Japan's biggest social network mixi opens mobile APIs

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.


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DoCoMo to commercially rollout LTE in December 2010

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

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

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

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