Handset shipments upset Japan

According to Gartner, Japan was the only region where handset sales stopped in their growth and started falling in Q2 2005. Handset vendors shipped 10 million cell phones in Japan in Q2 2005, but compared with Q2 2004 results, it was down 600,000 handsets.

The main source of growth for the matured market of cellphones in Japan is replacement sales, but while the demand for phones with MP3 player and Internet browsing capability was strong, it was not enough to boost sales beyond the last year’s results.

Chaku-uta Full for Vodafone

Label Mobile rolled out two websites adapted for Vodafone Live! mobile portal in Japan. Each site will offer full-length songs for download onto cell phones of Vodafone’s customers.

First site is focused on Japanese music and contains 3,500 records. Meanwhile, the other one targets the fans of western music and offers 1,200 songs for download. The sites will utilize a pay-as-you-go billing model, charging ¥210~¥420 ($1.90~$3.80) per song.

Source: K-tai Watch

CIAJ proposes to power off cellphones in certain areas

Japan’s CIAJ (Communications and Information Network Association of Japan) industry body wants to form a working group that will come up with a solution to automatically switch off cellphones when cell phone users enter certain public areas. Why does the industry body take a restrictive approach instead of teaching users the manners of cellphone usage?

The reason of such totalitarian action has the explanation in the recent report, claiming that cell phones can disrupt the work of some medical equipment. To prevent it from happening, the CIAJ offered to develop a technical solution that will restrict the usage of cell phones in such sensitive public areas as hospitals or transportation systems.

So far, the CIAJ’s initiative failed to get a visible support from major telecoms players, but the body is expected to continue its efforts of forming a working group.

Source: IT Media

Japan: New Handset Announcements in August

Vodafone introduced two handsets from Sharp in August: the V903SH, a WCDMA-compatible 3G phone, and the V302SH, running on 2G PDC network. DoCoMo, in its turn, released the F881iES, a.k.a. the FOMA Raku-Raku Phone 2 from Fujitsu.

The V903SH sells for ¥17,000~¥20,000 ($153~$180) with a new contract activation, while the entry-level V302SH’s price is set at ¥5,000 ($45) with a new contract.

DoCoMo’s FOMA Raku-Raku Phone 2 is the sixth in its series and spots ‘Easy Voice’ feature, which can make the hearing of the conversation partner easier by slowing down his speech. It sells for ¥22,000 ($198).
Source: ASCII24

June 2005: 3G handset shipments account for 70% in Japan

JEITA published the number of cellular phone shipments in Japan in June 2005. Overall, the sales of handsets in June 2005 totaled 4,170,000, which is 4.1% more than in June last year.

The growth in handset shipments was boosted by summer sales campaigns initiated by major carriers. Replacement upgrades were the main sales driver in a nearly saturated Japanese market.

PHS sales overcome last year results in straight five months -- 113,000 of PHS phones were sold in June 2005, which is 176.9% more than last year.

More importantly, Japan’s carriers continued to switch their subscribers from 2G to 3G handsets in big numbers. More than 3 million of 3G handsets were sold in June, pushing the share of 3G handset shipments to 70%.
Source: JEITA

Vodafone to start Chaku-uta Full service in Japan

Starting today, Vodafone will follow KDDI au in its offering of full-track music download service, known as Chaku-uta Full.

Initially, the service will be available to the owners of two 3G handsets: 703SH and 903SH from Sharp. Vodafone partnered with 18 music portals to offer its users songs for download, which are going to cost in the range of ¥105-¥315 ($0.95-$2.87) per song.

The Chaku-uta Full service gained some market traction in Japan since its debut in November last year, recording 10m downloads in June 2005.
Source: IT-Media

Contender’s move

E-Access, an Internet Service Provider, raised ¥30bn ($274m) for its cellular subsidiary E-Mobile, by allocating shares among third party.

The financial boost illustrates E-Access’ serious preparations for Japan’s cellular market entrance, which is scheduled in 2006.

Source: IT Media

KDDI to introduce mobile e-flyer

KDDI announced a new mobile marketing service, targeting small businesses. Dubbed as Mobile Electronic Flyer Service, the new initiative offers small business owners to target their registered customers with electronic flyers sent onto their mobile phones.

It should be mentioned that flyers are popular way of marketing in Japan. You can see marketing people distributing flyers, often written by hand, on every corner of any crowded street in big Japanese cities.

The major difference from e-mail is that the e-flyer can be handwritten, including custom drawings and maps. KDDI bets that the novelty effect will gather customers’ attention to this new service.

Small business owners need to send a Fax to KDDI that will notify users by e-mail about the new flyer available for download. The users may click on the enclosed in the e-mail link to see the actual flyer stored on KDDI’s server (they need to set up a special free-of-charge software on their handsets to use the service first).

The service trial will be conducted from mid August to the end of November 2005.
Source: KDDI