 3G handset and is the lightest of all DoCoMo’s 3G offerings. The handset’s main target is to tempt existing 2G subscribers to upgrade to 3G contracts without pushing multimedia 3G services they don’t necessarily want.

Musings of a mobile marketer: Carnival of the Mobilists No 48

2006-10-11T12:01:00.000Z

Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing aka Technokitten hosts the 48th Carnival of the Mobilists over at her blog Musings of a Mobile Marketer. The Carnival is a weekly roundup of the best mobile related blogging so it's well worth a read.

Podcast on emerging trends - contactless IC chips go mobile

2006-10-06T12:29:00.000Z

To give your eyes a break from reading, I've begun to record a series of podcasts on emerging trends.

The latest podcast gives a brief overview of the use of IC chips in mobiles and brings up two interesting news stories from Japan which show how the market is continuing to evolve.

To listen to the podcast, follow this link or download directly here (it's 5 mins and around 5mb).

It would be great to hear any feedback or comments. Happy listening!

P.s. we're trying to create a directory of mobile related podcasts over at Wireless World Forum, so if there are any podcasters out there feel free to upload your contribution to our database.

Casio's mobile characters spawn a book

2006-10-06T08:49:00.000Z

Casio’s Japanese mobile handsets are noted for their distinctive cartoon characters which Casio uses to decorate their menus, screensavers and wallpapers. Now for the first (and possibly last) time ever, mobile characters have spawned their own story book.

The book, “Heart Craft”, is written by one of the staff at Casio’s design centre and contains the side stories of Casio’s most popular characters such as “Mr This and That” and “The Casio Penguins”. The book will go on sale in Japan later this month at a price of around $10 and is available in 5 different colours.

New system to deliver e-coupons over broadcast mobile TV

2006-10-02T10:31:00.000Z

Today DoCoMo and Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television Network Corporation announced a system to deliver electronic coupons to mobile phones via digital terrestrial broadcast mobile TV.

The preferred mobile TV system in Japan is OneSeg – a form of digital terrestrial broadcast TV. Since it went live in April this year, operators have launched several mobile handsets which can receive the signal. As it’s digital, OneSeg offers the interesting possibility to combine data with the broadcast signal and there have been a few experimental services such as baseball programmes which offer viewers additional statistics on demand. This latest service is the first idea to really push the boundries of what broadcast mobile TV can do - offering coupons you can redeem at retailers direct from your mobile.

The coupons are delivered as Toruca e-coupons. The Toruca system uses the FeliCa contactless IC chip used by wallet phones so consumers can redeem them directly at retailers by holding their phone over an ic reader-writer touchpoint. The interesting point about this new system is that the coupons can be combined with video clips taken from the TV show to offer content-specific marketing. For example, the service provides the possibility of combining a coupon with a clip of a cooking recipe. The coupons can also be forwarded to friends through email or infrared, presenting some interesting viral marketing opportunities. The new system seems like a great opportunity for marketers to produce some integrated marketing campaigns using the mobile and a lucrative way for operators to monetize broadcast digital TV which lies outside of their billing control.

DoCoMo develops 3D image system for mobiles

2006-09-29T08:36:00.000Z

Today DoCoMo announced a prototype 3D image generation system which could eventually find its way into mobile phones of the future.

The image is displayed using a lenticular lens (had to look that one up on Wikipedia!) and the system uses the phone’s camera or an alternative method to determine the viewer’s viewing angle and alters the image accordingly in real time. So, for example, if you move to the right, you can see the right hand side of the image and if you look at it from above, the display will show a top-down view. Of course, due to the nature of the system, it can only be viewed by one person at a time.

The applications for this system will likely be mobile games and mobile shopping sites. DoCoMo is working on commercializing the system and will be displaying the technology next week at Ceatec Japan.

Ringtone alarm clock announced

2006-09-27T09:13:00.000Z

I have written about muPass – a system uses mobile phones to send ringtones to ordinary household items – before in this article. Yesterday Sammy announced a new product compatible with the muPass system – and this one seems more useful to me than a baby mobile or a singing cooker!

The M-Stock is an alarm clock and muPass allows you to change the alarm sound by sending it ringtones from your phone via infrared. According to the company’s press release, there are now over 4000 ringtones available that are compatible with muPass.

The main drawback with the product is its price – at an RRP of 7,350 – 8,925 yen ($63 - $76), it’s not cheap for a fairly basic alarm clock. Are consumers really prepared to pay such a premium for the novelty?

Sega use image recognition promotional tool for TGS

2006-09-26T08:25:00.000Z

At this year’s Tokyo game show, Sega distributed a free promotional applet using image recognition software to promote its mobile games characters.

Using their phone’s camera, Sega fans take a self-portrait picture and send it via the applet to an image recognition server. The server analyses the pictured face and decides which Sega character the individual resembles the most from a list of household names such as Sonic the Hedgehog and err… actually I don’t recognise any of the others in the supplied picture and I wonder what type of person would be matched to the yellow rabbit-like creature on the bottom right.

Nevertheless, the applet is an interesting way to extend the Sega brand with games fans and a fun promotional tool for the TGS.

Pictures from the Tokyo Game Show

2006-09-22T12:43:00.000Z

Those involved in the mobile games industry might be interested in these articles on the Tokyo Game Show.

Docomo booth 1

Docomo booth 2

KDDI booth

The articles are in Japanese, but there are lots of pictures - including a version of Bomberman for up to 24 players over at KDDI!

New mobile skin check service for female consumers

2006-09-22T09:40:00.000Z

Today Cybird announced a new mobile service targeted at female consumers. Snappily titled ‘howzy!BEAUTY’ is “a mobile service to support female ‘beauty’ and ‘love’”.

The service contains a mix of horoscopes, weather and news and also provides a range of ‘brain training’ casual games which are hugely popular with Japanese consumers at the moment.

The service’s most interesting feature is its skin check function. Using their cameraphone, female consumers take a photo of themselves and submit it to the site. The service will then return a ranking of the quality of the skin based on pores, texture, tightness, dirtiness and hydration and give a predicted age of the consumer.

SonyEri's new 'glow phone'

2006-09-20T09:03:00.000Z

I was checking out this article posted by Japanese mobile news site +D Mobile last week about the new W43S handset by Sony Ericsson which has just gone on sale on the au network in Japan.

The handset’s main feature is an LED panel which can be customised using various fascias which alter the way the light reflects, producing different effects. The lighting isn’t purely for decoration, however, as lights correspond to missed calls, new emails, new texts and new alerts. The example below shows that the owner has two missed calls and one new email.

Aside from the fancy lights, the handset has some of the coolest UI design I’ve seen on a phone recently with a ‘cartoon strip’ menu option and a pinboard wallpaper which displays random pictures from the cameraphone’s album.

Images (c) +D Mobile

au announce new travel service

2006-09-19T09:11:00.000Z

Today Japanese operator au announced the launch of a new travel reservation service – au Travel, and once again, the operator has come up with a well thought out site which works in harmony together with some of its other mobile services.

Au teamed up with the Japan National Tourist Organisation to provide the service which currently has a database of 7,000 hotels and resorts and plans to increase that to 10,000 by the end of the year. The site looks designed with plenty of pictures and various options for searching. Naturally, consumers can browse and make reservations using the service but au have also tied the service into its loyalty point scheme and satnav services for extra value.

1% of every reservation made using au Travel is returned to the consumer as au Points – reward points which you can either redeem as direct discounts to your phone bill or use to buy various products. Using au’s satnav services, consumers’ handsets can direct a driver or pedestrian to the hotel they have just made a reservation for. The service will launch on the 5th October.

FP codes - better than QR codes?

2006-09-14T09:05:00.000Z

QR codes are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in Japan, with consumers using them to access more information on everything from trees in parks to nutritional information for their MacDonalds hamburgers. However, there are already companies working on developing the next contender to the QR code crown.

DoCoMo have been working on an ‘audio QR code’ which enables mobiles to capture data embedded in music and jingles. I have already posted about the ‘blacklight QR code’ developed by IBM. Today, Fujitsu announced the FP code or Fine Picture code, a technology which embeds codes into pictures in a way that’s difficult for the human eye to spot.

Fujitsu are naturally tight-lipped about how they do this – all they reveal is that the system was inspired by the fact that the sensitivity of human vision alters according to size and colour. Sounds complicated. The big draw of the system is, like blacklight QR codes, the codes don’t compromise the design of printed material. In the future will all printed pictures contain embedded codes?

Vodafone takes a different approach to mobile music in Japan

2006-09-13T08:36:00.000Z

The fulltrack mobile music scene is really hotting up in Japan at the moment. The first service to launch was au’s iTunes-esque Lismo in April this year, with the operator providing a range of music player optimised handsets for use with the service. DoCoMo responded by launching its own fulltrack music services with handsets to match. Japan’s third operator, Vodafone KK, has been keeping quiet about it’s mobile music masterplans until today.

Well… sort of. Today’s announcement is not an exiting new fulltrack music service, nor a shiny new music phone. Vodafone is taking a different approach to the mobile music battle by bundling its 705SH handset with a 2gb iPod nano. The bundle will cost ¥10000 (≈£50) more than the standalone handset, but the catch is that subscribers must commit to a 2 year contract be eligible for the deal. It seems that this new offer is more of an attempt to lure consumers into 2-year Vodafone contracts before the introduction of MNP rather than a serious entry into the mobile music market.

DoCoMo develop marketing system based on consumer behaviour prediction

2006-09-11T12:40:00.000Z

Today NTT DoCoMo announced that they have developed a system which uses RFID to predict consumer behaviour while they are visiting shopping malls, showrooms and amusement parks and use this prediction to offer them targeted marketing messages.

As the consumer visits various shops and locations, their mobile sends RFID tags to a server. The server than runs software to predict what the consumer is doing and sends them information relevant to their situation.

In an example provided by DoCoMo, a consumer who is searching for a pair of shoes visits shoe shops A, B and C. The server guesses that this is what the consumer is doing on the basis of the RFID tags it receives from shops A, B and C and then sends the consumer special offers from shop D which they have yet to visit. The service even offers coupons for restaurants and coffee shops to consumers when it deems they must be getting tired from visiting shoe shops A, B, C and D!

DoCoMo plans to test the system in a single shopping mall in Yokohama between the 13th and 26th September, but have no firm future roll-out plans at present.

Vodafone announces wind-up of 2G service from 2008

2006-09-01T09:01:00.000Z

Today Vodafone KK announced that they will stop taking new subscribers to their 2G service at the end of the 2007 financial year (which, in Japan is March 2008 – by which time, of course the company will have long been rebranded as SoftBank Mobile). After March 2008, Vodafone (SoftBank) will no longer offer 2G PDC contracts to new consumers.

As far as I know, Vodafone is the first Japanese carrier to announce plans to go 3G only. Interestingly, they are also lagging far behind DoCoMo and au in terms of 2G/3G subscriber ratio. 26% of Vodafone’s customers are on 3G, compared to 53% for DoCoMo and 97% for au.

One of the strategies Vodafone are using now to boost 3G subscribers is limiting their mobile number portability service (due to launch later this year) to 3G contracts. It will be interesting to see how SoftBank will push its 3G services in the future.

Musings of a mobile marketer: Coca Cola embraces mobile marketing in Japan

2006-08-30T12:48:00.000Z

Musings of a mobile marketer: Coca Cola embraces mobile marketing in Japan

A friend of mine, Helen from BeepMarketing, found Coca Cola Japan's website and had a few questions about how consumers can use their mobiles to pay for drinks on Cmode vending machines. You can read more about the details in her posting.

KDDI team up with Toyota to release handset

2006-08-30T08:50:00.000Z

Today KDDI announced a tie-up with Toyota to produce an au branded handset specifically designed to work with Toyota vehicles.

The handset, called TiMO, is based on a Toshiba handset already sold on the au network. The Toyota version of the handset will connect to the car’s onboard satnav system via Bluetooth to provide an easy-to-use guidance interface. Toyota will also offer the option of a special armrest featuring a recharging slot for the driver to put their TiMO whilst on the road.

The TiMO will be sold in Toyota outlets from the end of October and the package includes a year’s free sub-ion to ‘Helpnet’ – an emergency communication service which uses GPS to send the car’s location to the authorities in the case of an emergency.

'Drink' phone launch date announced

2006-08-23T09:22:00.000Z

DoCoMo have announced that the most unique phone of their summer lineup, the N702iS by NEC, will go on sale this Friday.

As has become a common practice with manufacturers in Japan, the handset was designed in collaboration a designer. Ooki Sato’s vision is a ‘glass style’ phone that can be customised with different drink themed covers. The phone comes in three basic colour schemes – ‘Mineral Water’, ‘Strawberry Milk’ and ‘Cafe Latte’ and ‘Hot Chocolate’, ‘Soda’, ‘Cranberry’, ‘Orange Juice’ and ‘Green Tea’ covers are also available to give the phone a different flavour.

The drink theme extends beyond the covers – the phone also boasts an ‘aquaillumination’ feature (bubble-like lights which flash to signal incoming calls and emails). The best bit, however is the liquid themed default wallpaper which is linked to tilt sensors in the handset and reacts to movement as liquid would in a glass. The level of liquid left corresponds to the remaining battery level, so you can tell at a glance whether you will shortly need a refill. The wallpaper is not the only function to use the motion sensors – the phone also includes an ingenious eggtimer which is activated and reset through tipping the handset.

Japanese operators jumping on the SNS bandwagon

2006-08-22T09:12:00.000Z

There have been reports in the Nikkei newspaper today that Softbank is planning to launch a Social Networking Service (SNS) aimed at their mobile users this Autumn.

According to the report, Softbank's service will allow subscribers to create a profile, write diaries and upload photos taken on their cameraphones. In the light of some of the safety concerns of SNS services such as MySpace that have been picked up in the media recently, Softbank are apparently planning a system whereby only friends and family can view a subscriber’s SNS page.

If the reports are correct, Softbank will become the second Japanese operator to look to establishing an SNS following the announcement in July by KDDI that they had bought shares in popular Japanese PC SNS GREE with the view to creating a SNS which can be used on both the PC and KDDI’s au mobile service.

London event on trends in Japan and Korea

2006-08-18T12:31:00.000Z

If you're interested in the Japanese and/or Korean mobile markets, you might be interesed in attending Wireless World Forum's roundtable summit on consumer trends in Japan and Korea. The event will be held in London on Friday 8th Septmeber. For more information, follow the link.

Mobile TV comes to wristwatches

2006-08-17T08:41:00.000Z

Asahi beer has announced a promotional campaign with a rather interesting first prize. Five thousand lucky winners can get their hands on a wristwatch containing a mobile digital TV tuner which also doubles up as a PHS handset.

The rather chunky watch sports a 2.4 inch screen and receives the digital terrestrial OneSeg signal used by many mobile TV handsets in Japan. As if that wasn’t enough, the device also contains a W-Sim slot allowing winners to insert a Willcom W-Sim core module, adding voice calling, mail and browser functionality via the PHS network.

While the prize might be exciting and mobile related, the campaign is a bit more traditional. Hopeful beer drinkers collect stickers from promotional cans and send them in to be entered in a prize draw.

Mobile service to beat the queues at top restaurants launched

2006-08-14T14:43:00.000Z

At the weekend, I went to a restaurant in London I’d heard served some pretty special spicy king prawns. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who wanted to eat there on a Friday night and when I got there it was crowded and I had to wait outside for a table. Unfortunately I had become too accustomed to the great weather we’ve been having in London and was ill-prepared for the rain shower which so helpfully coincided with my wait outside the restaurant.

This morning I read about a new service in Japan that could have saved me from getting wet. Doko-iko is a service which gives information about the levels of crowding and the waiting times for popular attractions, amusement parks and restaurants. The information on crowding and waiting times is not provided by the attractions and restaurants, but the general public themselves. The service offers incentives such as discount vouchers in return for updates.

Sounds like an interesting service, but the whole idea relies on updates from the public, so the crucial thing will be how good these ‘incentive’ vouchers will be.

QR code travel information service launched in Tokyo

2006-08-07T09:27:00.000Z

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Transportation has been putting QR codes on bus stops around the city and will launch a new QR code based travel information service on August 10th.

The service provides timetables for buses that visit the bus stop and also has tracking capabilities, informing the passenger how far away the next bus is. The service is also available for phones that don’t support QR codes. Each bus stop has a unique number which passengers can enter manually into the mobile site to receive the same travel information.

QR codes are becoming an integral part of Japanese mobile life with recent research suggesting that around 70% of mobile owners use QR codes to access mobile content. Their adoption by the public as well as private sector (see also this article) looks set to cement that position further.

Secret Compact 2 - platformer with interesting twist

2006-08-02T17:14:00.000Z

Mobgame.jp have just released a mobile platformer with an interesting twist. The game is called “Secret Compact 2” and is the sequel to “Secret Compact”. The main character in the game is an ordinary girl called “Lovely” who has a secret – she can use her compact to turn into crime avenging superhero “Lovely Girl”.

The game is a standard platform affair which sees the player exploring levels and collecting hearts which increase Lovely’s compact charge. When the charge reaches maximum, Lovely can change into Lovely Girl and attack baddies and save babies etc. etc.

What makes the game special is the unique control method players use to transform Lovely into Lovely Girl. The phone is used to carry out the transformation and the player has to close and open the handset as if it were a compact. Secret Compact 2 adds new stages and transformation patterns and is available for 210 yen.