WW-71

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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 LITE

Commentary on the Business of Wireless in Japan
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Issue No. 71 (Lite Version)
Monday, September 9, 2002
Tokyo

+++ Noteworthy News
--> More Companies Use Email via Mobile Phones for Campaigns
--> J-Phone Adds Net Total 106,200 in August
--> DoCoMo Adds Net Total Of 161,000 Cellphone Users in Aug
--> J-Phone, Hutchison Unfazed by DoCoMo's 3G Outlook
--> Omron to Deliver Japanese Input System Software for PalmOS

+++ Subscriber Statistics, Corrections, Credits, Administrivia

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

--> More Companies Use Email via Mobile Phones for Campaigns
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/205242
Source: Nikkei AsiaBizTech, September 6

EXTRACT: A common way to answer gift offering campaigns is to write your name,
address and answers to questions on a post card and mail the card, but email is
also gaining momentum in this application. Currently, the email capability of
mobile phones is increasingly employed in such applications instead of post
cards in Japan. For example, a popular magazine for young women accepts email
applications through mobile phones for its audience survey that offers prizes.
Orix Credit Corp. provides melodies for ringing calls in return for document
requests via mobile phone. An increasing number of Japanese companies in various
industries are employing email capabilities of mobile phones in similar ways,
including Toyota Motor, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, Lotte, Kagome, and Toyo
Suisan Kaisha.

COMMENTARY: This goes right back to mobile Internet 101 and reinforces one of
the huge benefits of Japan's wireless webs: Internet-standard SMTP-style mail is
cheap and ubiquitous, every single keitai sold these days has an email addy, the
keitai is always on and always with you, and i-moders and the like have a lot of
time to kill while commuting. Morinaga Milk ran a campaign offering
complimentary music gift coupons (worth 2,000 yen) during June, July, and
August. The firm collected 3.8 million responses at just a fraction of the cost
using traditional market polling methods. Wireless webs are good for far more
than just surfing, folks, and represent significant marketing opportunities as
well. The Tsutaya video rental chain regularly gets a better-than 75-percent
response rate within 24 hours of starting an email promotion campaign.

--> J-Phone Adds Net Total 106,200 in August
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/020906/15/32i6p.html
Source: Dow Jones on Yahoo, September 6

EXTRACT: Japan Telecom Holdings Co.'s J-Phone unit said Friday it added a net
total of 106,200 cellphone subscribers in August from the previous month,
bringing the total number of its subscribers 12,901,000 in August. J-Phone's
"J-Sky" mobile Internet service saw a net increase of 153,900 subscribers, to
reach a total of 10,943,400 subscribers in August.

Also

--> DoCoMo Adds Net Total Of 161,000 Cellphone Users in Aug
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/020906/15/32i97.html
Source: Dow Jones on Yahoo, September 6

EXTRACT: NTT DoCoMo said Friday it added a net total of 161,000 cellphone
subscribers in August from the previous month, for a total of 41,922,000
subscribers in August. For its 3G "FOMA" cellphone service, DoCoMo added 6,100
subscribers in August, making a total of 133,500 3G subscribers.

COMMENTARY: Japan overall saw fewer than 400,000 new adds in August (71,236,900
to 71,622,200), the lowest increase in recent memory. Looks like marginal
subscriber effects and market saturation are having a real effect. Wireless
Internet subscribers (i-mode, J-Sky, EZweb combined) went from 55,594,400 to
56,347,200, an increase of 752,800. Note that there were more wireless Internet
adds than new adds overall. If we assume that 100 percent of new adds opted to
sign up for i-mode, J-Sky, or EZweb, this implies that 367,500 (752800-385,300)
new mobile Net users were converts from the existing, non-Net-using subscriber
base. This also implies that about 49 percent all new wireless Net users come
from existing customers.

In related news, DoCoMo said on Friday that they may cut the forecast for 3G
phone subscribers due to limited network coverage and short battery life. "With
sluggish performance until now, we have no choice but to cut our forecast," said
NTT president Keiji Tachikawa at a press conference in Tokyo. In December,
DoCoMo plans to release **16 ** FOMA terminal models (from 11 companies) that
have longer battery life. WWJ guesses this will coincide with a major PR and
marketing push touting the fact that FOMA will then cover something like
80-percent-plus of the country's populated areas.

--> J-Phone, Hutchison Unfazed by DoCoMo's 3G Outlook
http://www.ispworld.com/Reuters/BreakingNews/090602_gt21.htm
Source: Reuters on ISPWorld.com, September 6

EXTRACT: Japan's J-Phone and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa said on Friday
they would stand by plans to launch 3G mobile services this year, despite a
sluggish start to the high-speed service by industry leader NTT DoCoMo. J-Phone,
Japan's third-largest wireless carrier, said it still planned to launch its 3G
service in December. The performance of DoCoMo's 3G service is of high interest
to J-Phone, since it plans to launch a 3G service based on the same
technological standard. "For Hutchison 3G, our plans remain unchanged. We will
start to roll out phase one to approximately 5,000 friendly customers in
October," a spokeswoman said. The company plans to launch its service in the
United Kingdom and Italy in October, and said recently it aimed to sign up one
million customers in each of those markets by the end of 2003 -- less than the
1.5 million target it had previously cited.

COMMENTARY: J-Phone has said that roaming will be a key part of their 3G
strategy. "We've been saying we'll do global roaming with our 3G commercial
service and this will be achieved in two ways specifically," says Matthew
Nicholson, from J-Phone's PR staff. One way is with so-called "plastic roaming"
which is achieved by transferring a UIM/SIM card from a J-Phone W-CDMA handset
to a GSM handset, thus transferring the subscriber's J-Phone account info to a
handset that would then work in a GSM market. The other way is with dual mode
technology handsets that will work under both W-CDMA and GSM network systems. He
also adds that, at the time of their 3G commercial launch, J-Phone will have
global roaming agreements in 50 countries.

--> Omron to Deliver Japanese Input System Software for PalmOS
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/205227
Source: Nikkei AsiaBizTech, September 6

EXTRACT: Omron Software Co., Ltd. launched Japanese input system software,
"Mobile Wnn for Palm," developed for the Japanese edition of PalmOS. Mobile Wnn
for Palm consists of a standard dictionary of 48,000 words, a 1,600-new-word
dictionary including ASCII art characters like smileys and slangs for
youngsters, in addition to other dictionaries of biography, geography, and so
on.

COMMENTARY: The interesting aspect of this is (a) it's a good example of a
Japanese technology vendor's product being adopted by an overseas device- and
platform-supplier, and (b) Mobile Wnn for Palm provides predictive text input,
considered by many to be the gold standard for automated input systems that will
help to make smaller devices more usable. Mobile Wnn has already appeared on 26
mobile phones from six makers, as well as game machines and other devices.

================================EVENT================================

Attend the Tokyo MBA fair on September 19, 2002 at the Tokyo Hilton
in Shinjuku from 6:00-9:00 PM and meet admissions directors from
leading international MBA programs including Cornell, Duke, and the
MIT/Sloan School of Management.

This is an event that serious MBA candidates should not miss.

For more information or to register in advance, visit:
http://www.thembatour.com/fairs/tokyo.shtml

=============================EVENT====================================

Recognizing the advanced state of 3G developments in Korea, "Korea
3G Wireless & Beyond" (10-11 October 2002) will assist you in
unleashing the full revenue potential of 3G networks by identifying
the most innovative & captivating applications & services that will
ensnare the IT-savvy consumers.

In addition, this premier event will also provide you with an unbiased
perspective of the issues around 4G business models, services and
applications and migration paths to 4G that will allow you to make
informed decisions on future network strategy.

Bringing together key operators, industry top players and academics
from around the world, 3G Wireless & Beyond 2002 is the DEFINITIVE
wireless technology event you cannot afford to miss!

Contact Denise Ho @+65 6835 5105 or email: denise.ho@ibcasia.com.sg or
visit http://www.ibc-asia.com/3gkorea.htm for more information.

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+++ Subscriber Statistics, Corrections, Credits, Administrivia

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WWJ video newsmagazine researched, edited and hosted and email
newsletter researched and written by:
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in cooperation with Video-Link.com, helloNetworkAsia
(www.hellonetwork.co.jp) and Stellent (www.stellent.com)

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