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Top Stories
1. Explosive growth in contactless-payment - research report
2. KPN extends in Holland and defends in Germany
3. DoCoMo's new camera-phone ad server
1. Explosive growth in contactless-payment - research report
The use of so-called contactless payment systems, such as swiping specially-enabled phones or cards near point-of-sale terminals, will increase dramatically in the next year, according to a new study released Thursday by ABI Research.
In fact ABIR call the potential growth "explosive".
"The momentum in both of these markets is absolutely mind-boggling," according to Erik Michielsen, the firm's director of RFID and ubiquitous networks.
So merchants, card issuers and card associations are all making heavy commitments to contactless payment programs. The level of interest from merchants is, says Michielsen, "shocking and welcome" to companies providing the infrastructure.
This news won't come as a surprise to the mobile service planners in Japan, here DoCoMo has been ahead on technology, services, and infrastructure stimulation through investment support. And both Vodafone and KDDI announced they are ready to roll out wallet-enabled handsets - KDDI as part of their new "EZ-Felica" campaign. 
2. KPN extends in Holland and defends in Germany
Dutch alliance partner KPN has introduced MSN Hotmail on i-mode in the Netherlands, which will allow customers from KPN and its youth-brand Hi to remote access their MSN Hotmail account. Subscribers need to pay the standard i-mode monthly fee of €7.50 to send and receive e-mails. Pre-paid customers pay for their usage from their i-mode credit.
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Sending or receiving one Hotmail e-mail costs pre-paid customers approximately two euro cents.
As of March 31 2005, KPN had approximately 720,000 i-mode customers in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile in Germany analysts worry about KPN's E-Plus unit, because while T-Mobile and O2 are increasing their German customer bases, there is no "clear key to recovery" for KPN they say.
Customer numbers "confirm our worry" about KPN's E-Plus. Expects O2 to pass E-Plus within next year.
Meanwhile KPN has been pursuing various strategies to enter the TV market, in an attempt to implement a 'triple play' strategy of combined video, internet and telephony product offerings. KPN has bid to buy a Dutch TV and ISP operator Nozema as a means to gain control of broadcaster Digitenne.
KPN recently started its first field trials of interactive digital television on a mobile device, and the TV play fits as oart of this strategy as well.
KPN is holding the trials together with partners Nozema Services and Digitenne. The first phase will see KPN testing various technical aspects of the service provisioning. An extensive practical trial with a few hundred users will follow later in the year. The same infrastructure which KPN and Digitenne are using for digital TV will be used for the distribution of digital television to mobile phones.
These services are broadcast using DVB-T technology. Images will be compressed to mobile phone format using DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) technology, the standard for television on mobile equipment. The trial is based on Nokia's mobile TV solution, including network systems and the Nokia 7710 media device, equipped with a special DVB-H receiver, will be used during the trials.
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3. DoCoMo's new camera-phone ad server
DoCoMo has developed a marketing tool that uses a proprietary image recognition technique to enable a person to snap a photo of a printed ad or an outdoor signboard and receive coupons from the advertiser or link to an Internet site for more information. To use the system, consumers must download special software to their phones.
Forbes reports:
DoCoMo plans to market the system to ad agencies, with prices starting from around 10 million yen (US$90,000), and hopes to sell systems to 20-30 firms in the first year.
Advertising linked to 2-D barcodes and digital watermarks has already been introduced as marketing tools that take advantage of Internet-capable camera phones. But DoCoMo's new system is more versatile, since nothing special needs to be done to the ad.
In fact, the system can accommodate existing ads. Consumers do not have to worry about angle and alignment when snapping pictures and can even aim at faraway signboards atop buildings.
The advertiser runs a server with a database of ads and manages the delivery of coupons and advertising information to consumers, Several such systems are in development and start-up stage around the world, but the power of DoCoMo should accelerate this one to the front.
4. IBM developerWorks introduces DoJa
For those interested in the details of DoJO programming this new article from IBM developerWorks is worth reading:
Most people have heard of i-mode. Less well known is its Java™ environment, DoJa, which provides a platform for highly interactive, graphical, and networked applications. This article introduces DoJa and its different versions, and explains how it relates to its mobile Java cousin, the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP).
This should get you started building your own i-applis. i-mode is available worldwide and DoJa might be the perfect fit for your application.
5. Cosmote news includes sports and international expansion
Greek i-mode partner Cosmote announced that Eurosport sports news would be available soon for its subscribers, as it is for most other i-mode alliance partners.
Following Cosmote's acquisition of 70% the Romanian mobile phone company Cosmorom for €120m and its bond issues brokers saw the stock in a positive light as it "should make company one of fastest growing mobile operators in Europe". Brokerage house HSBC "prefers Cosmote over OTE as best way to invest in Greek telecoms".
Cosmote is issuing three bonds of total value €1.0 billion. The first bond was issued for a value of Euro €201 million was issued on 5 July 2005 and recently it issued a second bond of €289 million which has been fully subscribed by OTE.
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