Gerhard Fasol.

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  • e-Access and Lucent announce HSDPA tests in Japan

    e-Access and Lucent announce HSDPA tests in Japan

    Sachio Semmoto, Founder and Chairman of eAccess and eMobile announces HSPDA tests in Japan

    eAccess / eMobile announces cooperation with Lucent

    e-Access Chairman & CEO, Sachio Semmoto and Lucent Chairman & CEO Patricia Russo on March 30, 2005 in Tokyo, explained their joint tests of HSDPA services in Tokyo. e-Access is preparing to enter Japan’s mobile communications industry with the brand “e-Mobile”, and is currently conducting tests with Lucent and Fujitsu as equipment providers.

    Former US Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Foley, presenting his wishes for the Lucent-eAccess cooperation:

    US Ambassador Foley speaks a the conference announcing the cooperation between Fujitsu and Lucent to trial HSDPA network equipment for eMobile, while Lucent CEO Patricia Russo and eAccess/eMobile CEO Sachio Semmoto watch
    US Ambassador Thomas Foley speaks a the conference announcing the cooperation between Fujitsu and Lucent to trial HSDPA network equipment for eMobile, while Lucent CEO Patricia Russo and eAccess/eMobile CEO Sachio Semmoto watch

    Sachio Semmoto and Patricia Russo answering questions having presented their visions of new mobile services in Japan:

    Lucent CEO Patricia Russo and eAccess/eMobile CEO Dr Sachio Semmoto at the conference announcing their joint network tests
    Lucent CEO Patricia Russo and eAccess/eMobile CEO Dr Sachio Semmoto at the conference announcing their joint network tests

    e-Mobile’s logo:

    em = e-Mobile's interim logo (which was later changed)
    em = e-Mobile’s interim logo (which was later changed)

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Japan mobile subscriber data for Feb 2005

    Japan’s mobile subscriber numbers for Feb 2005 came out yesterday…

    DoCoMo is ahead again after a soft period on the strength of services and handsets, and KDDI/AU is still going strong driven by the designer series, good tariffs/discounts, music, WIN etc.

    Willcom (the former DDI-Pocket) is strengthening under new management, new name and new campaigns and network upgrades, TuKa is falling back after it’s great “TuKa-S” success… and Vodafone succeeded to stabilize subscriber losses somewhat which is a mild step in the right direction and might be the first indication of Mr Tsuda’s influence…

    Stimulated by the needs of our customers, who need to roll out services across the networks in Japan, we have started market surveys, interviewing mobile phone customers of all kinds on Tokyo’s streets in “focus groups”, as we do when required for our customers to get a feel for the market. I always make a point to take part personally in such consumer research, and often do some myself. In the case of mobile phone habits, the first approach at interviewing just reflects back the messages of the commercials and publicity campaigns. Only in-depth interviewing and discussion then reveals the real thoughts which are normally quite different. We learnt a lot about what average Japanese consumers think about DoCoMo, AU and Vodafone, building up a good picture. But the numbers also tell a clear story:

    Subscriber net growth/loss for Japan's mobile phone and PHS operators
    Subscriber net growth/loss for Japan’s mobile phone and PHS operators

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Chaku-uta-full: 3 million downloads

    KDDI/AU reports 3 million Chaku-uta-full (full song) downloads since it’s start on November 19, 2004:

    KDDI sells approximately as many chaku-uta music clips as iTunes sells music globally demonstrating the enormous size of Japan's mobile music market
    KDDI sells approximately as many chaku-uta music clips as iTunes sells music globally demonstrating the enormous size of Japan’s mobile music market

    More in our “Mobile Music Japan” report.

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Economist

    Eurotechnology Japan KK in the press:

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Takfumi Horie’s battle to take control of Fuji-TV/Fuji-Media via the historic ownership of Fuji-TV by Nihon-Hosou (Japan-Radio)

    Takfumi Horie’s battle to take control of Fuji-TV/Fuji-Media via the historic ownership of Fuji-TV by Nihon-Hosou (Japan-Radio)

    New economy (Livedoor) is knocking at the door of old economy (Fuji-TV) (for details see our “Japan’s Media” report):

    Fuji Television headquarters building in Odaiba
    Fuji Television headquarters building in Odaiba

    Below is an outline of the take-over battle raging right now. The complex cross-shareholding is puzzling, and the reason for it is surprising to the uninitiated: a long time ago there was no radio and no TV, only newspapers. Radio in Japan was born as babies of newspaper companies, and TV stations were born as babies of the Radio stations. So at the beginning Fuji-TV was a tiny in-company venture subsidiary of Japan-Radio (Nihon Hosou). The cross-share holding structure dates from these pioneering days of TV in Japan and has not been touched since – until Livedoor’s Takafumi Horie came along.

    Schematics of Horie-san's Livedoor's attempt to take control of Fuji Television Media Group via the radio station Nihon Hosou
    Schematics of Takafumi Horie’s Livedoor’s attempt to take control of Fuji Television Media Group via the radio station Nihon Hosou
    Result of Horie-san's attempt to acquire control of Fuji-TV Media (Court settlement (wakaI) of April 18, 2005)
    Result of Takafumi Horie’s attempt to acquire control of Fuji-TV Media (Court settlement (wakaI) of April 18, 2005)

    Takafumi Horie’s nickname in Japan is Horiemon. Why? Because many people think that Takafumi Horie looks similar to Japan’s cartoon character Doraemon.

    By the way: some media falsely report that Horie is the founder of Livedoor. This is not the case. Horie-san founded a website design company called “Livin’ On the EDGE Inc” in 1996, later renamed EDGE, and many other companies. In 2002 he acquired the free email/ISP company Livedoor.

    This battle stimulated us to release our “Japan Media” report.

    Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Financials: DoCoMo, KDDI, Vodafone

    The following figure compares Sales (Financial year ending March 31, 2004), Net profits after taxes(Financial year ending March 31, 2004), and market capitalization (as of February 17, 2005) for DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone (in each case consolidated for the global company):

    Sales, net income and market cap for docomo, KDDI and Vodafone
    Sales, net income and market cap for docomo, KDDI and Vodafone for the financial year 2004

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • PENCK (KDDI-AU Designer Series)

    PENCK (KDDI-AU Designer Series)

    Today, February 18, KDDI-AU introduced PENCK – the latest model in the Designer Series, designed by Makoto Saito Design Office Inc.:

    Designer: Makoto Saito Design Office Inc.
    Data rate = 2.4 Mbps
    Music = Chaku-Uta-Full, stereo speakers
    Camera = 1.24 Megapixel, incl QR barcode reader
    GPS = incl. Naviwalk navigation
    and more…

    When I was asked to brief the President of Germany, Horst Koehler, on Japan’s technology sector, KDDI kindly loaned me PENCK-phones, which I used in one of the demonstrations for President Koehler of Japan’s mobile phone industry.

    KDDI-AU design series: PENCK
    KDDI-AU design series: PENCK
    KDDI-AU design series: PENCK
    KDDI-AU design series: PENCK

    Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • QR-codes everywhere…

    QR-codes (QR =Quick Response) seem to be everywhere. Amazon.co.jp has an i-Appli, which reads the ISBN from the barcode on the back of a book and takes you directly to the Amazon.co.jp i-mode site to order the book instead of buying it in the bookshop.

    People in the mobile industry have QR-codes on their business cards:

    QR code on business cards
    QR code on business cards

    Download our report on QR code applications for mobile phones in Japan
    Download our report on QR code applications for mobile phones in Japan

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Music on mobile – as a "killer application"

    Turns out that music is a killer application on mobile – we are working on a number of projects in the mobile music field. We just completed our “Mobile Music Japan” report.

    With an incredibly much smaller potential customer base KDDI/AU delivered more downloads of 20-30 second songs (chaku-uta) than Apple’s i-Tunes. Motorola reportedly announced a mobile phone incorporating i-Tunes at the recent CES show in Las Vegas. KDDI/AU‘s tremendous success with chaku-uta indicates that combining Motorola phones with i-Tunes will be very successfull indeed. AU reported 1 million Chaku-Uta-Full downloads within the first 48 days of service (chaku-uta-full started on November 19, 2004).

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Cisco-VP: "In the future Internet business models will come from Japan"

    In today’s Wallstreet Journal (Dec 7, 2004), Mike Volpi, Senior VP of CISCO’s routing technology group, is quoted as saying:

    “In the past the internet business models, technologies and applications were all coming from the US, but today, through broadband, Japan is about to become the number one country in the area of Internet. In the future, I believe Internet business models will come from Japan.”

    More about broadband and internet in Japan in our report: “Japan’s Telecommunication Industry” (pdf-file)

    For the full article, see: “Fujitsu, Cisco plan to team up on routers” (Wallstreet Journal, Dec 7, 2004, subscription required)

    CISCO announced to open an R&D Center in Japan in the first half of 2005: “Cisco Invests US $12 Million in Japanese R&D Center”.

    Read an interview with Mike Volpi here: “Mike Volpi on Why Cisco is Investing in a New R&D Center in Tokyo, Japan”.