Top New Stories
1. IrSimple makes mobile printing easy
2. DoCoMo positions for media production role
3. WIND becomes wholly-owned by Orascom
What's On
The iCF is a Media Partner for the 3rd Annual Mobile Gambling Summit Europe 2007, January 22-23. Read more, and register here.
For Australia - on the event list is Mobile Monday Melbourne - networking for the mobile content industry - when: 6.30pm to 8.30pm December 4th 2006 - where: Horse Bazaar, Digital Art Gallery Bar, 397 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne - cost: free. Guest speaker @ 7pm: Cathy Edwards, who leads the Customer Experience group within Telstra's Chief Technology Office. Cathy will talk about the recent launch of Telstra's Next G network, and "how this can be seen as a tipping point for the growth of mobile data services".
If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com
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1. IrSimple makes mobile printing easy
I thought that the announcement by the Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (MIPC) that they would adopt IrSimpleTM as the technology protocol of choice for Infrared communication was an overlooked but important story. The MIPC is an industry group developing solutions and implementation guidelines for printing images captured with mobile phones.
This is not just because it was developed by DoCoMo, Sharp Corporation, ITX E-Globaledge Corporation, and Waseda University - some of the most advanced thinking organisations in the mobile technology world - but because mobile imaging and printing issues and educating consumers about capabilities of mobile imaging devices and how to use Bluetooth, Infrared, Wi-Fi, Memory Cards and USB (PictBridge) for home and kiosk printers opens up new markets. And a key requirement is for speed. In this sense IrSimple is very important.
In October, 2006, MIPC also launched its website geared toward consumers. The website contains consumer-oriented information as well as developers' membership information.
-- IrSimple was accepted last year by IrDA (Infrared Data Association) as a global standard and provides faster data transmission speeds (at least 4 to 10 times faster than at present).
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2. DoCoMo positions for media production role
DoCoMo moved to buy 3.78% in Kadokawa Group Holdings - a company engaged mainly in publishing or movies/visual content. Kadokawa moved to the Tokyo main board in Septemebr 2004 and has under its control more than 40 affiliated companies such as publishing companies, movie/visual business companies, cross media business companies and business support companies inside and outside Japan.
Its an interesting move, although done in that typical Japanese style of a meaningless capital investment when in the West it would simply be a commerical alliance. The upside on 3.78% of Kadokawa would be immaterial to DoCoMo, while the distraction of owning the shares is more material.
Under the agreement, DoCoMo will also tie up with the group companies Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, Kadokawa Herald Pictures, Kadokawa Mobile, Herald Enterprise, and Kadokawa Media House Inc. The Group is the publisher of the popular Tokyo Walker magazine (see below right). The Group's magazines have tremendous reach, with an aggregate monthly circulation of 18 million copies.
The alliance will combine Kadokawa's strengths as a major provider of printed and visual content with DoCoMo's huge subscriber base and i-mode™ mobile Internet service.
The parties will focus on the use of visual content over mobile networks, and will develop mobile content related with Kadokawa movies and animation, including original video content developed initially for the mobile environment, prior to release via other media.
Customers will be able to use the iD™ mobile credit service, which can be used on Osaifu-Keitai™ e-wallet phones, for payments at 11 Cineplex theaters (92 screens) of Herald Enterprise by the end of June 2007. In addition, DoCoMo's ToruCa™ information-capture service is planned to be introduced at the theaters. Also, Kadokawa will increase the range of content it distributes through some 40 sites it has on the i-mode portal.
The move by DoCoMo is more strategic than it seems, because it is a move towards funding and partnering in content production, and particularly video content product for mobiles.
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3. WIND becomes wholly-owned by Orascom
Italy's WIND remains an i-mode alliance partner, even though news and press about WIND and i-mode has been hard to come by. The good news is that, unlike Telstra and Cellcom (Israel) where i-mode has simply disappeared from the agenda without formal announcements of its demise, WIND still promotes i-mode on its sites and in its corporate description.
According to press reports from Italy, Egyptian investor Naguib Sawiris is likley to gain full control of WIND.
Sawiris is reportedly looking at merging Wind with his Orascom Telecom group ahead of an IPO next year.
The Italian utility group Enel is ready to offload its 26.5% stake says business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
4. Ubiquitous GPS on mobile creates opportunities
Wireless analyst firm Berg Insight forecasts that 60% of WCDMA handset shipped worldwide will have integrated GPS / Galileo receivers by 2010.
In Japan, DoCoMo and other carriers will introduce GPS on all handsets from 2007, to comply with regulation similar to that in the US - accurate positioning of mobile emergency calls. Of course the social networking and GENERATION C implications of all handsets being GPS-enabled within the powerful mobile social communities in Japan are enormous, opening up whole new commercial opportunities around auto-geo-tagging.
5. DoCoMo shapes powerful mobile broadcast TV alliance
As another part of its mobile broadcasting strategy DoCoMo has announced it is teaming up with Fuji Television Network, Nippon Broadcasting System and others to develop TV shows for mobile phones, and it is understood the joint venture alliance will also include satellite broadcaster Sky Perfect Communications and trading house Itochu Corp, "although the size and scope of each company's investment and stake has yet to be decided".
The new company will plan, further develop and promote so-called "one segment" terrestrial digital broadcasting services. The service, which started on April 1, allows users to watch TV programs on mobile phones. The company also aims to acquire bandwidth using this method in the future. DoCoMo has already acquired about a 3% stake in Fuji Television as part of its overall mobile TV strategy.
As Jason Ankeny says at FierceMobileContent, "...by creating television shows specifically targeted for the small screens and short attention spans of mobile viewing, DoCoMo can focus on developing new properties and franchises instead of rehashing old titles and disappointing loyal fanbases in the process".
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