Gartner: 2Q handset shipments at 12.1m in Japan

There was a 10.3% increase in handset shipments in Japan in 2Q07 compared with the last year results, according to market research company Gartner. However, the shipments dropped by 17.5% compared with 1Q07. In terms of actual numbers, 12.1 million of mobile handsets were shipped to Japanese consumers by phone manufacturers. If you spread this number across Japan's dozen or so handset manufacturers you'll get a picture of how small, compared to global market players, their margins might be. Anyway, the 2Q results are remarkable from a historical point of view. “Despite a quarter-on-quarter drop, this was the second-biggest second quarter in Japan's mobile devices history, since the same period in 2003, when camera phones drove replacement sales,” said Nahoko Mitsuyama, principal analyst for mobile communications research at Gartner, based in Tokyo.

Source: Gartner

Parents get notified every time a child passes the train ticket gates

With every day it becomes extremely difficult for kids in Japan to sneak out of school or other "planned activities" without being caught. On the other hand, parents are more relieved, knowing the whereabouts of their children.

But the reality begins to look like in that futuristic Running Man movie, in which the main hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger was wearing an implanted collar that was about to explode every time Arnold tried to leave the boundary of the prison's laser-linked zone.

It might be exaggerated but judge for yourself. Tokyu Security has built an ecosystem that tracks the child's moves across public transportation, school and pre-school domains and reports to parents every time their child passes the installed checkpoints. The notifications are usually emailed to parents’ mobile phones reporting such information as the child’s name, time and station where the child got onboard or got off the train. The checkpoints at school inform the time of arrival.

Tokyu Security makes use of PASMO cards, the rechargeable IC cards, and special reader equipment to implement the system. Scheduled for launch in December, the service will be offered at all Tokyu line stations in greater Tokyo except Setagaya line and Shibuya station. A subscription fee of JPY525 (USD4.66) must be paid every six month to keep the service activated. The service will target elementary and middle school children.

Source: Tokyu Security press release (Japanese)

Teacup connects mobile users with Second Life

Software developer teacup introduced a technology that allows Internet users to chat in real time with Second Life dwellers without being logged in into Second Life world. There are two conditions in order to be able to do that: first, you must point your PC or mobile phone browser to teacup’s run community chat; second, at the moment you can only communicate with those from Second Life who are currently staying at Japan Resort virtual island, the fifth place in Second Life in terms of traffic, according to teacup. Teacup says they created a special avatar in Japan Resort that serves as a medium to establish connection between Second Life and the outside world users.

I went to teacup’s Second Life chat room to see how it works and was pleased with the results. All you need is to enter your nickname before entering the chat room. Inside, it looks rather like a very simple text chat room with multiple users shooting up messages at each other at once. At the time there were around six people chatting, two were from Second Life and the rest accessed from mobile phones.

I can see one huge benefit of this service – to be able to chat with your Second Life buddies on the go or at least away from your home PC, if you dare to do it on your work computer.

Source: Teacup news release (Japanese)

Celebrity hairstyle: use your mobile to see if it fits you

Japanese mobile phone users got a fun application I would also like to have on my cell phone. The application, dubbed as Hair Chen, allows you to select trendy hairstyles from a sample database and apply them to your own picture to see how you’d look with that new hairdo. You’ll find a lot of Japanese celebrities in that database as usually they are the trendsetter for hairstyles. For starters, the sample database will contain around 80 virtual wigs to try on, but eventually it will grow with the time.

The Hair Chen application is not offered as a standalone, but rather serves as a bait to lure users to the same-named portal that aggregates nationwide data about hair salons and related information. The portal relies on a subscription-based model to make a profit, charging JPY315 (USD2.67) a month. While KDD au users had this application at their disposal from 2003 DoCoMo users got access to it only recently. The application developer Rstream partnered with hair salon operator Taya to feed the portal with the relevant data.

Source: Source: Rstream (Japanese)

Mincle bets on GPS + Maps + SNS mix to attract users

Another newcomer to mobile social networking space is betting on a mix of location-based services and social networking features to win end-users’ hearts. A mobile software developer Future Scope has just started mincle (word origin: a phonetic mix-up from English mingle) – its mobile social network site. The high penetration of GPS-enabled phones makes it possible for such service to launch in Japan.

The main idea behind mincle is a mobile social mapping – pinpointing, saving, and sharing user’s favorite locations with others in real time. Pictures with tags and comments can be also added to a given location. Another point of mincle is its openness for browsing to unregistered users.

Source: CNet Japan (Japanese)

Mobile virtual hangout Chipuya Town recruits tenants

Mimicking Tokyo’s shopping and entertainment Shibuya district, a Flash-based mobile virtual world Chipuya Town is getting ready for beta launch in September this year. Right now MediaGroove, a developer of Chipuya Town, is campaigning to sign up advertisers. To lure businesses MediaGroove offers virtual boutiques, space for promotional events, truck advertising, and distribution of virtual flyers. The rent pay starts from one million yen ($8,359) a month and higher for boutique.

Dwellers of Chipuya Town will be able to walk in two-dimensional streets chatting with each other and earning points by clicking on ad banners or through referral fees. Dull pages will be substituted with personal rooms with furniture and clothes bought on earned points. Nevertheless, user profiles, blogging and texting features will also be available. Mobile phone users of all three Japan’s national carriers can join mobile virtual world of Chipuya Town free of charge.

MediaGroove came up with a solid idea but it is facing a chicken and egg dilemma. To become an attractive target for advertisers Chipuya Town’s streets need to be crowded with residents, but growing the community to significant numbers may take some time.

Source: IT Media (Japanese)

Mobile social network myMTV selects Japan for debut

Viacom decided to test mobile social networking waters in Japan with a bang - claiming to be the "first in the world to offer simultaneous video and page-browsing on mobile." I'm not sure how it works in reality but can suggest it splits the screen in two parts.

Among other perks users will be allowed to use artwork by Japanese designers to decorate their personal pages and provided with access to the feature programming from "MTV's library, such as Pimp My Ride, and Japanese productions such as Usavich."

"The service is ad-supported and free to consumers, and is available on all three of Japan's mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile," according to C21Media.

Mobile social network EZ Gree grows to one million users

Launched in November last year mobile social network EZ Gree is growing in user numbers with an accelerating speed. Having hit 500K milestone in March 2007, EZ Gree’s user base passed one million in July.

The mobile version of Gree is offered in a partnership with the second largest carrier in Japan KDDI au who plans to integrate its other mobile data services, including LBS, into the Gree platform. At the moment, besides the ordinary social networking stuff, EZ Gree’s users can send each other html-rich emails (Deco-mail) and play Flash-based mobile games.

Source: KDDI au press release