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January handset shipments in Japan reach 2.1 million

JEITA published mobile handset shipment numbers for January 2010. The highlights are as follows:

• Mobile phone shipments in Japan reached 2.1 million units in January 2010, an 8.7% increase YoY
• Among those cellular phones' share accounted for 97.6%, with the rest going to PHS phones
• Mobile phones with one-seg TV chip shipped in 1.6 million units, an 6.4% increase YoY
• Installed base of one-seg phones reached 77.1%

Source: JEITA

Mobile coupons are mainstream in Japan

Using mobile coupons to get a discount is a common thing in Japan and a recent user survey by Update/MMD just confirms that. Out of 4,453 survey respondents 71.6% said that they are subscribed to receive flyers with discounts from a particular business. Among those, 43.5% get coupons from 2-4 businesses. The most popular category of businesses distributing mobile coupons is the fast food chains followed with pubs/restaurants/cafes and CD/DVD rental shops. The top three popular shops among respondents turned out to be as follows:

1. McDonald's (78.3%)
2. TSUTAYA (Japan's Blockbuster) (44.5%)
3. KFC (29.3%)

Source: MMD via Keitai Watch

February update: Japan mobile operator market shares

TCA published its February mobile subscriber numbers for Japan's mobile phone operators. The main points are as follows:

• Japan's mobile population grew by 0.4% from last month reaching 115,686, 400 contracts
• Among all mobile contracts, 96.4% go to cellular phones, with the rest allocated to PHS phones (Willcom)
• Overall cellular operators added 488K subscriptions with DoCoMo being slightly ahead of the pack with 148K adds
• In terms of total subscriber bases, DoCoMo grabs 50% of the market followed by KDDI au (28.3%), Softbank (19.7%) and eMobile (2%)
• Data plan subscriptions account now for 83.1% of total cellular phone market with DoCoMo being above the average with 87.5% of its subscribers using data services
• 3G penetration stands at 96.6% for overall cellular market with Softbank having 97.5% of its subscribers shifted to 3G devices
• Japan cellular market is dominantly postpaid with only 1.2% being still on prepaid; DoCoMo is left with just 0.1% of prepaid accounts

Mobile social gaming's awareness high in Japan but few users agree to pay

A recent user survey of more than three thousand respondents in Japan by CA Mobile and Spire revealed interesting trends about the uptake of mobile social gaming on such sites as mixi, mobage town and gree. Here are some highlights:

• Awareness of mobile social gaming is very high with close to 70% of respondents indicating they have played some kind of game
• Spread of word is the most effective way to get new players onboard with more than 60% of those who played a social game citing friend's invite as a reason to join
• The most popular time for playing social games is just before going to bed (or actually playing when already in bed)
• Almost 60% of respondents spend no more than 20 minutes per access
• Majority of users plays free games, with only 4.2% of core users expressing willigness to pay

Source: Spire