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KDDI is partnering with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to launch a 24-hour online bank. The 50-50 venture will be called Jibun Bank or "me bank," and will reportedly debut in mid-July.

Initially, account holders will be able to make online payments using their mobile phones or PCs, with such features as loans, insurance and credit card services planned to be rolled out in the near future. KDDI and Bank of Tokyo expect to have 2.4 million accounts and deposits representing a total of 1 trillion yen ($9.27 billion) in the fiscal year starting April 2010. Then, in the following two years, the bank plans to have a total of 3.4 million accounts and 1.5 trillion yen in deposits.

The service, however, won't be open to KDDI users, only. It will be open to other mobile networks, NTT DoCoMo and Softbank, users as well, but KDDI plans to make its phones "the most convenient cellphones on the market, and the safest way to transfer money."

Bank president Masato Nakai said he expects half of the bank's revenues to come from fees, and the other half from investments on deposits.

[Via: Reuters]

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Finally, the third of the largest Japanese mobile operators (other two are DoCoMo and SoftBank) has announced its summer collection. As you're about to see, it's good to be in Japan these days. With so many great options, the only "problem" left is to choose the right device. Let's quickly go through KDDI's offering:

• Hitachi Wooo W62H is definitely one of those device designed to woo us. The dual-flip phone (like the Nokia N93 for instance) prides itself with 3G gaming and video capabilities. Comes in blue, silver, and black.
• Sharp W62SH - among the specs we pick 16:9 WVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and the built-in FM transmitter. Comes in purple, white, and gold with Spidermen 2 movie pre-loaded.
• Sanyo W63SA - Global CDMA roaming phone with integrated English-Japanese dictionary. Available in red, silver or black.
• Toshiba Sportio is a candybar designed to keep you in shape. QVGA screen may be enough for Europe and the U.S., but not for Japan. Then again, this one may be targeted toward people who don't want all the mumbo-jumbo of high-end phones. It's available in orange, black, white, green and red.
• Casio G'zOne W62CA - rugged clamshell for an adventurer in everyone of us. Resists impact, water, and among other things features a compass, thermometer, GPS and one-seg TV receiver. Color options include green, black or white.
• Sanyo W64SA - I guess we should call this baby the high-end fashion phone, thanks to the gorgeous 2.8" WVGA screen. Comes in pink, white, yellow and black.
• Sony Ericsson Full Change re - this is probably one of the most customizable handsets we've seen. Five individual pieces can be removed from the front, back, and top of the phone to create a totally customized experience. Shell choices include white, pink, green, orange and silver.
• Toshiba W62T - with WQVGA screen, Toshiba's handsets seems destined for the mid-range in Japan. 3.2 megapixel camera also won't help it moving up the ladder. Available colors include gold, pink and black.
• Kyocera W64K - this is almost an entry level device in Japan. WQVGA screen and 2 megapixel camera won't get you anywhere in the Land of the Rising Sun. Pink and gold are the only color options.
• Kyocera W62K - and this IS the entry-level one. 1.3 megapixel camera and QVGA screen. What can I say, except - skip this one. Comes in beige, blue and black.
• Kyocera W63K - the 10.8mm thick candybar with 1.3 megapixel camera. Available in black, burgundy and beige.
• Pantech W62PT seems designed for strangers or older folks is Japan, and is the only device made by a non-Japanese company. Offers basic phone features on a QVGA screen. It comes in silver, gold and pink.

And that's it. We should look at the top part of the list, as far as I'm concerned. WVGA screens are getting a standard in the high-end mobile phone market in Japan. And in the rest of the world, moving beyond the QVGA has just started…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Why fuss with vague or complex search strings to find information about a product that you're holding in your hands? Sure, semantic and contextual search engines help narrow down your search to the most likely hits by "reading between the lines," but they still require you to describe the object you're searching for. That's where visual search technologies come in.

KDDI has just announced that their intention to put the Bandai Networks-powered visual search application, dubbed ER Search, on their Spring 2008 au line of cameraphones. The visual search application allows users to take a picture of an object with their cameraphone and send the picture to a server. In a few moments, the service will return relevant content regarding the object of interest - all without having to enter a single search query.

Customers with previous version of au cameraphones will also be offered the ER Search visual search application.

It's unclear how Bandai's ER Search business model works, but it's likely safe to presume that referral fees for viewing product information or commissions off product sales will fuel the application's success. Visual search is a great idea and we can only hope that the tech will make it Stateside sooner than later.

Press release on the link.

[Update]
Speaking of bringing visual search technology to us Yankees. Stefan found this video of the ViPR visual search engine being demonstrated with an iPhone. Just imagine how cool this tech will be once the search engine and image-processing server are integrated into a natively installed application for any and all cameraphones out there. Of course, there will always be a place for text-based search, but visual search is going to change the entire search-game.

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Panasonic has announced the sale of it's 100 millionth Mobile phone in Japan. It has supplied devices to carriers including NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank.

Pansonic first began selling mobile comms terminals in 1979 - the first mobile phone being in 1987. Since then Panasonic has gone on to be Number 1 or Number 2 in the Japanese market for several years. The 100 millionth unit will be a FOMA P905i sold to NTT, for those that are interested.

That is some quantity of devices to get through - although not maybe as much as some other notable vendors, it's still a milestone in it's own right - well done Pana!
[Via: Techshout]

Japanese CDMA operator KDDI has decided that they're going to go with LTE for their next generation network, just like their competitors NTT DoCoMo and Softbank. Expect the new network to be up and atom sometime in 2010.

[Via: Cellular News]

Wow, the Japanese handset market is really proving to be a tough nut to crack (a profit from, that is). With Sanyo's recent exit from the mobile phone business, and Mitsubishi's withdrawal from the handset game, it's clear that even Japan's larger handset makers are done with the grind that is the mobile phone industry.

The Japanese market isn't as keen on the smartphones that are so popular in the US and Europe as they are with gimmicky feature phones that can take advantage of the island nation's decidedly advanced wireless infrastructure. But, that poses a problem for firms like Sony Ericsson. While Sony Ericsson enjoys wide success throughout the rest of the world with a marketable handset lineup, product development costs on specialized, single-market handsets are hard to recoup in an environment where the world's No. 4 handset maker is ranks a lowly 6th place in Japan.

A Nikkei business report indicates that Sony Ericsson will stop developing handsets for DoCoMo after launching new devices this summer. Instead, Sony Ericsson is said to be planning to source handsets from other Japanese handset manufactures on an ODM basis and sold to DoCoMo as Sony Ericsson-branded devices.

Sony Ericsson spokesman Toshiyuki Kawamura denies the claims made in this report, saying that Sony Ericsson doesn't intend to stop developing phones for DoCoMo and that there will be no outsourcing of handsets.

So, what are we to believe? Will Sony Ericsson stop developing handsets for DoCoMo but retain it's KDDI partnership? Will SE exit Japan? Or is all this talk of market-surrender nothing more than baseless rumor?  We'll have to wait and see.

[Via: Reuters]

Remember those days of yore when we'd "beam" data between our mobile gadgets via that little dark-red-plastic covered port known as an IR port? It was super-convenient to be able to transfer some contact information on the fly, but it was also super-annoying to have to make sure the ports were lined up correctly - and even then we weren't assured that the transfer would go smoothly.

So, what's up with KDDI R&D Laboratories' reviving the technology from the almost-grave? Well, it seems that they've developed an IR (Infra-Red) technology (Warning: Japanese PDF link) that is capable of 1Gbps data transfers - which completely trounces the old theoretical limit of 4Mbps.

Now, besting a theoretical limit by even ten-fold would be an incredible feat, but how did KDDI manage to beat the limit over 250 times? Well, KDDI swapped out the low-performance LED diode for a super-performance semiconductor laser. The laser can blink on and off fast enough to transfer a full CD worth of music in under a second. A good dose of buffer memory is needed to make all this high-speed data transferring go smoothly.

KDDI says this new IR tech could be used in PCs and mobile devices alike, which bodes well for the future of high-speed data transfers to our mobile phone. Imagine transferring your entire music library to your cellphone in mere seconds. Hell, we'd settle for transferring our entire collection to our handset in under a minute. Of course, you'll still probably have to ensure that the laser-toting IR port is lined up correctly.

[Via: DigitalWorldTokyo]

Sharp, the pioneering LCD manufacturer, has released another handset fitted with their famous Sharp AQUOS brand of LCD display. The Sharp W61SH will only be available to subscribers on Japan's KDDI network - sad. With a 2.8 inch Sharp AQUOS display that sports an amazing 2000:1 contrast ratio, the Sharp W61SH is almost enough to get us to move to Japan. Yankees with a longing for a mobile phone with a Sharp AQUOS display will have to settle for the T-Mobile Sidekick LX.

The Sharp W61SH is available in Black, White, or Hot Pink (care to take a guess at our favorite color?).

[Via: MobileWhack]

There's nothing new in a fact that two companies from different industries are co-operating to extend both of their respective brands. Most notably, you're probably aware of the Nike/Apple partnership which resulted in Nike offering its shoes along with an iPod.

Now, we have the mentioned shoe manufacturer partnering with KDDI in Japan to offer the limited series of customizable shoes with KDDI's Infobar 2. Just like the phone, the shoes will be also available in four different colors to match the phone's look, and will be further customizable using the Nike ID feature.

Starting December Nike will be accepting orders, but to keep it exclusive only 222 will be sold…

[Via: textually.org]

Those lucky Japanese. Again they are mocking us with all their modern technology and services. Now Opera Software, probably the best known by its (mobile) web browser, partnered with Japanese carrier, KDDI, to integrate Opera Widgets on Toshiba W56T, Sony Ericsson W54S and Sanyo W54SA mobile phones. The new service called "au one Gadget" aims to provide users with the tools to "improve and personalize" their browsing experience, and will allow users to access the existing Opera Widgets library. "When" you ask? According to Opera's press release (which follows after the jump), KDDI will release handsets with "au one Gadget" functionality in December this year…

The mobile widget space is heating up. We have Nokia pushing its WidSets and the upcoming S60 Widgets, and now Opera is coming with its solution. Guess Yahoo and Google, which already have widgets in their offering are next to mobilize widgets. We'll watch this space carefully… In the meantime, if you want to know more - check out the mentioned press release after the jump.

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