eurotechnology.japan.blog

More about Japan's telecom sector: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/jcomm/
More about DoCoMo: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/docomo/
More about KDDI: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/kddi/
More about Softbank: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/softbank/

Labels: docomo, emobil, KDDI, ntt, softbank

KDDI created a new brand: "iida" for the long running best selling AU design series mobile phones. KDDI introduced some of the most recent iida design series models at the KDDI Designing Center. In addition to the earlier Yamaha musical instruments phones, KDDI introduced a spectacular phone created by Yayoi Kusama.

Fun is the green leaved charger....

Labels: au, au design project, design series, iida, KDDI, mobile phone, yayoi kusama

We analyze the effect of the crisis on operating margins in three different sectors:
(1) electronics,
(2) mobile communications,
(3) TV media groups.

In sector (1), Nintendo's margins are above 30% and increasing despite the crisis, while traditional electronics companies' margins are evaporating.
(2) for mobile operators DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank margins are 10%-20% and increasing despite the crisis! Could mobile phone usage be crisis resistant?
(3) TV media groups had healthy margins in the 10%-20% range back around 2001- however these margins have been slowly melting away, and TV group margins are heading to cross the zero line into the red zone by 2010-2011. Watch out for a TV media crisis. Read more below.

Consumer electronics sector operating margins:

Nintendo bucks the trend: while Japan's electronics firms' margins are dropping into the red, and have never been much higher than 5% during the last 10 years, Nintendo's operating margins are above 30% and rising despite the crisis.



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our report on Japan's electrical companies)

Mobile phone sector margins are 10% - 20% and rising despite the crisis.

Mobile phones seem to be resistant to the current crisis. DoCoMo's, KDDI's and Softbank's margins are healthy and improving despite the crisis.



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our JCOMM Report)

Margins of TV media groups have been melting away since their peak in 2001.

Back in 2001 Japan's TV media groups used to enjoy healthy margins of up to 20%. Over the last 8 years these healthy margins have molten away, and Japan's large TV media groups are likely to all simultaneously go into the red from 2010 onwards, unless dramatic action is taken. Media groups will need to grow profitable new business, e.g. mobile-TV, and other cross-media growth areas.
Could it be that recent anti-takeover measures have made the large TV media groups complacent?



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our J-MEDIA Report)

Labels: business in japan, docomo, KDDI, media, nintendo, softbank, sony, TV

Japan's telecom operators are a very bright spots in a dismal economic crisis. I think that's not a coincidence.

Why? The deeper purpose of Japan's location based services, QR-codes, mobile music, e-moji, wallet phones and keitai credit etc. has always been to make mobile phones inseparable from people's daily lives, so that people would use their mobile phones a lot, even if there is an economic crisis. This strategy seems to work.

Japan's second largest operator KDDI was the first to announce financial results this round:
- quarterly net income increased +49% year-on-year, and
- operating income increased +18.5% compared to same quarter last financial year.

KDDI is particularly interesting because KDDI is a model for the 3G roll-out by China Telecom in China, which was awarded a license to build a 3G network using the same CDMA2000 technology as KDDI.

KDDI was initially far more successful than both DoCoMo and Vodafone (now Softbank) to roll out 3G in Japan - as documented in detail in our 3G report. Analyzing carefully what KDDI did right, and the difficulties DoCoMo and Vodafone encountered, as well as proper exploitation in differences between technologies will be a must.

KDDI introduced many advanced services such as GPS (global positioning and related location base services LBS), full song mobile music, etc several years earlier than DoCoMo and Vodafone -> SoftBank, helping the image of the brand and raising revenues (ARPU). This advance allowed KDDI to overcome the handicap of lower market share compared to DoCoMo. Read more below, and in our reports.

KDDI's 3rd quarter net profits rose by 49% yoy.

Comparing 3rd quarter FY2009 (Oct. - Dec. 2008) with 3rd quarter FY2008 (Oct. - Dec. 2007) operating income increased +18.5% and net income increased +49%. These are spectacular results considering the terrible economic crisis going on now.
Notice also KDDI's very aggressive income growth targets forward to year FY2011 (shown for operating income, thin orange line).

Steadily increasing net annual incomes on the order of US$ 2 billion/year is not bad in times such we have now. Find a detailed analysis in our KDDI report.

Labels: KDDI

# posted by Eurotechnology-Japan : 1/29/2009  1 comments links to this post

More in our J-ELECTRIC report: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/j_electric/

Labels: apple, docomo, KDDI, ntt, panasonic, sony

Second generation (2G) phones silently bowed out of Japan's market 8 months ago: the last 2G phones in Japan were shipped in December 2007. KDDI/AU switched off their 2G radio network in March this year, and both DoCoMo and SoftBank announced that they will switch off their slow and expensive 2G networks in the very near future (about 2009). Almost all other countries in the world either depend on legacy 2G networks only, or keep legacy 2G going while building out third generation in parallel. (Today's 3G HSDPA phones transmit data up to 250 times faster than 2G phones did on a good day).




The last 2nd generation (2G) phones shipped in Japan in December 2007. Almost all other countries keep legacy 2G networks running - Japan just switches them off. More in our JCOMM report.

Labels: 2g, 3g, docomo, hsdpa, hspda, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, softbank

More in our J-COMM report: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/jcomm/

Labels: docomo, KDDI, ntt, softbank

Labels: docomo, e-mobile, KDDI, softbank

Google, Apple, Nokia, HTC, Vodafone and are winning the driver's seat of the global internet revolution. DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank essentially stay inside Japan for now - limiting their growth prospects and leaving global opportunities to others.




GOOGLE with Android and APPLE with iPhone are reaching for the driver's seat of the global mobile data revolution. Global companies including GOOGLE, Vodafone, Apple and NOKIA grow to US$ 100s Billion valuations, while local companies NTT, DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank remain essentially limited to Japan's market for now. Smartphone maker HTC increases impact - including in Japan.

Labels: apple, docomo, google, htc, iphone, KDDI, nokia, ntt, softbank

SoftBank from 4th to 1st position within less than 12 months... SoftBank's turn-round of x-Vodafone-Japan, went faster than many expected. Within less than 12 months SoftBank went from last place to first place in customer sign-ups, overtaking even KDDI's super-popular AU. Willcom recently suffers from SoftBank's revival, as well as from eMobile's flat rate data services.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, keitai, mobile phone, ntt, softbank, yahoo keitai

In the last few days NTT, NTT-DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank announced their first half financial results. SoftBank and KDDI are the winners both for market share and for profits, while DoCoMo's results and market shares are sinking, and pulling the NTT-Group down at this time. Extrapolation indicates that DoCoMo's net profits may fall into the red about one year from now, drastic action is taken soon.




The thin lines show linear interpolations of quarterly net profit data. Our extrapolation seems to indicate that DoCoMo's net profit might fall into the red towards then end of calender year 2008 unless drastic action is taken. If current trends continue, SoftBank's net profits might exceed DoCoMo's mid-2008. We expect DoCoMo to take dramatic action before this happens.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, ntt, number portability, softbank, yahoo keitai

Labels: KDDI

Presentation at the Lunch meeting of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (FCCJ) on March 16, 2007 at the Westin Hotel, Tokyo.

Find the summary and photos of the meeting here

Download the presentation here

From the Announcement:

In his presentation, Dr. Fasol will explain the essentials of Japan's mobile phone market, why and how it is so different to Europe's. He will also talk about some of the reasons why it is so difficult for European companies to succeed and uncover opportunities and the keys to success for European companies in this important market.

Labels: docomo, handy, Japan, KDDI, keitai, mobile phone, nokia, softbank

Japan's mobile subscriber numbers grew by about 5 million in 2006. Because of the much higher ARPU, Japan's mobile market again grew by a couple of Finlands during 2006. A growing number of people have more than one mobile phone, to take advantage of the best rates, eg for mail, voice and data. We expect growth to continue. Our analysis below shows that KDDI's and AU's gains are a lot larger than a superficial view of the statistics reveals - see our Figure below. Find a detailed review in the latest edition of our JCOMM-Report.




KDDI's subscriber gains during 2006 are much bigger than a superficial analysis reveals (see figure above):

KDDI's AU mobile service gained about 4.2 million new subscribers during 2006 - more than twice as many than DoCoMo's cellular service, which gained about 1.8 million new subscriptions.

Currently, KDDI is shutting down it's TuKa 2G service, and DoCoMo is shutting down it's PHS service. Both services together lost more than 2 million subscribers during 2006 - this is a much larger movement than due to number portability introduced on Oct 24, 2006.

KDDI offers both number portability and mobile email portability, and reports surprise that many former low-end TuKa users moved to top-end high-speed WIN (2.4 Mbps) data services.

For KDDI, enticing TuKa subscribers to move to high-end/high-speed AU services was an excellent preparation for number portability, and helped KDDI win in the first stage.

Labels: au, docomo, Japan, KDDI, mnp, mobile, mobile number portability, subscriber numbers, subscriptions, wireless

Mobile number portability created winners and losers in only two months - the main business challenge for Japanese operators is to avoid a price war.

KDDI is the clear winner in the first round, DoCoMo suffers a setback, and SoftBank did better than expected.

Today we released the 23rd edition of our JCOMM-Report - about 250 pages of overview and analysis of Japan's telecom sector.

KDDI gains 524,000 subscribers in Oct & Nov 2006. DoCoMo for the first time ever since it was founded experienced a net loss of subscriptions.




KDDI gains 600,000 new EZweb subscribers, Japanese operators earn much from mobile internet - subscription data show even better results for KDDI's EZweb.

Labels: docomo, KDDI, mnp, mobile number portability, softbank, subscriber numbers

Both i-Mode and EZweb top menu pages display Season Greetings and reflect Japan's seasonal mood: autumn sports days in schools, skiing in winter, Halloween and New Year.

Here are this year's New Year greetings for the Year of the boar on i-mode and EZweb which were displayed from January 1, 2007 for a few days during Japan's New Year vacation:





More about Japan's mobile internet:

DoCoMo and i-Mode
KDDI and EZweb
SoftBank and YAHOO-Keitai

Labels: docomo, ezweb, i-mode, imode, KDDI

KDDI is unique among mobile operators in creating value from design for phones with the "au design project". Creating value for which consumers are willing to pay premium prices is a key to success in the rapidly growing global US$ 150 Billion mobile phone business.

au design project 2006:

The KDDI Designing Center showed the exhibition "TRILOGY", displaying some results of the "au design project 2006". The three concept phones are (from left to right):
- "kaos" by Naoki Sakai
- "cypres" by Nao Tamura
- "vols" by Ross McBride

Labels: au, au design project, concept phones, cypres, design value, kaos, KDDI, nao tamura, naoki sakai, ross mcbride, vols

KDDI is unique among mobile operators in creating value from design for phones with the "au design project".

Creating value for which consumers are willing to pay premium prices is a key to success in the rapidly growing global US$ 150 Billion mobile phone business.

INFOBAR was a big success for KDDI. Industrial designer Fukawasa Naoto recently created INFOBAR-2, and introduced it at a show at the KDDI Designing Center in Tokyo:

Labels: au, au design project, concept phones, infobar, KDDI, kddi designing studio

October 27, 2006 the Finland-Japan Ubiquitous Society Conference was held in Tokyo.

Tero Ojanpera, Exec VP and CTO of NOKIA, gave an overview of NOKIA's vision of communications, other speakers and panelists included Juho Lipsanen, Finland CEO of TeliaSonera, KDDI Chairman Murakami.

The day before I briefed and had a long discussion with the top management team of TeliaSonera-Finland.





Panel discussion with TeliaSonera CEO Juho Lipsanen and KDDI-Chairman Murakami.

Labels: CEO, cto, Finland, Juho Lipsanen, KDDI, nokia, teliasonera, Tero Ojanpera, ubiquitous

Every year the Wireless Japan sets global trends in wireless communications and mobile phones. Mobile phone industry professionals cannot afford to miss this trend setting show. It is here that Japanese carriers and handset makers introduce their latest products and show design studies and concept phones which set industry trends for the next months and years.

Highlights: "Beyond 3G"

Beyond 3G: SANYO 3.5G phone for 2.4Mbps data download (for KDDI/AU):






NEC "tag" wrapping multimedia design concept phone:






Matsushita/Panasonic "Beyond 3G" design concepts:



DoCoMo UbiButton and UbiChip:



DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones - for electronic cash:



DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones - as an electronic door key:

Labels: 3g, au, concept phones, docomo, foma, KDDI, softbank, vodafone, wireless japan 2004

Concept Phones

AU/KDDI Design Series Concept Phones "talby" design by Marc Newson, commercial introduction: December 2004












The following image shows the "talby" series introduced in December 2004. The commercially introduced models are almost the same as the concept models shown at Wireless Japan 2003, with a few small modifications (e.g. three navigation buttons were added to the design.)



SANYO presented a series of 3G phones and concept phones. Later (2007/2008), after a failed Sanoy-Nokia joint venture had been dissolved, SANYO sold the mobile phone division to Kyocera and ended mobile phone production.






JM-NET IP cell phone concept model















KDDI terrestrial digital TV concept model and demonstration:



SANYO 3G concept cell phones







DoCoMo 3G and FOMA









DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone F2102









DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone P2102 by Panasonic






DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone N2102 by NEC



DoCoMo/NEC lovely pink cell phone



DoCoMo airview: remote video control via FOMA 3G



Drinks machine with e-cash payment system and DoPa wireless network connection



GEOFREE waterproof cell phone



GEOFREE waterproof cell phone



DoCoMo "Jailor" remote operation of door locks via FOMA 3G



DoCoMo remote video via FOMA 3G



Linking VISA payment solutions to DoCoMo phones



DoCoMo FOMA 3G phones






DoCoMo network camera solution



DoCoMo Wristomo (combined wrist watch and PHS mobile phone)















Robots and mobile phones

Power shovel remote controlled via FOMA 3G cell phone












SONY Aibo robot dog remote controlled via FOMA 3G cell phone









Camera phones

FUJI imaging for mobile computing and mobile camera phones



Printing images taken by camera phones















Vodafone

In 2003 Vodafone participated in the Wireless Japan 2003 exhibition. Later Vodafone's business situation in Japan deteriorated considerably, and Vodafone did not participate in Japanese trade shows any longer, before selling operations to SoftBank in 2006.

Labels: 3g, au, concept phones, docomo, infobar, KDDI, vodafone live, wireless japan 2003