PacketVideo makes software for viewing video on your mobile handset, and they just became $45.5 million richer after Japanese operator NTT DOCOMO (NYSE: DCM) purchased a 35% stake in the company. NTT DOCOMO has already shipped 90 handsets with their software on board; now as an investor, they may have their say into the future direction of the company and a reduction on royalty fees.

Toshio Miki, Associate Senior Vice President, Managing Director of Communication Device Development Department for NTT DOCOMO, said: “PacketVideo has been a key supplier of software to DOCOMO and has made important contributions to the success of our services in the Japanese market. We are pleased to become an equity partner of PacketVideo and are very confident of the company’s continued growth and long-term success.”

James Brailean, Ph.D., CEO of PacketVideo said: “We are honored to welcome DOCOMO as an investor. We are building on our unique and highly successful relationship with DOCOMO to further strengthen PacketVideo’s position in developing the best in class media experience, regardless of format or platform. PacketVideo is the global leader in delivering rich media solutions for mobile operators, and DOCOMO’s support will enable us to accelerate our innovation and growth.”

For what it’s worth: PacketVideo is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance

[Via: NTT DOCOMO and NewTeeVee]

The Japanese Communications Ministry, which is sort of, kind of, but not really like the FCC in America, will allocate new spectrum by the end of this year to be used for the deployment of LTE. It’s estimated that during the next 5 years, over $11 billion will be spent on deploying LTE. What’ weird about all of this is the frequencies that Japan will be using for LTE. While Europe and Asia have standardized on 2100 MHz for 3G, the LTE scene looks to be drastically different. Europeans haven’t decided whether to use 2.5 GHz, 2.6 GHz, or to make use of the old 900 MHz band and we all know America had that big 700 MHz auction.  Japan however is assigning the 1.5 GHz band to NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) and Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) Mobile, KDDI will be using both the 1.5 GHz and 800 MHz bands and eMobile, a brand spanking new competitor, will get the 1.8 GHz band.

NTT DoCoMo will be the first operator to start rolling out an LTE network and they’ve decided to use standard LTE equipment, versus the Super3G system they’ve been playing with in the labs, after learning from the painful experience of rolling out their own 3G standard called FOMA. NTT DoCoMo did not get the 20 MHz chunk they wanted in the 1.5 GHz band, and instead received only 15 MHz, with 10 MHz chunks going to the other 3 players. They plan to spend $3.43 billion to get their network up and running in July 2010 and launch commercial services by the end of the year. Softbank Mobile isn’t breaking ground on their network until 2011 and they’ve budgeted $5.5 billion for their roll out. eMobile will start constructing their network in September 2010 and plan to spend $644 million. By 2014, the four operators expect that around 36 million people will be using LTE.

We’ll all be keeping an eye on Japan since they’re usually light years ahead of everyone else when it comes to mobile telecoms.

[Via: Rethink Wireless]

The government in Japan is looking at banning all mobile phones and devices from schools. Why? It seems there has been quite a rise in bullying associated with the devices. Government stats in the country have claimed that almost 6,000 bullying incidents have been linked to mobile phones this past year…. The year before somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 incidents occurred. One young boy actually killed himself when nude pictures found on his phone were emailed and shared around his school. Sad and tragic.

So what are the next steps here? A snippet from a report at Cellular News explains:

Responding to the issue, the government set up a group to study the problem - and it has now recommended a nationwide ban on mobile phones on school properties. The proposals will be put to the Prime Minister next month. The current Prime Minister is politically weakened at the moment, so it is unlikely that the move would be approved in a hurry as it would stir up a lot of controversy.

Looks like the wheels are in motion to impose a country-wide ban.

If you ask me, I consider children with mobile phones absolutely rediculous. I didn’t get my first phone until I was in high-school… Come to think of it, I didn’t know anyone with a mobile device until I hit high-school. Now don’t get me wrong, I realize times are completely different and the technology is so widespread and easy to find… it’s a different story. But still, I can’t imagine handing my own kid a mobile device… Unless the only thing he/she could do on it would be to call home or an emergency contact.

[Via: CellularNews]

We already expected Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to post an iPhone guided tour on their Japanese website, but what we didn’t expect (but should have) was the demonstration of the new character-recognition feature built in to the iPhone 2.0 OS firmware. Having already gone “gold,” the new iPhone 2.0 OS will bring character recognition to countries with demographics less in line with “Apple Bob” and more like the decidedly more Asian-looking chap we see in this video.

Hit up the guided video for a Japanese take on the iPhone. Highlights are the echoing voice-over and the hybrid touch and keyboard character input mechanics - truly trick, and worth a look.

Apple Japan

Having reported only yesterday on the suggestion of one researcher to proactively introduce Mobiles into schools as a learning tool, I now present for you a complete paradigm-shift in terms of the approach of the Japanese to the issue of kids with phones. Before you continue, it’s worth bearing in mind that Japan is one of, if not the most, advanced countries in the world as regards this tech..!

Japanese children should be prevented from using their mobile phones for anything other than talking to protect them from harmful influences, according to an advisory panel to the government.

The concerns are the usual bugbears: anonymous bullying via bulletin boards, and access to inappropriate material. Apparently only about one per cent of children have some form of content blocker in place, while a third of primary school (7-12) children have mobiles, a figure that rises to 96 per cent once they reach secondary.

Personally I can’t see Japan really enforcing this ban, and certainly there would be the not insignificant logistical issues of how this would be done - but it’s an interesting reflection of some of the thinking going on in a very Mobile-advanced country.
[Via: The Register]

Say hello to iPhone-san, the Softbank 921SH also known as FullFace2. It looks like an iPhone, but it has a standard 9 button keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera and … well I can’t say much more than that, the entire Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) website is in Japanese, go figure. One more picture after the jump.

[Via: Jean Snow]

Read the full article »

While operators in Europe and America are struggling to get customers to switch over to 3G devices to make better use of the infrastructure, Japan comes out and says that for the first time in history they’ve sold absolutely 0 second generation devices.

[Via: AFP]

It comes as no surprise that the Japanese have the most advanced handsets in the world, but what makes them different compared to their European and Korean competitors? The components are the same, they’re available for anyone to purchase, but the level of engineering knowledge required to put together something that has a 1 seg tuner, 5.1 megapixel camera, GSM, HSDPA, Bluetooh and mobile payment system all while achieving all day battery life is difficult to obtain.

Take a look inside 3 handsets, the FOMA P905i, W53H and 920SH to discover just how impressive they actually are.

[Via: TechOn!, Wireless Watch Japan]

The fight for dominating the heart’s of mobile phone fanatics is a battle that drives the industry forward faster and faster each and every calendar year. We, the people crazy enough to buy a flagship devive twice a year, sometimes even a few midrange products to match our outfits, are walking advertisements for companies like Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung, LG and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). When we sit down and place our devices on a table for all to see we are becoming marketeers. When we browse the internet while commuting or watch videos or make a phone call, we are telling the world a lot about who we are.

Nokia has been the top dog for quite some time with Sony Ericsson climbing fast. The conversations I’ve had with people in the US lead you to believe that the fight for supremacy is between Apple and Nokia. Talk to people in Europe, the Middle East, some parts of Asia and South America and you begin to realize that Sony Ericsson is Nokia’s number 1 competitor, not the west coast fruit.

When I was living in Helsinki there were more Sony Ericsson advertismenets than there were for Nokia; their message was be different from everyone else in town. Each time I visit London I’m flooded with Walkman ads, they understand people want to listen to music, constantly, to rid themselves of their outside enviroment. Spain, granted I went there for 3GSM, was owned by the Korean players Samsung and LG who wanted to attract style consious consumers.

Coming back to Sony Ericsson, they are not an incomponent company, they’re quite capable of being number 1 in the mid range and high end market, but it doesn’t feel like they’re hungry enough to be top dog. Here are some models they sell in Japan, but have yet to release anywhere else in the world:

The SO905iCS has a 5.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash, 3x optical zoom, face detection and a technology that waits until the person you’re trying to capture smiles before actually snapping the picture. It has a 2.7 inch screen that displays 256k colors at 480×864 resolution. It’s a bit big at 113 x 50 x 24 mm, but compare that to the Nokia N95 8GB which stands at 99 x 53 x 21 and you’re not that much larger than the Finnish flagship.

The SO905i is a video centric device that has that same lovely resolution, but this time at 3 inches and 16 million colors. It’s smaller at 110 x 49 x 19.7 mm and it has a 3.2 megapixel camera.

Their are plenty more models here, but I’m coming back to the point that Sony Ericsson is a company who can dominate Nokia in Europe, but they simpily choose not to. Those 2 devices I highlighted came out in November of last year, yet here in Europe (Americans import European phones) we’re waiting for the inferior speced C902 and G900 to come out.

Why? Think our wallets aren’t deep enough to buy something that will probably be 800+ Euros unlocked? Try me.

In Europe we have DVB-H, in America they have MediaFLO and in Asia they have several standards, but the one that has reached penetration levels of 20 million devices is OneSeg. It took nearly 2 years to do it, but now the 416 kbps 320×240 resolution format has now become the defacto standard to have in mobile phones.

[Via: Mobile Crunch]