Japan's Cellphone Edge

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2010-03-13T19:47:00.001-08:00

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January handset shipments in Japan reach 2.1 million

2010-03-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

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:

McDonald's (78.3%)
TSUTAYA (Japan's Blockbuster) (44.5%)
KFC (29.3%)

Source: MMD via Keitai Watch

February update: Japan mobile operator market shares

2010-03-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-10T06:23:00.000-08:00

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

Brother debuts a 9.7-inch e-paper reader

2010-03-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

Brother came out with an e-paper reader that uses a low-power thin 9.7-inch electrophoretic gray-scale display. With 15mm of width and 600g of weight the device spots Bluetooth to display documents from mobile phones or PDAs on its bigger screen. It also has an SD memory card slot. The battery is said to last for up to 83 hours - an equivalent of 5,000 read pages. It is good for carrying product manuals or other documentation. It is compatible with Brother scanners allowing direct scan of documents. The problem is that it uses a proprietary viewer format technology.

Source: Brother

Answering your door phone system from a cell phone

2010-03-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

Meeting the needs of growing population of households with both spouses working (55% of all households in Japan) Panasonic developed a door phone system connected to mobile phones. The system delivers both audio and color video streams to mobile phone's screen whenever there is somebody ringing your bell door. Panasonic plans to start sales from June 2010. The price tag, including door phone system and mobile phone adapter will be set at JPY114,450.

Source: Panasonic

Quiz: How much of gold can be found in 500K handsets?

2010-03-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has just finished its cell phone recycle campaign across the country reporting 567,056 mobile phone units collected. The ministry also published some interesting stats about precious metals contained in the colected lot of retired phones. If properly extracted, about 22 kilograms of gold, 79 kilograms of silver, 5,670 kilograms of copper, and 2 kilograms of rare palladium can be recycled. Now, it doesn't say anything about the extraction costs but nevertheless, these are some impressive numbers.

- Posted on the go

Home-grown Ameba Now challenges Twitter in Japan

2010-03-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

Freshly from the lab Ameba Now, the twitter-like microbloging service launched in December 2009, is gaining in popularity in Japan registering one million visitors in January, according to Nielsen's data. For the same period twitter in Japan saw 4.7 million visitors with an average user spending about 25 minutes on the site versus 6.5 minutes spent by Ameba user. Interestingly, twitter in Japan looks like a male-dominant service with 64% of its users being males while Ameba Now attracts 54% of female audience. Now, keep in mind that these numbers are for PC users and don't include mobile phone usage.

Cyber Agent, a company behind Ameba Now, is also running a popular blogging platform Ameba Blog. The ability to attract celebrities to use Ameba Blog service was a key factor for its popularity and if the same strategy can work for Ameba Now, it can present a serious challenge to twitter in Japan.

A fan-like user interface from Else-Access

2010-03-04T06:20:00.000-08:00

In case you missed this during the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona...Here is an example of innovative user interface running on no less innovative handset - the product of collaboration between Japan's software house Access and Israel's design house Else. Powered by Access Linux Platform the Else handset spots a fan-like UI optimized for the one-hand navigation. I'd love to land my fingers on this phone.

iPhone wins enterprise deal in Japan

2010-03-03T01:32:00.001-08:00

Fast Retailing, an operator of clothing chain Uniqlo in Japan, will purchase 1,200 iPhones from Softbank in order to provide its employees with an always-connected means for communication. Besides Softbank providing FMC/WiFi solutions for in-store calling/data usage, Uniqlo employees will be able to view customer data without storing it on device and search company directory - all cloud-based.

- Posted on the go

mixi abandons invitation-based registration

2010-03-02T19:52:00.001-08:00

In a long awaited move mixi, Japan's biggest social network in terms of registered users, changed the rules for new member registration. Before, in order to register you had to receive an invite from your friend who was already on mixi. As of March 1st, it is no longer required. With this move mixi repeats the steps of Facebook and hopes to boost its memberships beyond of reach of the competition. It worked handsomely for Facebook and should work for mixi as well. However, it might backfire if Japanese users find it intrusive given their appreciation for privacy. Call it a cultural thing but some might hate to a higher degree than in the wedt the idea that their profiles can be searched by random people.

- Posted on the go

Japan social networks lure developers

2010-03-02T02:12:00.001-08:00

Availability of games is the key differentiator for social networks in Japan. Before now they relied on in-house development or "selected" developers to launch games on their platforms. However, the situation is going to change as the likes of mixi, mobage, and gree are about to release their APIs and development programs. The site that will manage to lure more developers will get the competitive advantage over others in terms of the number of applications available to its users. In the latest news, gree went campaigning for developers promising among other perks funding from the newly established gree fund to the brightest of their kind.

- Posted on the go

Napster to shut down in Japan

2010-03-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

It was reported (via Keitai Watch) that Napster would discontinue its services in Japan due to the shift to DRM free strategy of its American parent and inability to support development costs required to implement such change in Japan. It was also mentioned in the article that Napster would become profitable in Japan in near terms and hence, the decision to stop providing services because of the additional development costs associated with DRM free platform looks, to put it mildly, strange. Napster Japan is a joint venture between Napster and Tower Record with NTT DoCoMo being involved as well. DoCoMo users are going to be affected as Napster To Go service is being offered on DoCoMo handsets.

Market for virtual goods poised for growth

2010-02-28T17:00:00.001-08:00

When a 300-pound gorilla like Facebook enters the niche market it turns into mass market. According to Business Week, Facebook is testing its internal payment system to take control over the in-game purchases of virtual goods like clothing for avatars or tractor for your farm. If early success of Japanese social networks implementing virtual sales is any indicator, then we are witnessing a shift from an advertising-supported model to a more balanced revenue model for social networks. While only 1% to 4% of people currently playing on social networks spend money for virtual goods the trend may accelerate with Facebook promoting the new capability to its 400 million user base. With the planned 30% cut of sales of virtual game props Facebook might add up to $500 million to its coffers, according to
ThinkEquity cited in Business Week article. ThinkEquity predicts the sales of virtual goods to almost double this year to $1.6 billion in the US and this number could quadruple to $3.6 billion by 2012. We should learn more from the experience of Japanese social networks in getting revenues from the sales of virtual goods.

- Posted on the go

First phone with DivX comes to Japan, still can't do HD

2010-02-26T21:04:00.001-08:00

It was reported (via Keitai Watch) that Samsung's smartphone SC-01B will be the first mobile phone in Japan featuring video codec DivX. This opens up the way for the video content from PC and web to be added to mobiles. Although, first end-users will have to do some conversion on PC using free DivX Converter for Mobile. After conversion, videos can be viewed on mobiles in SD quality. Expect more DivX phones to appear in Japan soon.
- Posted on the go

Taiwan's Inventec blends in Japanese mobile phone market

2010-02-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

It was reported that Taiwan's Inventec Appliances would ship the H31IA handset bound for eMobile in Japan. The H31A is a simple voice-centric clamshell with an obvious "Japanese" design footprint. The move by eMobile to sell Inventec's product is undoubtedly driven by the price factor. But another interesting thing is that Inventec did a good homework in tailoring the product to meet the tastes of Japanese users. Judging by the looks, it is hard to tell whether this phone is manufactured by a foreign maker or Japanese one. This should be a warning sign for the domestic mobile phone manufacturers as foreign players start beating them not only in competitive pricing but in blending in among them. It seems that the low range of the market is destined to be infiltrated with low-priced foreign brands untraceable of foreign design DNA.

Phone Specs
Model:	H31IA
Carrier:	eMobile
Maker:	Inventec Appliances
GSM bands:	900/1800/1900MHz
HSPA/WCDMA:	1.7/2.1GHz
Dimensions:	99 X 50 X 16.1 mm
Weight:	110g
Display:	2.4inch (240x320) TFT LCD
Camera:	2MP CMOS
Bluetooth:	2.1+EDR
Memory card slot:	microSDHC up to 16GB
USB:	micro USB

Source: Keitai Watch

Japanese vendors look for overseas expansion, this time for real...

2010-01-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to write this post in a response to a very thoughtful analysis of 2010 handset vendor trends made by Tomi Ahonen on his Communities Dominate Brands blog. Among other vendors, Tomi lays out his expectations for Japanese vendors, especially citing Fujitsu as the world's fifth biggest smartphone maker. Thanks, Tomi ;) I am not going to touch here the very tricky subject of smartphone definition, but am just going to say that in Japan the most phones sold by domestic vendors, including Fujitsu are not considered to be smartphones. However, Tomi's post made me wonder when we can expect Japanese vendors compete on a worldwide scale. After several failed attempts in the past, this and next year will be crucial for Japanese vendors to launch internationally as the window of opportunity is quickly closing.

Gloom in domestic market

The Japan mobile phone market saw sequential decline in the third quarter of 2009, becoming the worst quarter in five years in terms of total handset shipments, according to IDC Japan. Mobile phone shipments totaled 7.32 million units, down 12.8% from a year earlier. Quarter-on-quarter growth remained negative for eight quarters in a row. The major showstoppers were:

Lack of compelling high-end handsets
Increased handset replacement cycle
Excess inventories on operator side

To go global or not to go?

With such a pessimistic mood in their backyard, Japanese vendors face an invitable choice - to go global or die trying. Top five domestic mobile phone vendors by 3Q2009 (see chart above) - Sharp, Fujitsu, Panasonic, NEC and Kyocera are already selling phones in some markets outside Japan or planning to do so very soon. It doesn't mean everybody will succeed and I expect some market consolidation by the end of this year or earlier into the next year. Here is a summary of who done what and what to expect next.

Sharp

Sharp is the one to watch closely after as the company is rumored to be the manufacturer of the first "Microsoft" phone - a device based on Danger Hiptop/Sidekick platform acquired by Microsoft a couple of years ago. Sharp also plans to enter markets in Europe and North America after it tasted the waters in the nearby Asian markets including Taiwan and China. Sharp sold about 1.6 million devices abroad in 2008 and aims to boost that number to 4 million units by March 2010.

Fujitsu

Fujitsu made a modest enter into the Taiwan market, partnering with FET in January 2009. Last year, the company also joined Symbian Foundation reinforcing its support for Symbian OS domestically and utilizing the membership as an opportunity to broaden the Symbian appeal elsewhere. However, Fujitsu is not only focused on Symbian - the company is also known for manufacturing Windows Mobile handsets and it created the whole market niche in Japan with its very successful Raku-Raku lineup targetd at senior end-users. Obviously, I can't say anything beyond that but expect Fujitsu to make some headlines in future.

Panasonic

Panasonic is rumored to enter neighboring markets, with the main destination being China. There are some talks of Panasonic considering South American markets, especially Brazil where the similar with Japan's mobile TV standard is being adopted.

Toshiba

Backed by NTT DoCoMo, Toshiba added its first customer win in Europe in June 2009 by partnering with Spain's Telefonica. Having attracted industry's attention with the release of the TG01 - one of the thinnest Windows Mobile smartphones produced by ODM vendor for Toshiba, the company made a decision to outsource the manufacturing of phones out of Japan from October 2009.

NEC (NEC/Hitachi/Casio)

Having retreated from overseas markets in 2006, NEC is planning a comeback. First, it joined forces with two other players - Hitachi and Casio. As the leverage, the new company can utilize Casio's existing channel in the US. As you might've known, Casio found its niche in the US with a ruggedized and water resistant phone line bound for Verizon Wireless. Hitachi also rebranded its Wooo W53H keitai into the canU S1000 and shipped it to South Korea

Kyocera

Kyocera is an old-timer in the US market and now company also sells in Soth America as well. It got into Sprint's storefronts through the acquisition of another troubled Japanese vendor Sanyo. The prospects are still not clear for Kyocera overseas and domestically the picture is even worse.

Japanese vendors overseas
Kyocera	USA/Canada/Russia/India/Thai/Vietnam/New Zealand
Sharp	Europe/North America/China/Taiwan/Hong Kong
Toshiba	Europe/Asia
NEC-Hitachi-Casio	USA/South Korea
Fujitsu	Taiwan
Source:	M-Report

Lack of smartphones make Japanese users wish more

2010-01-14T20:59:00.000-08:00

Despite the common believe that Japan market is flooded with advanced smartphones from domestic vendors, it is not exactly so. While some well-known research powerhouses put Japanese vendors into the world's top smartphone rankings just because those vendors' phones are based on local flavors of Symbian or Linux, in Japan they are considered just as regular phones, advanced but still phones. In Japan, the smartphone definition goes beyond just simple notion of phone's operating system and includes other conditions such as a PDA-like form factor with bigger display and full text keyboard or touch screen. Surprisingly, just few models in Japan meet these conditions, making Japan's market the one with the lowest smartphone penetration. Recent study by Impress also found that Japanese users are more familiar with Windows Mobile OS and they expect their next smartphone to run on Windows rather than Apple's OS X or Android OS. This is partially explained by the WM's head start in Japan. Though the users' attitude will undoubtedly change with Android smartphones taking a full assault on Japan's shores this year.

Most Popular Smartphones
Apple	iPhone 3G
Apple	iPhone 3Gs
Sharp	Advanced W-ZERO3 (es)
Sharp	Willcom 03
Sharp	W-ZERO3 (es)
HTC	Touch Diamond (S21HT)
Sharp	W-ZERO3
HTC	EMonster (S11HT)
Toshiba	T-01A
HTC	HT-03A
RIM	Blackberry Bold

Report: state of mobile social networking in Japan

2010-01-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Over the course of 2009 I have accumulated some interesting stats about the mobile social networks in Japan that I would like to share with everyone. Please follow the download link to get the powerpoint slides from SlideShare.

Japan Mobile SNS Study 2010

Basically, the report is broken down into two parts: the mobile phone market update (drivers for SNS uptake) and the current state of mobile social networking in Japan. Some main points include but not limited to the following:

Part 1. Japan’s Mobile Phone Market Overview
- Japan mobile phone market is well developed with penetration rate standing at 89%
- Japan is dominantly a postpaid market
- In popularity mobile phones surpass personal computers and fixed line telephones
- 3G penetration stands at 95%, making Japan the leader in 3G
- Data usage is abundant with 84.3% of users having data plans

Part 2. Mobile Social Networking in Japan
- Social networking is on mobile radar but has plenty room for growth
- Most users access social networks from mobile
- Social network user demographics skew toward female users
- Good selection of games is an important attribute of successful social network in Japan
- Big three home-grown networks dominate the marketplace in Japan
- Mixi is a leading social networking site in Japan by a user base
- Late coming and lack of relevant local offering keep global brands at bay in Japan
- In Japan, real user identity is often hidden behind the virtual avatar
- Premium content and ad sales equally contribute to SNS revenue streams
- Battle for developers’ mindshare begins: availability of third-party applications will become a competitive advantage for social networks in Japan

Japan is hooked on Tetris

2009-11-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

sSecond year in the row Tetris named the most popular game on mobile phone in Japan, according to G-mode's study. Well, at least 1,200 survey respondents chose Tetris as the most addictive game they have ever played. The top 10 list includes some other famous titles as well:

Tetris (puzzle)
Puyo Puyo (puzzle)
Solitaire (board game)
Sudoku (puzzle)
Osero (board game)
Tsuri game (fishing)
Zoo keeper (puzzle)
Dragon quest (role playing)
Millionaire (board game)
Hakoniwa (other)

Source: g-mode

Softbank to users: switch to 3G or else

2009-11-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

Nearly one million of Softbank users risk to wake up on April 1st next year and discover their phones gone unresponsive. That will happen if you are still using 2G phone and unwilling to switch to 3G. To give credit to Softbank, the plans of 2G cut off were made in advance last year. Now, 2G users' contracts will be automatically terminated after March 31, which means customers will lose their phone numbers and keitai email addresses.

Source: Keitai Watch

Japan loses its appeal to Nokia as the company cuts R&D budget

2009-11-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

Nokia's exodus from Japan continues with the recently announced plans to downsize its R&D operations affecting 220 people. Nokia had about 300 employees on payroll in Japan before the announcement. Apparently, Japan is not the only country with the R&D cuts. Denmark and Finland offices will also go through the painful process of reduction in the sign of developed markets being unable to compete with the combination of bright minds and cheap labor that the growing economies offer. Still, Nokia has interests in Japan through its Nokia Siemens and Vertu operations.

Source: Nokia

NTT DoCoMo considering Sony Ericsson Android Xperia X10

2009-11-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

Things look bright for Android in Japan. Following the release of Japan's first Android smartphone - the HTC Magic earlier this year, NTT DoCoMo is considering to ship its second Android device. Most likely it will be the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor-equipped Android smartphone with a 4-inch touchscreen recently announced by vendor. During the new handset lineup introduction, the DoCoMo's CEO said the operator is evaluating the possibility of selling the X10 during next year's spring-summer season. Other Japan's major operators including KDDI au and Softbank are also said preparing Android devices for launch next year. At the last press conference Softbank shared some details about its future Android smartphone saying it would feature the Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 3.7-inch OLED touchscreen and support Android's application store Marketplace. While the maker remains unknown, something tells me it might be Samsung.

Fujitsu announces world's first "separate" handset

2009-11-10T00:42:00.000-08:00

Fujitsu is in a spotlight today (disclosure: I'm an employee of Fujitsu) as the company announced the first-of-its-kind mobile handset. It might look as an ordinary slider but in reality the sliding panels can be detached from each other. While someone might argue about the merit of handset's detachable atribute, nevertheless the engineering implementation of the idea is worth praising on its own. Besides the "wow" factor, Fujitsu thought about practical use cases for its detachable phone. When separated, the display (3.8" touchscreen) and the dialing pad communicate with each other via Bluetooth. In this state user can make and receive phone calls by using the dialing pad while having a browser, email or other application open on the display panel. The dialing pad also can be used as a remote control or game controller. Also, the dialing pad turns into QWERTY keyboard and when not needed it can be left behind allowing the user to travel light. Fujitsu plans to have several detachable options. For instance, instead of QWERTY keyboard someone would prefer carrying a projector. The device under the F-04B name should hit the DoCoMo's shelves in 1Q2010. Stay tuned more details to follow.

- Posted on the go