Author: Serkan Toto

Just last week, we asked the question if the world needs yet another mobile operating system (Samsung’s Bada). Now it turns out Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, apparently thinks the answer is yes. The telecom behemoth (55 million customers in Japan) today announced [press release in English] the development of a brand new “application platform for mobile phones”, which is planned to go global, too.

DoCoMo is teaming up with four leading mobile phone makers, namely Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and NEC (who are joined by chip maker Renesas). The new platform is optimized for audio and video applications and will be compatible with both Symbian and Linux.

In Japan, the first handsets with the OS on board are expected to ship sometime between October 2011 and March 2012. DoCoMo will be the first company in Japan to introduce LTE services in December this year.

DoCoMo says the new OS will be incorporated into all of their next-generation handsets. One of the main goals of the project is to cut development time and costs for cell phone makers by about 50%.

The six partners also plan to market the software overseas (good luck with that). The reason is simple: while Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and NEC together command 67% of the Japanese mobile market, their combined international market share stands at a mere 2%.

A lot has been written on how the iPhone performs in Japan, the world’s most advanced mobile nation, but the general consensus in this country now is that it sells very well (even though both Apple and provider SoftBank Mobile refuse to break down Japan-specific sales numbers). It’s rumored that the number of iPhones sold in Japan has passed 3 million.

There are reasons for this success (super-low pricing, aggressive marketing, Apple’s pre-iPhone brand popularity in Japan, clever product positioning by SoftBank, etc. etc.), but we’re talking about a country in which basically every cell phone is a smartphone, a country where you’d be hard-pressed to find a handset without a digital TV tuner or e-wallet function, for example.

And that means that the 4.9% share the iPhone now commands in the entire Japanese cell phone market, as reported [JP] by a Japanese research insitute today, is more than impressive (Sharp, with 26.2% market share, is the number one).

The MM Research Institute also says that among those phones that have a non-Japanese OS (i.e. Android, Palm OS or Blackberry), the iPhone even boasts 72.2% market share (see graphic above). In this (relatively small) segment, HTC is ranked second (11.1%), Toshiba is third (6.8%) and Blackberry / Sony Ericsson are both ranked fourth (4.3%).

We reported about another smartphone market study from a Japanese source back in December. All statistical and other issues aside, both reports indicate that the iPhone seems to do much better than many people believed when it launched in the world’s No. 7 mobile market in 2008.

Via Asiajin

It’s not that there’s a shortage of mobile projectors, but when DoCoMo (Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier) announces [JP] a model for its 55 million customers, it deserves a mention. DoCoMo specifically suggests using the F01 with Fujitsu’s uber-cool “Separate Keitai”, a cell phone that breaks into two parts (and that’s currently available on the Japanese market only).

Whereas Sharp decided to cautiously embrace Android, Toshiba still seems to be firmly in the Windows camp. After releasing the “iPhone killer TG01” on WinMo 6.5 last year, the company announced another Windows Mobile-based cell phone in Japan today (Toshiba is one of Microsoft’s official “Mobile Partners”, after all).

Toshiba’s K01 will be marketed as the ISO02 in Japan [JP] and is a Windows 6.5.3 phone, to be more exact.

These are the main features:

• Snapdragon processor (1GHz)
• 4.1-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (480×800 resolution)
• 3G CDMA module
• slider QWERTY keyboard
• RAM 384MB
• ROM 512MB
• 3.2MP CMOS camera
• IEEE802.11b/g Wifi
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• weight: 158g
• size: 66×123×12.9mm (Toshiba says it’s the slimmest QWERTY slider out there)

The K01 was showcased earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress, cleared the FCC yesterday and is announced in Japan for June. We’ve listed up early features as early as one year ago.

There’s just one Android phone currently available in Japan, one of the biggest mobile markets in the world. But the HTC Magic, which Japan’s biggest telco, NTT Docomo, started distributing last summer, will soon be joined by the Sharp IS01 [JP] – which is not really a “smartphone”, but rather being marketed as an MID or “smartbook” instead.

Nokia pulled out of Japan, one of the world’s biggest mobile markets, as early as November 2008. But because this country is quite wealthy, the Finnish company decided to conquer Japan with their luxury brand Vertu [JP], starting operations in September 2009. Initially the plan was to market handsets priced between $16,000 and $50,000.

But today Vertu Japan announced a “golden” handset with a price tag of 20 million yen (it’s made-in-Japan gold lacquerwork, to be more exact). That’s $215,000, with the price including free domestic calls. Buyers will be able to choose between four equally priced models: Kinko (pictured above), Kikusui, Nanten and Daigo (pictured below). The different designs stand for the different seasons of the year.

Japanese video gaming powerhouse Square Enix has released a handful of hit titles for the iPhone already (including Final Fantasy I and II), but the next one, an RPG named Chaos Rings, is poised to blow them all out of the water. Officially announced [JP] today, the game’s trailer shows absolutely amazing graphics.

Augmented Reality is a pretty hot topic currently, but it seems to me that the Japanese in particular have really embraced the concept of mixing the real world with computer-generated imagery and data. One case in point is the Crimsonfox project [JP], an “Alternative Reality” scavenger hunt game event that took place over the weekend in Tokyo, Japan.

I can’t think of too many use cases for this, but they did it: A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo (Japan’s MIT if you will) has developed a technology that makes it possible to “physically” convey emotions from cell phone to cell phone. The key elements of the technology are a sensor and a Peltier device that’s attached to the back of the phones.

Read the rest on CrunchGear.

Tokyo-based jig.jp has been developing mobile browsers since 2003, claiming its “jig browser (which was downloaded over 4 million times so far) is the world’s first Java-based browser that made it possible to view PC sites on cell phones. And now the company has released an ambitious Android app called SPIDERSS, which combines a browser with an RSS reader and an aggregator for social network updates.

Available in English and Japanese, the free app’s main selling point is that all elements are accessible from a single screen: You can either choose to directly type in a URL or search term in the top bar (to then open a full browser window), check your Facebook newsfeed and Twitter timeline in the “Application Deck” under that or scroll through your RSS feeds in the bottom part. All feeds and web pages can be easily shared by SMS, Email, Twitter or Facebook with the push of a button.

Read the rest on TechCrunch.

Late last year, Ustream and qik launched iPhone applications that let you stream videos from the iPhone to the web and allow others to watch them as they’re being recorded. And now there is an iPhone app called TwitCasting Live (iTunes link), which offers the same basic functionality, but is – as the name suggests – much more deeply integrated into Twitter.

The free app is essentially a live streaming app and Twitter client rolled into one. TwitCasting Live splits the iPhone screen in half, allowing you to view your Twitter timeline, update your status, access the web etc. on the bottom half, while recording (broadcasting) video on the top.

When the recording begins, you can automatically tweet out a specific URL for the broadcast (“I’m live on Twitcasting!”) to your followers who just need to hit the link to watch the live stream on the web or even on their iPhones (iPhone users won’t hear sound though). The app comes in especially handy during events, for example. After the broadcast, you can choose to save and archive the recording on the TwitCasting website.

TwitCasting Live works with both the iPhone 3G and 3GS, under Wi-Fi or 3G. Results were OK during tests with my 3G under a Japanese 3G network (I live in Japan), but naturally performance is best when using the app with Wi-Fi and a 3GS.

Tokyo-based Twitcasting provider sidefeed claims video latency is as low as 0.3-2.0 seconds in most countries, adding 750 concurrent viewers are the maximum the app can handle at the moment (although this number will be boosted to “a couple of thousands of viewers” next week).

Launched in Japan first, the English version made its formal debut during a demo event from TechCrunch Japan last week. Sidefeed says they have accommodated over 50,000 live broadcasts (80% over 3G) in the first four weeks and that they’re currently thinking about an Android port.

More and more apps are stricken from the App Store as of late, for a variety of reasons. Today, the Apple hammer hit Tokyo-based Tonchidot whose augmented reality app Sekai Camera was removed without warning.

The free app, which made its – memorable – debut during TechCrunch 50 in 2008, intends to help users “tag the world” by imposing information (text, pictures, video and audio) over images in the iPhone camera.

As reported (and following Final Fantasy I and II, which are now available), the App Store will get another hit Japanese video game this month, Streetfighter IV. It will be the first mobile version of the Arcade game that so far was only ported to PS3, XBO360 and the PC. And today maker Capcom released the official trailer and a slew of new screenshots.

I myself am in the “This will never work”-camp, but Japanese video game giant Capcom is preparing a special version of their hit title “Streetfighter IV” for the iPhone/iPod touch. The announcement was made last week, making the iPhone version the first on a mobile device (the arcade game has been ported to the PS3 and XBox 360 only so far).

And today, Gamepro was able to lay their hands on Streetfighter IV (see their video below), revealing the final version will feature a total of eight characters: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, M. Bison and Abel (the console games have 17 playable characters).

Capcom also said Streetfighter is scheduled to hit the App Store next month with a price tag of $9.99. Graphics-wise, the version Gamepro was able to test looks pretty impressive, but I have massive doubts regarding control and playability – even though Capcom is behind this. There’s a reason why the iPhone doesn’t have many fighting games.

Here’s the video:

Via Gamepro

Wikipedia has a pretty useful list of countries by number of mobile phones in use, which shows that Japan (with around 100 million users) is the No. 7 in the world. The market is largely controlled by mobile carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank Mobile but seemed big enough to offer enough room for a number of smaller competitors, too.

Yesterday, however, a company called Willcom (one of said smaller players) announced it had to file for bankruptcy. The reason: With just $54 million in capital, Willcom managed to amass a whopping $2.2 billion in liabilities. It’s the biggest bankruptcy ever in Japan’s hyper-competitive mobile industry.

Willcom, best known in Japan as a PHS provider, has continuously lost subscribers to the country’s big three carriers in recent months, which means the bankruptcy didn’t come as a big surprise. The company won a license to provide high-speed wireless web connections in 2007 but didn’t have the money to properly develop the service.

It currently has 4.3 million customers in Japan, while market leader Docomo has 56 million (KDDI au: 31 million, SoftBank: 22 million).

Willcom is 60% owned by American private equity firm Carlyle Group (which paid $330 million back in 2004 for the stake), while Kyocera holds 30% and KDDI holds another 10% of shares. Willcom is now said to be seeking support from the Japanese government, SoftBank and a local private equity firm called Advantage Partners.

If you’ve ever got upset about not being able to view what your cell phone screen displays while you are outside your house, NEC’s new color-compensation chip is probably good news for you. The chip, which is specifically made for LCDs for mobile phones, helps to make them easier to view in bright outdoor settings.

In case you haven’t heard already, Final Fantasy I and II are heading for the iPhone. Originally released in Japan in 1987 and 1988, respectively, for the NES, it took a while for the now legendary RPGs to go America, but they did (on various platforms). And now Square Enix is planning special versions for the iPhone/iPod touch, both in Japanese and English.

Do you remember the Bowlingual, the portable dog language translator that was released in Japan last year? The basic concept behind the $250 device (which people living outside Japan can get here) will soon be used for an iPhone app that translates what a dog “says” into human language and emoticons in real-time.

For years, Japan was the innovation leader in the cell phone industry, until South Korea and the US started catching up rapidly. If you look back at what Nippon’s mighty carriers have released in the past few months, you mainly see super-powerful handsets with large OLED screens, 12MP cameras, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, double digital TV tuners, etc.

But the form factor never really changes, as the majority of Japanese consumers still demands clamshell phones with jog dials enabling them to conveniently thumb-text emails. But if a country churns out 100 different handsets per year, there have to be some exceptions. And the most notable exception (that now has been priced and dated) is Fujitsu’s F-04B featuring the world’s first separable two-module body.

In other words, the so-called Separate Keitai (Keitai means handset in Japanese) breaks into 2 parts that can be used separately (a keyboard section and a display slate). One part is a 3.4-inch touchscreen with a 12.2MP camera (there’s also an inner camera), acceleration sensor, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, e-wallet function etc. The other part is a full numeric/QWERTY keyboard with a geomagnetic and an acceleration sensor.

The parts are joined by a magnet and connected via Bluetooth. Fujitsu says the main idea is to enable users to send or receive mails while talking on the phone. During video calls, users can keep the keyboard section to their ear while holding the display slate at a distance. When horizontally attached, the touchscreen will switch to character entry mode or display a “virtual” game pad so that users can write emails or play games (the keyboard can be used as a game controller, too).

In areas with weak signals, for example in a house, users can put the display section near to a window and go inside to talk via the keyboard part (up to 10m away). Fujitsu claims the Separate Keitai offers superior battery life, too, as users can expect 2,000 hours of standby and 500 minutes of continuous talk, basically tripling the battery life of conventional Japanese cell phones.

I first saw the Separate Keitai back in October 2008 when it made its debut as a prototype at the CEATEC exhibition near Tokyo, and thought it’s a great concept. Fujitsu already plans to offer Bluetooth accessories for the device, for example a mini projector that could be remote-controlled with the keyboard section.

As part of NTT Docomo’s winter lineup, the phone will hit Japanese stores in either March or April for $660.

Here are some videos showing the Separate Keitai in action:

Sharp, the biggest (in terms of market share) of all eight major Japanese cell phone makers, has been talking about internationalizing its phone business for quite some time now. It makes sense, as the domestic market is shrinking and as Sharp only sold 20% of all their cell phones outside Japan (1.6 million units) last fiscal.

The company is specifically planning [press release in English] to export one of their cell phones powered by solar energy to China. The so-called SOLAR HYBRID SH6230C features a solar cell module, a 2.9-inch LCD screen and a 5MP auto-focus camera.

It’s the first solar-powered cell phone Sharp markets outside Japan. And while Chinese customers can lay their hands on the handset (available in blue or white, price: $500) as early as this February, Sharp says their solar phones may find their way into other global markets as well some day.

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