I found myself in Tokyo this morning (Editor: Translation: He is in Japan), and thought I’d have a look at the local mobile scene. It’s a matter of faith that…

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The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) has said that mobile broadcast TV handset shipments in Japan almost doubled during the first quarter of this year, with 1.6…

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Italian mobile company Buongiorno and Japanese company Mitsui have formed a joint venture for digital marketing, using the existing subsidiary Buongiorno Marketing Services Netherlands. Mitsui will invest 13.3 million euros…

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The Eurotechnology Japan Newsletter has sent an analysis of Softbank’s effort with the mobile business it bought from Vodafone—and gives it a good report. It points to three points: --SoftBank’s…

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Vision search is no longer a technology in search of a problem; it is has become a solution that could pay dividends as part of a much wider and interactive…

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Indian vendors of mobile content are displeased with their take of the revenues, which comes in at an average of 40 percent but could be as low as 15-30 percent,…

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Japanese operators DoCoMo and KDDI have teamed up to develop “a system to notify customers of an imminent earthquake”, and Softbank is also working on a service. The systems will…

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Earlier this week, the Mobile Marketing Association set up its Asia chapter to spread the word on best practice and establish advertising guidelines, Channel NewsAsia reports. While the industry may…

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Napster is trying to convince US operators to offer data plans that allow the downloading of large files and support heavy users, under the expectation that the over-the-air music market…

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Public health insurance offices in the Osaka region in western Japan have launched a trial of a dieting service that allows users (heart patients, as well as diabetes and obesity…

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Bank of America has launched a mobile service for its 20 million online customers, bofa.mobi. The mobile service will allow customers to check balances and view transactions (on checking, saving,…

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Softbank Mobile said it will “adopt new software that will make it easier for different manufacturers to make mobile phones for its network” reports Dow Jones via Cellular News. Softbank…

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NTT DoCoMo will invest about $10 million in Gobi Fund II, L.P, a VC fund operated by Gobi Partners in China. This fund will invest in startups “working on the…

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The Japanese government plans to set up a “ubiquitous special zone” which will be used to test mobile web applications and see what sort of consumer-friendly technologies can be developed…

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Top search app: Maps and directions top the list of mobile search killer apps– at least among middle-aged British men. This is the key finding of a recent Yell.com survey…

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Tokyo-based Softbank has reported an operating profit of 271.07 billion yen ($2.26 billion) for the year ended March 31, compared to 62.3 billion yen a year earlier. “Profit at Softbank’s…

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“Due to the changes in business environment, both companies concluded that it would be difficult to launch i-mode service at this time and agreed not to proceed”, says NTT DoCoMo,…

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Screen Digest has released some predictions for the mobile music market, and the most surprising line in the release is this one: “The global market for OTA mobile music was…

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Japanese operator KDDI has reported that its group operating profit surpassed 300 billion yen ($2.5 billion) for the first time ever in fiscal 2006 (ending March 31st), based on a…

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In May DoCoMo will start selling three mobile mobile games that use motion-sensing technology to play, with the launch of its 904i-series of phones. “In a boxing game users can…

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Napster Japan (a joint venture between Napster and Tower Records) will soon launch its first over-the-air mobile music subscription service on DoCoMo. Napster has pay-per-download mobile music services (for example…

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Wireless Watch Japan has a piece on Softbank Mobile’s new flagship store in Harajuku, “Tokyo’s mobile youth grand central”. There’s a video showing how the store is laid out, although…

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Consider the source on this one… Ads on mobile phones in Japan are set to triple by 2011, outpacing growth of advertising on the Internet, according to a study released…

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DoCoMo will launch an all-you-can-eat mobile music download service in May with the launch of handsets with special software, reports Mobile Entertainment, which describes the new service as the first…

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Disney has a new mobile social network in Japan, called Wonder Days, described as a cross between Habbo Hotel and Mickey Mouse. It’s a rich Flash-based service where you can…

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