The 2007 Outlook for Windows Mobile in Japan Starts to Take Picture

Good spot by new contributor Stingraze on the Softbank logos at the HTC booth at Akibax (see previous post). Very telling indeed.


The gathering of Windows Mobile fans around the HTC booth certainly brough with it it's fair share of rumors adding meat to the Microsoft announcement of 10 Windows Mobile devices in Japan by the end of 2007.


Among the tales, adding to the tell-tale Softbank logos at the HTC booth, were more HTC devices from Softbank in 2007 ... and did I also hear the words 'Softbank' and 'Toshiba' in the same breath ????


It's also hard to say anything about when AU will join the Windows Mobile Japan pack ......... except ........ watch this space ;-)


It was good to see the fan base there to support HTC at the booth including two of the guys behind the newly launched htc Fan site (www.htc-fan.jp - Japanese only) and Gzh (PDA & Smartphone Information Blog Site and Mobile Devices MVP).

(Small aside: Ironically although I'm almost permanently using my HTC Hermes as a day to day phone, I still carry around my Mitsubishi D902i just for the great camera used to take the photograph above and also more recently pictures of the great Christmas lights in Tokyo. Here's hoping HTC can up the stakes in the quality camera race).

HTC booth Akibax 2006

Akibax 2006 - a 3 day Microsft sponsored event in the heart of Akihabra - kicked off today stepping up the excitement around Windows Vista and Office 2007 , scheduled to come out in January, 2007 as well as other Microsoft technologies. Vendors such as Nvidia, HTC, ATI, and Wacom were showing off their technology in Akiba_Square.

The HTC booth was quite interesting, especially as they had a number of overseas models for Japanese consumers to drool over. The interesting thing was that the Softbank logo was in many of them, which might be hinting that they might use it in their next product line. HTC PR did not say which carrier will be using their device, but this might be some sort of a clue on their future lineup in Japan.

IBS Japan's miniClient Solution (Japanese link) was very fascinating. This is a device that uses Cirrus Logic's EP9307 (ARM920T 200Mhz) to send RGB picture data of such as a presentation wirelessly over Wifi and microSD (still under development) from a Windows Mobile device such as the X01HT.

More photos

Windows Mobile Promotion Program for Businesses

Microsoft Japan is current running 3 programs to help promote Windows Moile in Japan.

1. Mobile Starter Kit
2. Windows Mobile Evaluation Program
3. Mobile Proposal Service

Mobile Starter's Kit

For those thinking of investing in mobile. Microsoft will send a bundle of information about security, maximizing your investment and lowering data communications cost. You must register to get this at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5894497 (Japanese only)

Windows Mobile Evaluation Program
In this program, every month 10 companies seeking to evalutate the Windows Mobile devices will receive 3 loaner devices (W-ZERO3(es), hTC Z and X01HT), a trial MS Exchange account and free communication costs.

More information at: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5894498 (Japanese only)

Mobile Proposal Service
A limited number of selected companies that are seriously thinking about Windows Mobile will free consulting from the Microsoft Consulting Partner.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5894499 (Japanese only)

It's great to see innovative programs from Microsoft to help catalyze the 'Windows Keitai' market.

1st Anniversary Event for Windows Mobile Phones in Japan

Microsoft Japan today kicked off a 2 day event in Marunouchi, the heart of Tokyo's business district, to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Windows mobile phones in Japan. The event does mark an important milestone. From zero to three of four of Japan's main carriers with Windows Mobile devices in just one year. The NTT DoCoMo presenter commented that when he saw a Windows Mobile device in Redmond just a few years ago he never imagined he would one day be in Japan talking abut Windows Mobile phones. Willcom, NTT DoCoMo and Softbank all had booths showing off their devices. There were also a few applications on show which marks a revival in the interest of software developers after the death of the PDA market in Japan in 2004-2005 which I'm sure many of them lost out from.

The event marked another turning point in Microsoft's attempts to market Windows Mobile devices to a wider audience. To date, the power users and the buzz have done most of the marketing with little in the way of campaigns or events. Outside the booth area, staff were passing out information packs to passers by. As I walked by listening to conversations a common scenario was one out of a group of businessmen explaining Windows Mobile to the others, "It's like a small PC, you can do your email, browse the web and check office documents". Others uttered the phrase 'Windows keitai ???' in a puzzled tone. (Keitai is used in a similar way 'mobile' is used in English. By using the term windows keitai, Microsoft will likely find t easier to market Windows Mobile devices in Japan. Windows Keitai Fan happens to be the name of the top web site dedicated to Windows Mobile devices in Japan and is run by the people behind Windows CE Fan which has been around since the early days of Microsoft PDAs in the 90's.

The good news for Windows Mobile fans in Japan, Microsoft said they plan to release different form factors and have a total of 10 devices (but still 3 carriers) on the market in 2007. Lot's to look forward to.

More photos on Flickr from Kastuo2006.

HTC Booth at Akibax 2006

After a break since Summer 2001, Akibax - an electronics festival held in the hear of Akihabara, Tokyo - will be back on from 22-24 December. Windows Vista is the major sponsor.

Windows Mobile PDA phone and Smartphone maker HTC will have a booth there. In addition to showing off their own DoCoMo and Softbank devices there will be demos of:

• Plantronics showing off Bluetotth headsets
• Jorudan train route planning service
• B-walker navigation service
• Slingbox streaming television and video service
• Direct Push Mail

The Japanese Press Release (Google English translation)
The official site (not live at the time of posting)

Video of the HTC-Z

A nice video of the DoCoMo HTC-Z (aka Hermes, X01HT) from the staff at Wireless Watch Japan

X01HT and Tokyo Mobile Technology Event in Tokyo

On Tuesday the December 12 at 7pm there will be a small get-together to discuss the X01HT, software, usage, access, ROMs, and general Tokyo mobile technology.

For details and sign up instructions see here.

HTC Screen Alignment Troubles Overseas

If you have any troubles with the touch screen alignment on your DoCoMo or Softbank HTC device (as some people have reported overseas), you an either fix yourself as Larry from Palm is Life shows, or just take it back to the shop ... the choice is yours, but I know which option I would choose.

(Please note WMiJ does not take responsibility for any broken devices, etc. ;-)

Softbank HTC X01TC Flat Rate Plan Details

A joint press release held today by Softbank, HTC and Microsoft officially announced that the Softbank HTC X01HT will go on sale from October 14 and gave details of a new flat rate data plan.

Users pay a max of 10,290 yen (approx. US$85) for flat rate 3G. The HDSPA connection using the X01HT offers a maximum (best effort) download speed of 1.8Mbps and uplink speed of 384Kbps. The special campaign price until January 2007 will be 5,700 yen (US$47). The X01TC hardware itself will be priced between 20,000 and 30,000 yen (US$166-250). Supposedly you will not be able to make use of the flat rate data plan when using the X01TC as a modem for other devices.

Softbank stressed the main benefits of the HTC X01HT as being the usability of a PC, information access (i.e. access to the 'full' internet), and a high speed connection. They are aiming the X01HT at business men in their 20's and 30's who already use the internet a lot . Compared to DoCoMo and Willcom they stressed the advantages of the high speed connection and wide global roaiming area.

Softbank are also offering easy download access to anti-virus and security software from Symantec and McAffee.

Jig Browser for Willcom

Jig (Japanese site only) is a browser originally developed for Japanese mobile phones. Japanese phones usually come with one lightwieght browser for viewing Compact HTML and similar lightweight sites. Some sites also come with other 'full' browsers for viewing regular internet sites, but the carriers ensure that the flat rate packet plans do not apply when using these browsers (with the exception of AU who added a flat rate plan for full browsers for an additional fee starting in May).

Jig - a small startp company - cleverly got round this restriction by developing a Java/BREW appli browser that could take advantage of the flat rate plans. I was very impressed with the browsing experience on a regular mobile phone 2" or smaller screen. The browser came packed with all the configuration options you'd expect from a PC browser, tabbed browsing, RSS reader and more cool features. There are five different view options as shown in the graphic above. Scrolling and panning around a web site felt very natural (similar to the browser on the Nokia E61 and another Nokia phone I was shown. The latter I believe was an open source browser for Symbian). The real downside was that keeping the appli running really ate up the batteries which really made it difficult to use it regularly. The pricing was also a monthly subscription at a US$5 (630 yen) a month - which does make most users think twice before signing up and forgetting about it.

Until recently the browser was nt comptabile with Willcom's Windows Mobile phones. Now it is. Although Opera Mobile offers a great browsing experience, the Jig browser may be beneficial when attempting one handed browsing. It may also offer an even more competitive browsing experience when used on devices with 2.8" or smaller screens due to the different view options available. Finally, if Jig can find some way to get flat rate browsing on the Windows Mobile devices being offered by DoCoMo (and Softbank if they decide not to offer flat rate themselves) they'd be doing a great service to the mobile community.

The Jig site offers other interesting, potentially disruptive (for the walled garden of the Japanese mobile internet) tools such as email and scheduling applications for mobile phones. The company is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Looking for photos of Japanese Windows Mobile Devices?

Katsuo2006 has enough to keep you busy for hours on Flickr.

DoCoMo's HTC Z to go on sale to non-business customers October 10

NTT DoCoMo will start selling the HTC Z to non-business customers (Japanese site only) from October 10. The price will be 72,765 yen (approx. US$600). Users will also need an NTT DoCoMo mobile subscription. There are no special data plans for non business customers. The HTC Z was one of the devices attracting a lot of interest at the recent CEATEC trade show.

Vodafone have still not announced an exact release date for their HTC device or details of any special data plans.

Full details of the X01HT on the SoftBank Web Site

It's nice to see that Softbank (formerly Vodafone Japan) have full details in English on the X01HT on their nicely designed web site.

Some of the main things I noted:

• It won't support S! Mail (MMS) which I assume are the new names for the push mail services bundled with regular SoftBank phones so users will need a 3rd party service. It does support SMS which of course is big outside Japan, but SMS does not operate between carriers here which is a big barrier.
• It won't support Yahoo! Keitai which I assume is the name for Vodafone Live - the keitai portal that all the big carriers have and the main place to get useful services and applications, including being able to pay for them with your phone bill.
  
• It will have Infra Red, unlike the Willcom W-ZERO3
• Can be used for video calls.
• Security software can be downloaded but it costs etc. (Is anybody using ant-virus software on their Windows Mobile device?)
• Opera will not be bundled.
• The small print mentions a 'Communication Manager' utility for automatically switching between packet communications and wireless LAN.

No exact date for release is mentioned, just that it is 'coming soon'. They also note 'For details on communication charges, please inquire at a store that carries our products.'

SH011 Pocket PC Phone with 1seg digital television and Mobile Suica

Rumors are emerging of SH011 Pocket PC mobile phone from Sharp which will include a 1seg digital television receiver and Mobile Suica rumored to be scheduled for release in December this year. Other specs ...

Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition
1seg receiver
Mobile Suica
2.8" display
10 key input (no qwerty)

Also no wifi. There is a blurred picture here. Note these are only rumors. The picture has the Vodafone 3G logo. The official change to SoftBank was October 1st.

Pocket PC Japan Site News

The Windows Mobile scene in Japan was very quiet last year but by the end of 2006 3 of the 4 top carriers will have Windows Mobile (WM) devices on the market including the flat rate 3G device announced by Vodafone. The future looks good and things are starting to get exciting again. At Mobius Microsoft showed us some of the things we can expect from WM in the future and all I can say is that it looks amazing!

In line with this positive outlook I'm very happy to announce some exciting upcoming changes to this site.

• I'm very happy to welcome Gonzague-Alexandre Gay (aka Alex) of Akihabara News, Nihon Car and GeekStuff4U. Alex is a long time Windows Mobile expert and he has kindly offered to share his expertise and latest findings on this site.
• Firstly you may have noticed the name change from 'Pocket PC Japan' to 'Windows Mobile in Japan'. More on this later but look out for a brand new site design and web address.
• I'm also looking for ways to get more of the great Japanese Windows Mobile reporting out there translated and posted to the site. I'm looking for a few sponsors to help cover the cost of this, so if you know of any companies looking for global exposure to Windows Mobile fans, please let me know.

Thanks for visiting the site! Comments and feedback always welcome.

Andrew

Japanese Dictionary & Input from Agilingua

Came across these two products I haven't seen before from Agilingua

ElectricWords Dictionary Software
ElectricWords Dictionary Software is the premier solution for Japanese language learners and travelers. ElectricWords is an innovative dictionary software with an easy to learn, browser-based user interface. For easy review and study, retrieved words can be organized in contexts to support studying alongside textbooks or classroom lectures.

SignTap Kanji Input Edition
The SignTap Kanji Edition Input Method allows you to enter Chinese characters into your computer to look up words and characters without knowing their pronunciation. Particularly helpful to students of Japanese,

New Version of the W-ZERO3 (SH004) & Hosted Exchange Service

The main differences from the SH0003 are an increase in memory from 128MB to 256MB and bundled J-E, E-J, J-J and kanji dictionaries. In addition to black and silver, a white version will also be available. On Willcom's site the cost will be 45,000 when signing a new contract and 50,000 when not. Goes on sale 22 June.

At the same time Willcome also announced hosted Exchange service to start August 2006 so that small and medium sized companies without their on Exchange server can get their mail and PIM data on the move.

Vodafone to Join the Windows Mobile Phone Japan Bandwagon

News has hit the web that Vodafone K.K., hot on the heels of NTT DoCoMo, also plans to market Windows Mobile OS phones later this year. This really is going to be a great year for Smartphones and in particular Windows Mobile phones in Japan.

That only leaves AU left. They did have Windows CE devices at last year's Expo in Aichi, so it will be interesting to see whether they decide to release a Windows Mobile phone too.

News Links (Japanese only)

• http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0602/28/news056.html
• http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20060228/231297/
• http://www.wince.ne.jp/snap/cnBoard.asp?PID=1850
  

DoCoMo to Offer Windows Mobile Phones by Fall 2006

Huge news for the smart phone/PDA phone market in Japan. Following in Willcom's footsteps NTT DoCoMo plan to offer Windows Mobile 5.0 handsets by fall 2006. It is unclear whether they will market Smartphones (i.e. more of a phone with PDA functionality) or PDA Phones (i.e. more of a PDA with phone functionality).

Given that they just signed the agreement with HTC it makes you wonder if this wasn't a knee jerk reaction in response to the staggering success of Willcom's W-ZERO3. DoCoMo's current PDA phone hardly made a ripple.

Whether this device is successful will really depend on whether DoCoMo offers flat rate data plans for the Windows Mobile devices. I feel they really have to and will do. It will also be interesting to see whether the device can access i-mode services. i-mode services are designed from the ground up for mobile, so although having access to the whole WWW from a smart phone is useful, having access to i-mode services is essential. i-mode services are not accessible from DoCoMo's current smart phone.

Other links to this news:
Pocket PC Thoughts
Geekzone

New Applications and Site for W-ZERO3

New applications sepcifically for the W-ZERO3 are starting to appear. UtilityPlus (Japanese only) enables customization of the control and function keys. A very useful time saver!

In addition W-ZERO3 Wiki is a site (Japanese only unfortunately) dedicated to Japan's first and currently only Pocket PC phone.

Other Japanese W-ZERO3 sites:
W-ZERO3 Tips