WW-64

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J@pan Inc presents the Wireless Watch Japan Newsmagazine:

W I R E L E S S W A T C H J A P A N

Commentary on the Business of Wireless in Japan
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Issue No. 64 (Preview)
Monday, July 22, 2002
Tokyo

+++ Noteworthy News
--> Qualcomm to Offer BREW Download on KDDI Phones
--> Japanese cellphone to offer ATM access
--> KDDI Confident of 7 Million 3G Phone Users By March 2003
--> J-Phone President Aims for Global Roaming of Sha-Mail Service

+++ Events (Advertisements)
LOOKING BEYOND: ASIA PACIFIC TOUR 2002

+++ Subscriber Statistics, Corrections, Credits, Administrivia

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======================================================================

+++ Noteworthy News
(Long URLs may break across two lines so copy to your browser.)

--> Qualcomm to Offer BREW Download on KDDI Phones
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/020715/15/30ios.html
Source: Dow Jones reported on Yahoo, July 15

EXTRACT: Qualcomm plans to launch a trial download service Wednesday
in Japan that will let users access video streaming and messaging
services on KDDI cell phones equipped with the US firm's BREW
technology, an industry source said Monday. KDDI began selling phones
in March pre-loaded with Qualcomm's BREW (Binary Runtime Environment
for Wireless) platform. Qualcomm decided to kick off its own trial
download service since there's only one BREW-enabled KDDI cell phone
on the market, the source said. In cooperation with several Japanese
and US firms, Qualcomm will provide sophisticated applications such as
streaming video and instant messaging for downloading into new KDDI
handsets which have been specially manufactured by Kyocera and Toshiba
for Qualcomm's trial download service, the source said.

COMMENTARY: It will be interesting to see the Java Vs BREW
competition unfold here -- one of the first major markets where Java
has a real foothold, including a great deal of developer mindshare and
the support of a major global carrier (that would be, of course,
DoCoMo). The advantage of BREW is that the system is a complete,
end-to-end solution that incorporates billing and other moneymaking
considerations, so arguably BREW should gain developer support pretty
fast.

On the other hand, before any developer can make money with her BREW
app, there is a vetting process that includes passing Qualcomm tests
and getting the app listed on a carrier's menu. Also, creating a BREW
application apparently isn't cheap; the testing and certification
process costs in the order of $4,000 for each pass (and your app
may need three or four passes -- see link below). You also have to
obtain an arm compiler (about $6,000) to create BREW binary code
(which executes on an actual handset); the free SDK will only create
an app that compiles on a PC. Java has none of these costs and a
developer can post the application on any Web site -- but of course
the chances of making any money whatsoever are a lot slimmer.

In any event, it's nice to see Qualcomm pushing KDDI to get BREW
going; they've already fumbled about for over a year while Java has
grabbed all the glory.

BREW Testing Costs
http://www.qualcomm.com/brew/developer/developing/apptesting.html

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--> Japanese cellphone to offer ATM access
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/07/16/phone-atm.htm
Source: Reuters reported on USAToday.com, July 16

EXTRACT: Dominant wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, is set to offer the
world's first service that lets people withdraw and deposit money at
automatic teller machines (ATMs) in convenience stores and
supermarkets using cellphones instead of cash cards. IY Bank, a unit
of retailer Ito-Yokado, and DoCoMo will jointly launch the service
that will allow depositors to use DoCoMo's 504i series handsets to
access the bank's ATMs, IY Bank said. The high-speed 504i handsets are
equipped with a chip onto which account information can be stored and
an infrared light to access ATMs.

COMMENTARY: The new service, dubbed Mobile Cash Card, should be
online by mid-2003 and will serve as one of several
cellphone-as-wallet services now being planned (the Edy e-money system
by bitWallet is the other biggie in the works).

Our first impression is that this system is destined to become a
low-volume, interesting-but-niche service. The short-range IR air
interface will require that the cell phone be held in a line-of-sight
orientation with the cash machine terminal, and the chip will add a
small cost to the handset. The bank currently has 4,098 ATMs
nationwide and plans to increase this to 5,000 by end-March. But
millions of Japanese are already running around with perfectly
serviceable ATM cards in their pockets and, as one analyst stated,
it's hard to see that using phones is more convenient than using cash
cards at ATMs.

Nonetheless, DoCoMo's other notable m-commerce effort to date -- the
c-mode Coke and data vending machine -- sat around in trial phase for
over a year and didn't seem to grab much attention. DoCoMo has since
announced a major push to get the machines deployed in a much wider
area and maybe will breathe new life into the concept yet. Perhaps
the same can happen with the Mobile Cash Card -- given a little
marketing genius, anything's possible.

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--> KDDI Confident of 7 Million 3G Phone Users By March 2003
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/020717/15/30lj9.html
Source: Dow Jones reported on Yahoo, July 17

EXTRACT: KDDI will comfortably meet its target of 7 million users for
its new 3G service by March 2003, company president Tadashi Onodera
said Wednesday. Onodera said the company would not sell the older
generation of handsets beyond this summer, which should help the
company meet its 7-million user goal.

COMMENTARY: It's important to note that KDDI are not marketing the new
handsets and network as a '3G' system. Instead, they are being pushed
as improved extensions of existing services. There is, for example, no
new 3G brand name, like DoCoMo's FOMA used for that carrier's 3G
W-CDMA service.

Speaking at last week's Wireless Conference 2002, Onodera said that
Japan operators have yet to establish reasonable prices for 3G data
downloads. He cited a cost of 1,000 yen to download a 5MB music file.
He's got a point, and, for industry watchers elsewhere, this aspect of
3G is probably the most valuable test-bed result that Japan can
provide.

--> J-Phone President Aims for Global Roaming of Sha-Mail Service
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/cover/197
112
Source: Nikkei AsiaBizTech, July 19

EXTRACT: Darryl E. Green, president of J-Phone, said that he regards
international roaming of the Sha-mail [photo messaging] service as the
most important element of the company's 3G mobile phone service.
J-Phone plans to start providing commercial 3G services in Japan from
the end of 2002.
The 3G handset used for the current experimental service does not have
the Sha-mail function. However, Green said he wants to add the
Sha-mail and Movie Sha-mail functions as soon as the new mobile phones
are put into commercial use. Movie Sha-mail enables filming and
sending motion pictures.

COMMENTARY: This represents a significant departure from the 3G
content paths followed by DoCoMo and KDDI to date. Both of the J-Phone
competitors have launched 3G bandwidth-optimized downloadable video
content (i-motion and EZmovie) and both are hoping to make money from
these. While J-Phone hasn't said it won't do likewise, the third-place
carrier is clearly more enamored with the user-generated content model
represented by Sha Mail and Movie Sha Mail. Looks like there will be a
place for both in Japan's 3G future. Green also said that he wants to
enable the sending of Sha-mail pictures from foreign countries to
Japan in the near future.

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+++ Subscriber Statistics, Corrections, Credits, Administrivia

CORRECTION
Last week, we told you that DoCoMo would launch i-mode in Taiwan later
this fall. This is incorrect; i-mode was launched this past spring.

WIRELESS WATCH EMAIL NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
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STAFF

WWJ video newsmagazine researched, edited and hosted and email
newsletter researched and written by:
Daniel Scuka (daniel@wirelesswatchjapan.com)
Email newsletter edited by:
J@pan Inc Editors (editors@japaninc.com)

WWJ video newsmagazine produced and edited by:
Lawrence Cosh-Ishii (video@wirelesswatchjapan.com)
in cooperation with Video-Link.com, helloNetworkAsia
(www.hellonetwork.co.jp) and IntaDev Inc. (www.intadev.com)

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