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July
2008
Mars To Establish Software Development Firm
For iPhone
Tokyo-based systems developer Mars Ltd. will set up a subsidiary on Friday
to develop software for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a mobile handset that is
scheduled to become available in Japan the same day for subscribers to the
cellular phone service of Softbank Mobile Corp. The new firm, to be
capitalized at 5 million yen, will aim to create software that offers new
functions for the iPhone that are not available on other types of
handsets. Mars President Kensuke Yao will double as the president of the
subsidiary, and Masayuki Akamatsu, a media professor at the International
Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu Prefecture, will serve as an
adviser. The number of employees has yet to be decided, but the new
company will likely hire about 10 people, mainly engineers, according to
Mars. The subsidiary will seek to develop software that takes advantage of
a unique iPhone feature that allows people to use services that
incorporate multiple functions, such as a social networking service and
the Global Positioning System. Software will be designed to support
multiple languages, and will be marketed through Apple's App Store Web
site to people around the world. Founded in 1996, Mars generated sales of
426 million yen in the year through October 2007. (The Nikkei Business
Daily; Wednesday, July 9, 2008)
Softbank
Mobile To End 2G Cell Phone Service In March '10
Softbank Mobile Corp.
said Thursday that it will terminate second-generation cellular phone
service on March 31, 2010, because it will no longer have access to the
1.5GHz band. The Softbank Corp. unit, which had roughly 4.15 million
second-generation contracts as of the end of May, will urge these
customers to switch to the faster third-generation service. Rival NTT
DoCoMo Inc. stopped providing second-generation service on the 1.5GHz band
at the end of last month. The government will be allocating the 1.5GHz
band to providers of the fourth-generation service in April 2010 or later.
(The Nikkei; Friday, July 3, 2008)
June
2008
NTT, Sony, Others To Standardize Internet TV
Technologies
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Sony Corp. and others said Tuesday
that they will unify the technical standards for Internet Protocol
television (IPTV) services. The standardization process will be led by a
forum established by three major telecommunications services firms: NTT,
KDDI Corp. and Softbank BB Corp., a Softbank Corp. subsidiary. The forum
has since been joined by a total of 15 businesses and organizations, as
well as two individuals. Its members now include Sony, Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co., Toshiba Corp., Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., as well as
the five major commercial TV broadcasters in Tokyo and Japan Broadcasting
Corp., the public broadcaster that is better known as NHK. The forum is to
draw up unified standards by the end of August and urge Japanese IPTV
service providers and consumer electronics makers to develop compatible
technologies and equipment. Sony, Matsushita and others aim to start
selling flat-panel TVs with built-in IPTV receivers by the end of March.
The number of subscribers to broadband communications services in Japan
reached 28.73 million as of March 31, enabling the spread of IPTV
services. The forum is expected to pitch its IPTV standards to the
International Telecommunication Union and other global bodies for use
worldwide. The Ministry of Communications plans to help the forum pitch
the standards to the ITU because Japanese consumer electronics makers
stand to benefit if the benchmarks are adopted worldwide. (The Nikkei;
Wednesday, June 25, 2008)
NTT DoCoMo To Join Nokia For Creation Of
Symbian Foundation
Finland's Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker, announced
plans Tuesday to acquire all shares in affiliate Symbian Ltd. and set up a
foundation for promoting and freely providing the Symbian operating system
for mobile devices. The Symbian Foundation will be established in the
first half of 2009, bringing together 10 leading corporations including
wireless carriers NTT DoCoMo Inc., Vodafone Group Plc and AT&T Corp.,
as well as handset makers Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Samsung
Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc. Foundation members will work to develop
an integrated open platform based on the Symbian operating system. The
first commercial products running this newly integrated platform will
debut in 2010 and software will be open and freely available starting in
2011. Handset makers now pay a license fee of 1,000-2,000 yen per handset
to use the Symbian system. Nokia will instead offer it for free. By coming
together in the Symbian Foundation to collaborate and share the software,
the member companies can reduce their development costs. The foundation
will also pit itself against Android, the free and open software for
mobile devices from Google Inc. (The Nikkei; Wednesday, June 25, 2008)
Apple Leaves Open Option To
Let DoCoMo Sell iPhone
In debuting a new, more affordable model of its iPhone in Japan, Apple
Inc. may allow a second mobile carrier in addition to Softbank Mobile
Corp. market the smart phone. Apple announced Monday that the new iPhone
3G will hit the market July 11 in 22 countries, including Japan, the U.S.
and many European nations. In Japan, the upgraded phone will be sold by
the Softbank Corp. unit for an estimated 20,000 yen. However, Apple's
sales agreement with Softbank Mobile is not an exclusive one, according to
Philip W. Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.
This suggests the possibility that NTT DoCoMo Inc., which also negotiated
with Apple for the sales rights for the smart phone only to be beaten by
Softbank Mobile, may end up with marketing privileges. Apple is taking a
new marketing strategy for the new phone, which will support high-speed
data communication, with plans to sell the gadget for half the price of
the original model to appeal to a broader range of consumers. With the
current model, Apple collects a portion of service revenues from mobile
carriers in exchange for granting them exclusive sales rights. But it will
drop this arrangement with the new phone because carriers complained that
giving preferential treatment to Apple could strain their relationships
with other handset makers, impeding new product development. So the new
iPhone will be marketed according to the business's traditional model,
where cellular firms will subsidize the phone for customers that sign up
for a specified period of time. (The Nikkei; Wednesday, June 11, 2008)
Softbank Signs Accord With Apple To Sell iPhone In Japan
Softbank Corp.'s mobile telecommunications unit said Wednesday it and
Apple Inc. (AAPL) have agreed on a deal to sell the iPhone handset in
Japan later this year. A spokesman for Softbank Mobile Corp. said the
company can't give any more details on the contract for the moment. (Dow
Jones; June 4, 2008)
DoCoMo To Take Stake In Group
Firm To Bolster Internet Service
NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to invest around 10 billion yen in NTT Resonant Inc.
as part of a broader effort to increase fixed-line Internet services that
can be tapped by its cell phone service subscribers, The Nikkei learned
Sunday. DoCoMo plans to offer such services as allowing cell phone users
to see high-resolution video or to download games from personal computers.
The firm views merging fixed-line Internet offerings with cell phone
services as a key to its business expansion. DoCoMo will take a 30%-plus
stake in NTT Resonant by purchasing the bulk of shares to be issued as
early as this month via a private placement. This will be the first time
for DoCoMo, which has maintained management independence within the group,
to invest in an NTT fixed-line service provider. Resonant, which is
presently wholly owned by NTT Communications Corp., operates the group's
goo Web portal site. It also offers social networking services and
distributes digital content, such as video and music. NTT has already
begun offering its next-generation network (NGN) service, a speedy and
highly secure fiber-optic communications service. By using NGN and
DoCoMo's FOMA network, users will be able to watch high-quality content
from the goo site on their cell phones. The group also aims to provide
social networking services that boast safeguards against identity theft
and other types of fraud to both PCs and cell phones. This will allow
users to enjoy movies, games and various other content from goo by
connecting to DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service. (The Nikkei;
Monday, June 2, 2008)
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