Smartchance Campaign - Details

Microsoft is now doing a campaign called Smart Chance Campaign, which 500 lucky winners who buys specific Windows Mobile devices between November 1st to January 7th, will get a chance to get cool prizes.

10 lucky winners will win a free one night trip to a high rank hotel in Tokyo.

In order to enter, you must buy Emobile EM ONE α Willcom 　　　　　　Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es] (WS011SH) Softbank Mobile　 X01T、X02HT HTC Nippon HTC Advantage X7501

Deadline is until January 15th, 2008.

More details are here

Microsoft Seminar: Revolutionalizing Communication with 3G/Wifi device and Softphone

Since nowadays, people are actively communicating with customers and workers in and out of the company through 3G/Wifi devices and Softphone, it is important to learn the security measures and learn the balance between security and mobility. This seminar introduces how to securely and effectively have office communication through 3G/Wifi devices, softphone, and Windows Mobile devices.

The seminar is free and open to 350 people. You will need to register here

The event takes place on September 14th, from 1:30PM to 5:00PM in UDX Gallery in Akihabara. All the seminar will be in Japanese.

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).

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.