| This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you by Walter Adamson, Australia's leading i-mode strategist and consultant for content providers, platform providers and businesses. |
Top Stories
i-mode customers take QUICPay for a test drive
History corner: How DoPa connected with the internet to bring i-mode
Quick Response bar code gets off to a slow start
QR code to co-exist with RFID in new applications
ODD SPOT: Hooked on QR - fish tell their stories while being consumed
1. i-mode customers take QUICPay for a test drive
JCB, Japan’s largest credit card issuer, will start a QUICPay® contactless payment system trial project in November for taxi passengers with mobile phones compatible with NTT DoCoMo's i-mode® FeliCa® mobile wallet service. The 3G FOMA® F900iC handsets which were launched in June 2004 are i-mode smart-card handsets.
About 30 of the Kanachu taxi company's cabs will be equipped with 
contactless readers. Part of the customer's existing credit limit is assigned to a contactless IC chip, embedded in the customer's mobile wallet service phone. The QUICPay amount is billed to the customer's existing credit card just like any other credit card purchase.
"Everybody knows that people are busy in the Tokyo metro area. That's where the convenience and speed of QUICPay can make a big difference. QUICPay is signature-free and stress-free - just tap and go," said Mr. Go Masaki, Assistant Vice President of JCB's Strategic Market Development Department. "Not only is payment more convenient for the customer, but the time saved frees the cab driver to serve the next fare even faster than before."
The trial will run for two months. JCB will use the feedback provided by riders and drivers at the end of the trial in preparation for the full-scale release of the QUICPay system in the spring of 2005.
For more information:
-read this QUICPay report on 3G UK July 2004
2. History corner: How DoPa connected with the internet to bring i-mode
DoPa was the DoCoMo packet transmission service which was launched in 1997 following intensive R&D efforts to differentiate DoComo from its competitors. DoPa enabled customers to send and receive data in packets, The service was charged on the basis of the volume of the packet data not on connect time.
The launch was followed shortly after by another initiative known as the "ten yen mail service" which allowed subscribers to send an email of up to 1000 characters through their mobile phone for just 10 yen.
Although the DoPa service met with reasonable success DoCoMo found itself still under threat from its competitors while at the same time finding its PDC (2G) network becoming increasingly overloaded through voice demand.
Almost exactly 2 years after the launch on DoPa, thanks to the pioneering efforts of the now famous trio of Keiji Enoki, Natsuno Takeshi and Matsunage Mari, Docomo created and launched i-mode, the first instantly accessible always on mobile internet service in the world.
For more information:
! it's hard to find much history about this, please let me know if you have references or knowledge of the connection between DoPa and the development of i-mode.
3. Quick Response bar code gets off to a slow start
The Quick Response bar code is now taking off in Japan as an effective advertising and mobile boosting feature.
The Asahi Tribune recently reported (September 6, 2004) how "cellphones trace bar-coded veggies from farm to shelf"… "it's all done by taking a cellphone camera snapshot of a revolutionary new bar code, called a Quick Response (QR) bar code. Measuring about 2 centimeters square, the matrix-type super-code can store up to 100 times more information than a conventional bar code."
In fact this revolutionary new barcode was developed and released in 1994 by the Nippondenso Company. While conventional bar codes are capable of storing a maximum of approximately 20 digits, QR Code is capable of handling several dozen to several hundred times more information and using a print area about one tenth the size of a barcode with the same amount of data.
QR Code is capable of handling all types of data, such as numeric and alphabetic characters, Kanji, Kana, Hiragana, symbols, binary, and control codes. IT can be read from any orientation and has error correction capability. Data can be restored even if the symbol is partially dirty or damaged (it can tolerate up to about 30% damage).
Although the QR code is a JIS Standard and an ISO standard, it is a proprietary standard of Denso Wave (a division of Denso Corporation at the time) and is only used in Japan. There is in fact a competing standard 2D encoding format in the public domain, the Data Matrix format (see http://www.rvsi.com/acuitycimatrix/index.htm for more information). Data Matrix is supported by an ISO standard, ISO/IEC16022, and a US military specification, MIL-STD-130L. However, this public domain format is not seen in Japan whereas the QR code is rapidly growing in usage and familiarity.
In England Bango.net have released their own Bango Spot "based on research conducted at the University of Cambridge". Each Bango Spot holds a numeric identifier. Reader software in the handset extracts this number, and sends it to the Bango servers, where it is mapped to content. This content is then displayed in the phone's browser.
Driving the growth is the rapid acceptance of camera phones, and the ongoing search for applications that can make use of a camera that's also a connected device. The first and most popular application is to snap picture of a QR code and then have the phone process the picture and load a relevant mobile internet site.
An early application using camera phones was to have the QR code printed on 
business cards and then read by camera phones as an alternative to fiddling with Bluetooth and infrared data exchange between phones or PDA-devices. Because this is a simple and flawless procedure, and because the data content of the QR code is much richer, it is becoming the preferred method of electronic business card capture.
- see this quirky Designer Barcode business.
QR codes can be displayed on a cellular phone screen for the purpose of ticketless concert entry or cashless vending machine purchases (such as Coca Cola Japan's "Cmode" service, which enables mobile phones to be used to purchase soft drinks and other items from vending machines).
For more information:
- see Denso Wave's website about QR Code
4. QR code to co-exist with RFID in new applications
There are essentially two ways of utilizing QR codes. The first is to print a QR code in a publication such as a newspaper, magazine or on a poster, which can be read by a user's camera phone and which then directs the user's phone browser directly to the particular mobile Internet site.
The other method is to display QR codes embedded with ticketing or similar information on the mobile screen, which can then be parsed by a reader to validate entry to events or as a coupon for making payments at a point of sale such as a cash register.
In some magazine ads QR codes the point the user toward a mobile campaign site. Also, in some product catalogues and free newspapers, each product appears along with a corresponding QR code, enabling users to quickly view product information on their mobiles.
There are also increasing cases of QR codes being used in outdoor advertising, such as posters. In these instances, the codes are meant to readable by mobile phones, but they also include various creative elements.
The next application of QR codes is for transactional services. All Nippon Airways (ANA) and am/pm Japan are distributing e-tickets/coupons and membership cards by using QR codes and FeliCa to direct customers to their outlets and Websites, and attract them with the convenience of mobile payments.
Mail catalogue companies make extensive use of QR codes to drive customers to 
their mobile websites and particular products through a simple input of a QR photo.
In the case of NTT DoCoMo's "Do Commerce" service, users can take a QR code that contains a product's purchase information and pass it before a reader at a convenience store for identification purposes, then make payment at the convenience store as well. NTT DoCoMo also provides a similar service whereby customers can pay their mobile phone bills paperlessly at convenience stores by showing a QR code on the invoice at the cash register and making payment at the point of sale.
QR codes are likely to see increased usage in the future as way of bridging the mobile Internet and actual physical purchase environments such as stores.
Barcodes have a new technology alternative in the form of RFID, however while some commentators see RFID challenging barcodes in the near future it’s more likely that they will remain complementary technologies. In general RFID tags are also more costly and would still require some visual information to accompany them to allow users to identify what and where they are.
However on the other hand there are now RFIDs in posters and of course the DoCoMo Felica handsets can read RFID signals as well as photograph QR codes.
Nevertheless, although RFIDS are rapidly becoming equally as convenient as barcodes to access through cell phones, QR codes and RFID will each find a place in connecting new services with mobile subscribers.
For more information:
- see this article by Scanbuy who offer "optical intelligence".
ODD SPOT: Hooked on QR - fish tell their stories while being consumed
DoCoMo Sentsu plans to undertake a QR barcode project in collaboration with a Fisheries Agency so that on-the-spot information, such as the names of the fishermen, the cooperatives they belong to, and where and when the fishery operations were conducted, are transmitted from fishing boats via satellites and stored and a specific QR code printed for the catch on certificates issued by the fishermen's cooperatives.
These certificates will be attached to fish at the time of their shipment.
When customers being served the fish at restaurants are shown the certificates, they will be able to pick up the information on their cell phones from the cooperative's web site, and make inquiries if necessary. In this way they'll be able to tell the fish exactly how it died!
Another QR project is bar coding bananas and that is also in a well ripened state and being rolled out to supermarkets in selected regions.
For more information:
- see this report by the Washington Fish Growers Association
| - end of newsletter - |
Independent audits, analysis, project reviews and i-mode strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment - to discuss these and other opportunities, please call or email. | 
| Email me | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632. | 
Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.
"I can personally recommmend the Mobile Intelligence Tour as the most effective, most intensive and most enjoyable way to acquire business insight into the Japanese mobile economy and the people behind it," Walter Adamson. |
Comments