JAJAH and EMOBILE, the innovative companies of Japan, world’s leading mobile telephony market, have made purely IP-based mobile telephony a reality when the world is still intending to do so.
JAJAH,a global communication company, today announced that, together with EMOBILE, it ha s launched an IP-only mobile device- the EM-ONE. With this device, subscribers in Japan will now be able to make and recieve voice-over-mobile-broadband calls via its JIJAH Mobile software client without the traditional mobile connection.
HSDPA connection, is the data channel used by JAJAH Mobile software to deliver voice services. JAJAH and EMOBILE, in 2007 released an outbound-only IP-mobile service, which attracted thousands of Japanese users and now for EMOBILE subscribers this service is all set to be used not only to make but also to recieve calls.
The EMOBILE subscribers can purchase their own Direct Inward Dialing (DID) for a small monthly fee of $5 approx. The DID number when used in their Sharp EM-ONE Ultra Mobile Device running Windows Mobile 6, which will turn their device into a fully functional device without a cellular connection and the number will operate as any normal phone number.
As Apple Inc. rolled out its newest iPhone in Asia on Friday, dealers and buyers said it’s only a matter of time — maybe as little as a few days — before the popular device hits the region’s thriving underground marketplace.
iPhones are nothing new to Asia, where enthusiasts from Bangkok to Shanghai already sport fake and unlocked models of the first generation, which was unveiled last year.
Now, electronics markets are preparing for an influx iPhones capable of 3G, or third-generation, cell phone technology after the official release in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong of the new Apple unit.
In the Chinese territory, ads pitching unlocked iPhones and services to unlock them were everywhere in a shopping mall with three floors of cell-phone stores.
Shop owner Chris Lau said he’s already taken orders for the new iPhone from 40 people and estimated its arrival on the gray market in about a week.
“I’m not 100 percent sure the stocks we are receiving will be unlocked, but I don’t think it will take long to crack it,” he said, referring to the practice of hacking iPhones’ computer code so they can be used with different mobile service providers.
Legal purchase of an iPhone usually locks a buyer into a service provider partnered with Apple, such as Softbank Corp. in Japan.
Candice Lam was among those considering a gray-market purchase because she didn’t want to be locked into paying for a two-year contract with Apple’s local carrier, Hutchison Telecom.
“Some of my friends are already using it. I want to have one myself,” the 20-year-old university student said while browsing phone shops. “I already have a contract with one operator. I don’t want to sign another just for a phone.”
Vendors didn’t have any stocks at Beijing’s Nurenjie shopping complex, a known center for sales of smuggled iPhones located across the street from the new U.S. Embassy. Apple does not sell the iPhone in China, but unlocked versions brought from other markets are plentiful.
Demand for the new device was running high, with some dealers saying unlocked 3G-ready iPhones should fetch about 5,000 yuan ($700) once they’re available. The majority will probably come from the U.S. and Hong Kong, they said.
“Many people have called to order the 3G iPhone, but we simply don’t have the merchandise,” Chang Wei of Xiaowei Telecommunications said.
Online auction sites, however, were offering the iPhone by midday — for the right price. Sellers on one mainland China site, taobao.com, were asking 9,359 yuan ($1,369) for the 16-gigabyte version.
Apple plans to sell its 8-gig iPhone for $199 in the United States and the 16-gig version for $299. It’s selling in Japan for 23,040 yen ($215) for the 8-gig model, while the 16-gig version costs 34,560 yen ($320).
Hong Kong’s iPhone comes unlocked but buyers still must purchase a two-year mobile contract; the 8-gig phone goes for 2,938 Hong Kong dollars ($376).
On a Yahoo.com site catering to Hong Kong, one seller was peddling 8-gig phones purchased in New Zealand for HK$9,500 ($1,217). “Its going very fast! sold 2 in 20 mins,” the seller wrote.
Representatives from Apple and its service providers in Japan and Hong Kong declined to comment on the gray market or discuss any countermeasures they might take.
Not that Apple isn’t likely keeping watch over the situation. Last year the company threatened to take legal action against Singapore retailers it accused of selling unlocked phones unless they stopped, according to local media reports.
Aside from lawsuits, the company could take steps from tracking buyers and serial numbers, to auditing distributors and resellers, who are typically the biggest risk in the supply chain, said Steve Vickers, president of business security consultants International Risk.
But limiting underground sales becomes all the more difficult when you have a product so widely available as the iPhone.
“There would be less risk if you could keep it under wraps,” Vickers said. “But eventually you have to sell it.”
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Over 1,000 people, many queuing through the night, besieged a store in downtown Tokyo on Friday as the iPhone went on sale in Japan for the first time.
The iPhone 3G went on sale at 7:00 a.m. at the flagship store of Softbank Mobile in downtown Tokyo.
“I’ve been saying this year marks the first year when cellphones will become Internet machines,” Masayoshi Son, who heads the Softbank group, told the eagerly waiting crowd just before the launch.
“Today is a historic day,” Son said, arguing it would become more convenient to access the Internet with an iPhone than with a personal computer. The first-generation iPhone was never sold in Japan.
As the countdown hit zero, white smoke shot up in front of the store and curtains were pulled to reveal huge iPhone 3G images on the store walls.
Japan’s Apple fans traded sleep and comfort for the thrill of being the first to buy the iPhone, with many camping out days before the launch.
The person who got the first iPhone was delighted.
“This is great, there is nothing more to say, this is great. I have made a call to my girlfriend,” he said.
As he posed with Son with iPhones in their hands, people still waiting in the queue took out their cellphones and snapped pictures.
Apple has described the new model as twice as fast and half as expensive as the original. The eight-gigabyte phone is priced at 23,040 yen (215 dollars).
Softbank Mobile is presently the only one to offer iPhone in Japan, although its contract is not exclusive and other companies are working to clinch deals with Apple.
Experts have said the iPhone could face an uphill battle in Japan, where handsets allow users to watch television and pay for goods like they do with a credit card — neither of which the Apple phone can do.
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The launch of the first iPhone model a year ago boosted interest in the technology tremendously, and the updated model available Friday likely will stoke enthusiasm further, according to analysts, quoted by an Associated Press report.
The report touch-screen manufacturers are going flat out, and more devices will soon be controlled by the tip of your finger.
“After the iPhone came out, a lot of mobile-phone companies said ‘Oh, I can make that kind of touch-screen mobile phone, too,’” Jennifer Colegrove, analyst at iSuppli, quoted by the report said.
In the US, Sprint Nextel just introduced a touch-screen phone, the Samsung Instinct, that’s very reminiscent of the iPhone. Verizon Wireless this year introduced its first two phones that use touch screens as their main interface.
Research In Motion is believed to be making a touch-screen version of the BlackBerry. Sony Ericsson is bringing out its first touch-screen model in a few months.
Colegrove projects that 341 million touch screens will be shipped worldwide this year, up from 218 million in 2007 and 81 million in 2006.
In the first half of 2007, before Apple’s iPhone launched, a big maker of touch sensors for portable electronics would make perhaps a million units per month, Colegrove said.
Apart from the iPhone, demand for touch screens is driven by new phones in Asia that allow the user to write Chinese or Japanese characters on the screen, usually with the aid of a stylus.
Most touch sensors are made in Japan, Taiwan and China by companies that are relatively unknown in the US, like Nissha Printing, Wintek and Truly Semiconductors.
Balda AG of Germany supplied the touch sensor for the first iPhone through a joint venture with a Chinese company.
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Global capital expenditure on mobile communications continues to rise due to greater emphasis on new data services, increased traffic load, and preparation for 4G deployments, a report from ABI Research said.
With the US economy’s uncertain outlook in 2008, ABI Research expects North America’s capex to remain flat this year, while other regions will increase their capex commitments for new 2G/3G deployments or expansions, all-IP service discovery platform upgrades, SoftSwitch unified core systems, and preparations for 4G.
ABI Research calculates that capex investment in 2007 exceeded €83 billion (US$131 billion), and will reach €101 billion (US$163.5 billion) in 2013.
The Asia-Pacific and North American regions are estimated to be the biggest spenders, according to research analyst Hwai Lin Khor.
“Mobile industry spending in the Asia-Pacific area is primarily driven by the emerging markets that are expanding current 2G network footprints and new 3G rollouts; many nations in this region have yet to release their 3G licenses. Mature markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be spending on service delivery platforms.”
Most current capex is still directed to voice services and 2G networks expansion, as the majority of subscriber net adds in recent years are coming from emerging markets that are fairly contented with simple voice calls and messaging services. However, there is also increased awareness of the need for early investment to ensure that networks are ready to support the capacity demanded by higher bandwidth data services.
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Sony Ericsson, the Swedish-Japanese phone maker, unveiled a Wii-like handset which allows users to play games using the phone as a motion sensor, an AFP report said.
“This is our first foray into motion gaming,” Howard Lewis, vice president and head of the product business unit, quoted by AFP, said.He said the F305 mobile phone was launched in conjunction with CommunicAsia, an industry convention and exhibition.
“We see gaming as a way to interact with our young customers… it’s a new area of the market that Sony Ericsson is entering into,” he said.
With the F305 phone, the device itself acts as a motion sensor when playing pre-loaded games including bowling and bass fishing, the company said.
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NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan’s largest wireless operator said it’’s in talks with Middle East carriers- Qatar Telecom QSC, Emirates Telecommunications Corp. and Saudi Telecom Co., as the company intends to expand its overseas business.
While speaking in an interview, Toshinari Kunieda, senior vice-president of Global Business at DoCoMo expressed the company’s keenness in the Middle East and Africa and didn’t rule out the possibility of future partnerships with the Middle East carriers.
A stake in a Middle East firm would ensure DoMoCo an easy access to markets of Egypt and South Africa. Emirates Telecommunications and Saudi Telecom, the Arab region’s two largest phone carriers, operate in countries such as Egypt and Indonesia, while Saudi Telecom has customer base in countries like Turkey and South Africa.Earlier in the month, DoMoCo acquired 30 percent stake in Bangladesh’s mobile-phone carrier TM International Ltd. for $305 million.
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Samsung Electronics, a leading provider of Mobile WiMAX¢â solutions, announced today it has been awarded with the world¡¯s first WiMAX Forum Wave2 certification for both ¡®Base Station¡¯ and ¡®Mobile Station¡¯ which support the 2.5GHz band, at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2008, in Amsterdam.
The Mobile WiMAX Certified products are commercial grade ¡®Mobile WiMAX Wave2 Base Station¡¯ and ¡®Mobile Station,¡¯ the Express card type device, using Samsung¡¯s own Mobile WiMAX Wave2 modem chipset, which will be commercially used in the Sprint-Nextel Mobile WiMAX service later this year.
Mobile WiMAX Wave2 products introduce a number of new features including Multi-In Multi-Out (MIMO) and Smart Antenna. These features enable the fastest data rate, up to 37Mbps for downlink and 10Mbps for uplink, among currently available mobile technologies in service. At this speed users can download 3MB MP3 music files within 0.7 seconds and 700MB movie files within less than 3 minutes.
¡°We are very excited to obtain the Mobile WiMAX Wave2 certification from WiMAX Forum by successfully passing all rigorous certification tests. This once again shows Samsung¡¯s leadership in Mobile WiMAX technologies.¡± said Geesung Choi, President of Telecommunication Business at Samsung Electronics.
¡°I am confident in Mobile WiMAX as one of the most promising solutions for mobile broadband services. This important milestone exhibits the technology is ready and mature and Samsung will accelerate the commercialization with in the global market to open new era of mobile broadband world,¡± Mr. Choi said.
“The WiMAX Forum would like to thank Samsung and the other member companies that have worked so hard to achieve today¡¯s milestone and enabling the Forum to continue to reach critical objectives with the ongoing certification of Mobile WiMAX equipment,” said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum during a press conference at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam.
“Samsung has played an important role in WiMAX Forum¡¯s success of driving market momentum by enabling us to move closer to delivering on our plan to certify more than 100 Mobile WiMAX products in 2008. Our seven independent WiMAX Forum certification labs are on now online to manage the anticipated increase of products to be submitted for certification.
The Wave2 certification designation today together with Wave1 certification award in April this year puts Samsung in a very few elite class of vendors which possess both certified commercial Mobile WiMAX Wave1 and Wave2 product lineups.
Samsung¡¯s Mobile WiMAX Wave2 solutions are expected to be commercially available through KT and SKT in South Korea from later this year and UQ Communications in Japan from next summer.
The WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. Currently, the organization has more than 500 member companies including service providers, regulators, equipment vendors, chip vendors, and content providers.
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Japan’s leading mobile operator by subscribers NTT DoCoMo has revealed it is cutting its monthly mobile tariffs in a bid to match rivals KDDI and Softbank Mobile, as the domestic mobile price war begins to intensify. DoCoMo still controls roughly half the market but has seen its share whittled away by its rivals in the past year. This month, KDDI unveiled a JPY980 (USD9.12) per month plan to compete with number three player Softbank, which has won more subscribers than either of its larger rivals since April 2007 on the back of its low-price strategy and aggressive advertising campaigns. Reuters reports that DoCoMo is dropping its lowest tariff plan by nearly 7% to JPY980 from July to match the competition.
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Softbank Mobile eclipsed larger rivals NTT DoCoMo and KDDI for the 13th month running, signing up 173,700 net new users compared with 60,900 for the NTT subsidiary and 72,400 for KDDI. Data published by the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) shows that Softbank Mobile ended last month with 18.952 million customers, behind market leader DoCoMo with 53.544 million and second placed KDDI with just under 30.293 million. Mobile newcomer eMobile ended the month with 555,400 users, having added 51,500 new users on a net basis, and PHS operator Willcom had 4.614 million (up 11,200).
Earlier this week Softbank announced it had struck a deal to sell Apple’s iPhone before the end of the year, and analysts expect this will help to contribute to strong subscription growth for the operator in the short- to medium-term.
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World’s first Wireless IP-Telephony service launched in Japan by JAJAH and EMOBILE.(Japan)
