Top New Stories
1. Access aims for 30% market share
2. Visa bill pay launches on Starhub Singapore
3. DoCoMo pushes M2M to catch KDDI
4. Number portability shapes spending in Japan
5. Russia signs for mobile music
What's On
The i-mode Content Forum is a media partner for London's Mobile Content World, 19-21 September 2006 - and our members qualify for a 10% discount off the registration price (£1995 + VAT) for all i-mode Content Forum members more...
The iCF is also a Media Partner for the Mobile Gambling, Gaming & Lotteries Summit North America 2006 and the 2nd annual Mobile Gambling Summit Asia 2006. The North America Summit is October 3-4, in Montreal, and the Asian Summit from October 31 - November 1, in Hong Kong. Read more, and register here.
If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com
Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy
1. Access aims for 30% market share
The dominant supplier of i-mode browsers in Japan is Access, which in an interview with the International Herald Tribune says it aims to get a 30% stake of the world mobile OS market by 2010, starting from 4% today, said Tomihisa Kamada, the company's chief technical officer and co-founder. Access acquired PalmSource and recently released ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), "the latest evolution of Palm OS for Linux".
The mobile Linux market is expected to grow from shipments of 3.5 million in 2005 to 28.1 million by 2010, according to Informa. Currently Microsoft was forecast to have 12% of the market, Linux 14% and Palm 4%.
It's a bold play, and Access intends to do it through a fully integrated suite comprising OS, middleware and browser, thus reducing the complexity for operators and developers, and ensuring higher levels of functionality and reliability. They're right that all these aspects need improving, the current crop of systems software on phones is a miserable hotch-potch of second-rate solutions - leading to a generally poor user experience.
Can a Japanese firm become a global software powerhouse? It hasn't been done yet, nor from Korea, and with a couple of expections not from Europe. The US completely dominates - and that's why I still predict that the US will dominate business applications on smartphones and Microsoft will be there in a big way.
Post your opinion below
2. Visa bill pay launches on Starhub Singapore
Visa International in Singapore launched Visa Bill Pay, available on StarHub's i-mode, which allows users to make convenient secure bill payments on their i-mode mobile phone using their Visa cards.
Cardholders can log on to StarHub's i-mode, select from the available biller list, enter the bill details and authorize the payment using their Visa credit card. An email confirming payments will be sent to the cardholder and card information is not stored by the service – thereby removing any risk of compromised data security.
StarHub seem to be energetic in promoting i-mode still, unlike some other operators where the interest has dropped away, either publically as with Cellcom in Israel and MTS in Russia, or unofficially as with Telstra in Australia.
3 Reasons why you should Join the i-mode Content Forum
Check our Aims & Objectives HERE
3. DoCoMo pushes M2M to catch KDDI
DoCoMo said on Wednesday it aims to boost sales of modules used to connect devices such as car navigation and vending machines to the wireless network. "We aim to more than double sales of modules next year," Kiyoshi Tokuhiro, managing director of ubiquitous services, told Reuters in an interview.
For some reason, these developments have been in the pipeline for years without any marketing or commercial success. See this 2001 announcement by Omron, where it said that it intended to launch nationwide car sensors and to work woth DoCoMo. Sony Ericsson announced in March this year that it would sell to Wavecom the company’s global assets and activities in M2M research & development, marketing, and sales. in 2005 it "generated revenues of approximately €65m and gross margins of approximately 20% but operated at a loss".
DoCoMo said that it expects the number of modules sold to reach a total installed base of 990,000 by the end of this business year from 665,000 at the start of the year. Japanese mobile phone operators are attracting demand from companies such as electronics makers and automakers for devices that transmit data to and from home electronics, cars and mobile phones. Tokuhiro said the company is also strengthening efforts to catch up with its rival KDDI, which with its shareholder Toyota Motor has been developing services that connect mobile phones with cars.
These services in general have failed to find commercial and marketing success, generally because of an inability to market the value versus the price. Their time will come, and the whole area of connecting the "real world" with ubiquitious networks will have its day, its just a matter of how much investment is lost in the meantime.
4. Number portability shapes spending in Japan
DoCoMo overtook rival KDDI in net mobile phone subscription numbers in July for the first time in three months. DoCoMo posted a net rise, the number of fresh subscription contracts minus that of cancellations, of 191,400, compared with KDDI's 165,000. Reports attributed DoCoMo's greater popularity to its enhanced mobile phone lineup, including handsets designed to satisfy the needs of the elderly and children.
With number portability set to start on 24 October there's little comfort in the numbers for DoCoMo since KDDI actually posted a net rise of 303,100 on its core 3G "au" service, far greater than DoCoMo. But its Tu-Ka service, for which it no longer takes new subscribers, suffered a net fall of 138,100 - offsetting the company net rise. The T-Ka users are generally price sensitve and perhaps their contribution will not be missed too much, except that they represent a cheap opportunty for conversion to "au".
Vodafone posted a net increase of 27,400, and Softbank Mobile intends to invest aggressively coming up to the number portability implementation date. "We are no longer saddled with any loss-making businesses, as both our broadband business and Japan Telecom turned profitable," said Softbank president Masayoshi Son, after first-quarter profit results were announced. Softbank said it would double the number of base stations in its mobile network to 46,000 by March 2007.
Meanwhile DoCoMo expressed confidence that it would hold its share of the Corporate market: "Corporate services are still a small business but we aim to retain our No. 1 market share in this area even after number portability," Kiyoshi Tokuhiro, managing director of ubiquitous services, told Reuters. Corporate contracts make up about 10 percent of 51.8 million mobile phone users signed up with DoCoMo, the country's biggest operator.
5. Russia signs for mobile music
It's not i-mode, but mobile content figures from Russia are interesting. Vimpelcom said mobile content on the world market amounted to $4.4 billion in 2005.
Mobile content in Russia totaled $300 million, with ring-tones accounting for $130 million to $150 million. The mobile music content market accounted for about 30% of retail musical CD and DVD sales around the world in 2005. The music content market is forecast to reach $7.2 billion by 2007. Russia is the world’s second-largest market for counterfeit CDs, according to the music companies' trade group, the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry. The legal retail market is $390 million, while pirated versions are estimated at $450 million.
In many countries, the provision of musical content occupies third place in the ARPU structure, coming after voice services and SMS - in Russia, it occupies fourth- fifth place. Pity that MTS is feezing i-mode, as the market gets more active for good content.
The number of mobile phone users in Russia grew 1.99% from the previous month to reach 143.07 million in July. MTS increased its customer numbers to 49.02 million in July (34.4% of the country's market). VimpelCom saw its customer numbers grow to 47.15 million (33.5%). The penetration level (number of telephones per 100 people) increased to 98.5% from 96.6%.
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. | 
Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632. | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) +33 670 765 643. | Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.
| This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you the i-mode Content Forum (iCF) the world's largest and most active i-mode® content trade association. President Pascal Lorne, and VP Asia-Pacific Walter Adamson. See our Aims and Objectives. |
Other handsets announced
What's On
Our buddies at 
DoCoMo i-mode alliance partner Bouygues Telecom reported slightly falling EBITDA margin - down by 2.5 percentage points to 30.9% in the first nine months of the year - due to marketing costs of aggressive customer acquistion, although its parent Bouygues Group was on a massive upswing in revenue and profitability - unveiling a 36% lift in 3rd qtr profit.
The pan-Asian operator alliance, created in April 2006, has announced its new brandname CONEXUS Mobile Alliance as well as welcoming the Philippines' mobile operator, Smart Communications into the group.
is holding back O2's subscriptions, and in Australia Telstra only ever released one 3G i-mode handset before walking away from the whole arrangement. That one was (is) the NEC600i and while a nice piece of engineering it was a handset that you'd buy your uncle for Xmas - it was never going to sell to the target market.
FET will offer several new 3G handset models, with two i-mode LG L353i and NEC N500iS late this month and four customized models Sagem my700Xi and my501X, Sony Ericsson K610im and Sharp WX-T81 early next month, the company said. 
In the run-up to number portability DoCoMo slipped behind KDDI in net additions in September 2006, adding 126,300 new customers during the month to reach 52.1 million mobile subscribers. The company had 47.2 million i-mode customers, up 97,200 from the previous month. KDDI's au saw its customer base go up to 24.5 million after adding 312,500 new subscribers, and KDDI had 21.5 million EZweb customers (46% the number of i-mode subscribers), adding 179,800 in the month.
Telstra - DoCoMo's i-mode alliance partner - 
When an MVNO with a powerful brand dies there is lots of analysis as to what's going on, with some views very direct - that content isn't king and an MVNO is a figment of a marketing person's flight of fantasy.
Giiks.com
In the UK, i-mode and 
%20Telecom%20World%202006%20in%20Hong%20Kong%20December%204,%202006.%20REUTERS/Paul%20Yeung%20(CHINA)&sz=13&WTModLoc=BizArt-C1-ArticlePage2){kind=link}
Recent Comments