Japan's Cellphone Edge

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

Japan's biggest social network mixi opens mobile APIs

2009-10-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

It was reported that mixi launched a mobile application platform with 104 games ready for download. The move follows earlier launch of the similar platform for PCs. Moreover, about 40 application titles on the announced mobile platform are designed to run seamlesly across mobile and PC platforms. I believe more apps should be made with that purpose in sight as the future in the platform-agnostic applications.

- Posted on the go

DoCoMo to commercially rollout LTE in December 2010

2009-10-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

DoCoMo is said to reveal its LTE roadmap at ITU Telecom World 2009 convention. According to DoCoMo's officials the company plans to commercially deploy LTE in December 2010. Below are some important bits of information about DoCoMo's LTE plans:

Initially, LTE will overlap with company's 3G coverage to ensure service persistence
Dual-mode 3G/LTE devices will be offered with voice carried out by 3G networks
Once LTE coverage is sufficient the phone calls will become IP-based
LTE will be first deployed in the 2.1GHz band, followed by spread into the 1.5GHz around 2012 and then adding 800MHz and 1.7GHz to the offering
DoCoMo plans to install 20K LTE base stations by 2014 which should cover 50% of population
First, LTE data cards will go on sale, with LTE mobile phones following in 2011 or later

Source: IT Media Pro Mobile

Stats: 140 million contactless cards in circulation in Japan

2009-10-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

In a confirmation of Japan leading in smart card penetration, it was reported that 140 million contactless electronic payment cards are currently used in Japan. Edy brand accounts for 51.4 million cards, followed by 29.6 million of Suica, 10.9 million of Waon and 8.9 million of Nanaco. In Tokyo, about 80% of people own some kind of contactless payment card. Overall, it is being predicted that one trillion yen in transactions using e-money will be spent in fiscal 2009. By now, most of cell phones in Japan have a built-in e-money card by default.

Source: via Metropolis.co.jp

Study: iPhone apps usage in Japan

2009-10-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

It was reported that Japanese iPhone users mostly use their beloved gadgets for four purposes, with web browsing being the most popular. Web surfing is then followed by Email, iPod and phone calling use cases. Surprisingly, iPhone apps, including games came fifth in this survey of about 300 iPhone users conducted by IMJ Mobile. Nevertheless, 91% of respondents claim to have downloaded an app from iTunes. It's quite obvious that the most popular app category turns out to be games, considering Japanese people's passion for games.

Source: IMJ Mobile

Japan mobile phone market contracts by 19% in 2Q09

2009-10-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

Japanese handset vendors sold 2.3 million less mobile phones in 2Q2009 than in the same quarter last year. With 9.5 million unit sales this quarter became the seventh consecutive quarter with negative growth in Japan. On a brighter side, at least for Sharp, this is the 13th consecutive quarter for the vendor to retain top share. The hard times will likely continue in 2H09 for mobile vendors in Japan, the IDC press release states.

Source: IDC Japan

McKinsey report: Japanese vendors lag behind foreign counterparts in China

2009-09-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

McKinsey's study finds that Japanese companies are lagging behind European and American counterparts in conquring China markets due to their archaic management style and inability to hire and retain best talent. Examples include failure to reward and promote local staff and using Japanese as their official language in China office. As the result, Japanese products are not enough localized to meet Chinese consumers' tastes. As for the Japanese handset vendors, only Sharp was identified as one out of 24 leading foreign players across 12 consumer-oriented markets in China. Overall, Japanese mobile phones take about 3% of market share in China. Besides Sharp, Toyota, Suntory and Shiseido were mentioned in the report. In the white goods market, Japanese companies have just a 6 per cent market share, the report states. I totally agree with McKinsey as it seems the word globalization was lost in translation in Japan.

Source: FT

DoCoMo is in eco-friendly move with wooden phones

2009-09-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

Heading for the ITU Telecom World 2009 event DoCoMo is bringing some phone prototypes dressed up in wooden jackets. Before hearing the steamy "Save trees!" protests, here is a revelation for you from DoCoMo: "The prototypes are made with the surplus wood of trees culled during thinning operations to maintain healthy forests." One of the prototypes is the original Sharp SH04-A in a wooden dress. To make prototypes look nice inside too, DoCoMo put in place a nice graphical UI based on the photographic art of Mikiya Takimoto, a well-known green forest evangelist.

Source: NTT DoCoMo

Nokia expands its Vertu luxury brand lineup in Japan

2009-09-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

It was reported that Nokia is expanding its luxury lineup of Vertu phones offered in Japan via Vertu-operated MVNO by adding a Ferrari-themed Ascent TI model. The Ferrari phone is a limited edition model with just 2009 units to be sold worldwide. It is not clear how many models Nokia is planning to sell in Japan. The asking price is 1,200,000 Japanese yen or about 1,200 US dollars. It will go on sale from October 1st in Vertu's flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo. Nokia retreated from Japan's mobile phone market last year, keeping just R&D and Vertu operations. I expect it to be back in some time, say... when LTE deployment is in full swing in Japan?

Source: IT Mobile Media

iPhone 3GS tops the charts in Japan

2009-09-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

The recent mobile phone sale figures from GfK show the rise of the iPhone 3GS 32Gb model to the top of the charts. Softbank's marketing campaign under the "iPhone for Everyone" slogan is clearly bearing the fruit. Just two weeks ago iPhone was ranked tenth...

TOP 10 (Sep. 7-13)
1(3) iPhone 3GS 32Gb	Softbank
2(2) Sharp SH-06A	NTT DoCoMo
3(1) Sharp SH001	KDDI au
4(6) Sharp SH-02A	NTT DoCoMo
5(4) SE W64S	KDDI au
6(12) iPhone 3GS 16Gb	Softbank
7(5) Panasonic 830P	Softbank
8(8) Sharp URBANO	KDDI au
9(7) Sharp SH-05A	NTT DoCoMo
10(10) iPhone 3G 8GB	Softbank

Previous Japan's top 10 mobile phone rankings:

Top 10: Aug. 31-Sep. 6

Source: IT Media Mobile

Fans rejoice as Armani phone lands in Japan

2009-09-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

The release of Samsung's 830SC by Softbank is going to be good news for Armani fans in Japan. It's a well-known fact that Japan is heaven for luxury brands and, no doubt this phone will find love with some followers. The question is how big is this niche market? It's also interesting to see how Samsung is trying to penetrate Japanese market. Apparently, one of Samsung's strategic moves is to lure Japanese consumers by putting large magic Emporio Armani letters on mid-range phone.

Phone Specs
Model:	Samsung Emporio Armani 830SC
Carrier:	Softbank
Display:	2.2inch QVGA AM-OLED
Packet data:	HSDPA 3.6Mbps
Bluetooth:	Yes
Browser:	Full HTML
Camera:	3MP
Bands:	WCDMA/GPS 900/1800/1900
Dimensions:	47.4 x 114.9 x 12mm
Weight:	91g
Memory card slot:	microSDHC (up to 8gb)
Colors:	black, white

Source: Softbank

Sharp NetWalker walks into stores

2009-09-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

It was reported that Sharp's miniature version of netbook or, as some call it a smartbook, went on sale in selected shops in Japan. The price tag is 44,800 Japanese yen or roughly just a little bit shy of $450 US dollars. Users are required to buy a USB modem to connect it to the Internet while on the go. eMobile is happy to subsidize the device by 40,000 yen if you agree to sign up for a 2-year data contract. It's nice, but no thank you. Why should I pay for the third Internet connection? I have broadband at home and I pay for data plan on my smartphone. Now they are pitching this beauty to get more money from me. Obviously, somebody doesn't get the pains of their customers. I'd consider paying some premium additionally to my smartphone data plan if they allowed me to tether it to my laptop. That will make me a happy camper.

Sharp NetWalker Spec
Model:	Sharp NetWalker PC-Z1
Carrier:	eMobile
CPU:	Freescale i.MX515
Memory:	515MB
Display:	5inch WSVGA Touch TFT LCD
Display res:	1,024X600, 65K colors
Input:	68-key board, touch panel
Internal memory:	4GB (2GB user allocated)
WLAN:	802.11b/g
memory card slot:	microSD/SDHC
USB:	USB2.0
Battery life:	10hours
Dimensions:	161.4 x 108.7 x 24.8
Weight:	409g
OS / Platform:	Linux Ubuntu 9.04 (ARM ver., Sharp modified)
Browser:	Mozilla Firefox
Email:	Mozilla Thunderbird
Organizer:	Mozilla Sunbird
Office docs:	OpenOffice.org 3.0
Graphics:	OpenOffice.org 3.0 Drawing
Media player:	Totem
Text editor:	gedit
Viewer:	Document Viewer
Price tag:	JPY44,800

Source: Sharp

Brand alphabet soup: au to release iida ply

2009-09-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

A new design effort is coming this week from KDDI au in the form of PLY, another lifestyle product under the iida brand. The PLY will hit the shelves in au stores on the 17th of September. The designer phone takes on the multi-layer concept, with each layer having a different color. Here is what au had to describe it:

PLY means “lamination layers”—layers of time, culture, technology and design. Everything that encompasses us continually accretes layer upon layer until it finally produces something of new value. To the accumulated layers of design and generational layers of mobile phones, what will be added next? What kind of future will be built upon that accumulation of mobile phone design? The question itself will form the answer, thus producing a shape of the future. This is the entry point of PLY, the new mobile product from iida.

Phone Specs
Model:	PLY
Carrier:	KDDI au
Dimensions:	53 x 102 x 14.5mm
Weight:	127g
Form factor:	Slider
Camera:	3MP
Screen:	3 inch 26oK TFT LCD

Source: au

With 15 million users and 600 million PVs per day Mobage Town is sailing North

2009-09-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

Kudos to the folks at Dena who run a successful social network Mobage Town. They've just reached a significant milestone by signing up fifteen million users. They started in 2006 by offering a standard set of social features for mobile phone users and later added a special focus on social gaming experience, which eventually proved to work...According to Dena, fifteen million users generate about 600 million page views in one day, with Mobage Town core users (40%) being in their twenties.

Mobage Town Milestones
05/2007	5 million users
04/2008	10 million users
07/2009	15 million users

Source: Dena

Bar code scanner Windows smartphone from Fujitsu

2009-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

This niche but powerfull smartphone manufactured by Fujitsu for DoCoMo impressed me after looking under its hood. Oh boy, it's got some power. Of course, it is compatible with any kind of bar code standard you can imagine. Too bad it is limited to some vertical industry use scenarios like transportation or logistics. It should be available in 1Q2010.

Phone Specs
Platform / OS:	Windows Mobile 6.5 Pro
WCDMA:	FOMA 7.2Mbps
WLAN:	802.11 b/g
Bluetooth:	Yes
GPS:	Yes
Water resistant:	IPX5/IPX7
Shock resistant:	IP5X
Touch screen:	2.8inch WQVGA TFT 65K
Memorty:	MicroSD(2GB)/SDHC(8GB)
Camera:	2.0MP
Weight:	180g
Dimensions:	154mm X 51mm X 20mm

Source: NTT DoCoMo

NEC, Casio and Hitachi in joint mobile phone development

2009-09-13T06:39:00.001-07:00

Consolidation of Japan's mobile phone sector continues as three domestic handset manufacturers NEC, Casio and Hitachi have decided to jointly produce mobile phones. According to Nikkei, the newly created venture will start its operations from the beginning of next financial year in April 2010. NEC would take over the leadership with the 70.4% stake in the venture, which will be named NEC Casio Mobile Communications. In 2004 Casio and Hitachi have already merged their production units together to sustain in a highly competitive market. Other examples of market consolidation include the Kyocera and Sanyo marriage and exit of Mitsubishi in prior years. I expect the squeeze to continue and more consolidation to happen in the coming years.

Stakeholders of new venture
NEC	70.4%
Casio	20%
Hitachi	9.6%

Source: Nikkei

Top 10: Best selling mobile phone in Japan

2009-09-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

The first week of September witnessed a big jump of iPhone 3GS from the 10th to third ranking in top 10 selling mobile phone rankings in Japan. The big jump is attributed to solving the earlier inventory problems for iPhone 3GS. Nevertheless, the undisputed leader Sharp saw two of its models swapping the top and second positions, securing its hold on Japanese market.

TOP 10
1(2) Sharp SH001	KDDI au
2(1) Sharp SH-06A	NTT DoCoMo
3(10) iPhone 3GS	Softbank
4(6) SE W64S	KDDI au
5(5) Panasonic 810P	Softbank
6(13) Sharp SH-02A	NTT DoCoMo
7(3) Sharp SH-05A	NTT DoCoMo
8(18) Sharp URBANO	KDDI au
9(7) NEC N-08A	NTT DoCoMo
10(4) iPhone 3G 8GB	Softbank

Source: IT Media Mobile