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

Sales of Japan's First Pocket PC Phone an Astounding Success

If sales are anything to go by then Japan's first Pocket PC Phone - the W-ZERO3 from Sharp - can only be described as an absolutely astounding success.

Stores started taking orders on December 9th for delivery on 14th, but unless you had an order in by midday on the 9th you were out of luck. The complete inventory nationwide sold out in literally a couple of hours.

At BIC Camera's flagship store there was a line of more than 200 people by the time doors opened!

Both the Willcom (carrier) site and the Sharp site sold out in hours. A few days later Willcom started taking requests but was forced to move to a lottery system to decide which lucky punter would get the right to buy one of the much sought after devices. At the current time Tokyo is completely out of stock with no cofirmed next delivery date and it seems there's many people just waiting in line to get there hands on what is for Japan, a revolutionary phone.

A big vote of confidence for Microsoft and Pocket PC phones. We want to see more! And when will we see the first Windows Mobile Smartphone ???

Opera 8.5 for Pocket PC to Appear on W-ZERO3 First

Opera have announced and blogged that their much awaited Pocket PC browser will appear first on Sharp's W-ZERO3 Pocket PC Phone in Japan. The date in the article says mid Jan. although the Willcom site says that the W-ZERO3 with W-SIMwill be available from 14th December. I wonder if the first devices will ship without it?

Windows Mobile Developer Resources

I don't usually post general Pocket PC news, but as I'd love to see more Japan and Japanese related apps for Pocket PCs I think this one is worth posting. If anyone has any other good Windows Developer Resources, please post as comments.

Windows Mobile Developers Wiki

Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone from Willcom

Nov 30 '05 Update: The release date has been announced at the 14th Dec. Prices start from 39,800 yen ($US360) if you take out a one year contract at the same time. Standalone without the W-SIM will be 45,000 yen (US$400).

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Amazing news for the Pocket PC market in Japan. Willcom have announced the W-ZERO3 from Sharp, a Pocket PC Phone Edition device using the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS which will use Willcom's W-SIM module for voice and data (to 64 kbps) communications and has a built in QWERTY keyboard and WLAN.

This will really electrify the so-called smartphone market in Japan. Although Windows Mobile 5.0 may have some way to go to catch up with the usability of phones on the Japanese market, the operating system is way, way ahead of the rest in terms of PDA functionality. The range of applications for Windows Mobile is almost unlimited. For example Skype produce a version of their VOIP software for the Pocket PC.

On the downside at 220g it will certainly weigh on the Pocket. Also in terms of memory expansion it only supports miniSD which is no good for those who have invested heavily in regular size SD memory cards.

Scheduled to go on sale at the end of December it will be interesting to see what the top 3 carriers do to try to catch up.

Some related links (JA = Japanese only):
Wireless Watch Japan
Pocket PC Thoughts
Digital World Tokyo
Willcom Product Page (JA)
Sharp Product Page (JA)
WinCE Fan Announcement (JA)
WinCE Review (JA)

SD Radio Tuner

PDA Kobo , a PDA specialist shop in Japan, have announced the upcoming sale of an SD card radio tuner for PDAs. Looks like the headphones go into the card itself but the tuning is done from the Pocket PC. Just 3,675 yen (about US$30).

Japanese Handwriting Recognition for English OS Pocket PCs: Rumored Hack

Some semi-good news for users of English OS Pocket PCs looking to add Japanese handwriting recognition to their device. A hack has been hacked. Having said that, it comes with the warning that this is a "serious bit of At Your Own Risk modding and I would strongly encourage users who are not comfortable or experienced with altering system settings to stay away". Thanks to a regular reader for the report.

P.S. I know that MS is interested in an Global IME type solution for Pocket PCs ... just not sure how long it will take.

GPS All-In-On-Unit and Navigation Soft

Looks like this is the week for PDA & GPS annoucements. PDA Kobo has announced:

1) An all-in-one GPS unit (that works as a cradle rather than using Bluetooth/SD/CF). They also sell navigation software (GrandMap Navi) and mappig software (SuperMapple Digital).

2) Some packaged sets of the Mitac Mio168RS with GPS to meet different customer needs.

Japan PDA Market Quiet, but HP Continues to Push

Well things have been very quiet in the Pocket PC world in Japan this year. In fact the whole PDA section in one of Tokyo's biggest electronic stores had slimmed down to just a few devices which included 1 Clie, 2 Zaurus and 1 Toshiba Pocket PC. Still Dell and HP are plugging away at the Japanese market. HP still have a good line up of 6 models here and have just announced a package that includes a Hagiwara Bluetooth GPS receiver and navigation package from b-walker. You can see a flash video (in Japanese) about HP's PDA strategy in Japan here.

Hopefully the arrival of Windows Mobile 5 devices to Japan late this year or early next will bring back a bit of excitement. I heard that HP will provide an upgrade for the hx4700 - great news! More and more of the development effort for Windows Mobile is going into SmartPhones and Pocket PC phones so I'm sure Windows Mobile users overseas are having much more fun. There is no sign of these appearing in Japan anytime soon, although it wouldn't surprise me to see a SmartPhone here at some point in the future. Perhaps one of the two new mobile carriers starting up over the next year will take the bait ??? Given the super advanced nature of phones here - in terms of both function and usability - Windows Mobile will face stiff competition but it would be good to see SmartPhones on the market here.

Mio 168 RS with MioMap Mapping Software

Finally some Pocket PC Japan news worth posting about. Mitac Japan has announced a Windows 2003 version of their Mio 168 (now Mio 168RS) Pocket PC with Built in GPS. What looks really exciting though is their new mapping application MioMap that includes audio navigation guidance with settings for pedestrians and cyclists as well as cars. For 73,290 yen you get the PDA, the MioMap software, Super Mapple Digital Ver.4 for Mio and a 1GB SD card - not a bad bundle. Unfortunately for powers users the hardware specs are not too great and there is no CF slot. The MioMap software cannot be used on other Pocket PCs which is a great shame. (Super Mapple Digital sold separately does come with a Pocket PC component).

If you already have a Mio 168RS you can get an OS upgrade and the MioMap software for just 22,000 yen a PDA Kobo. The are a lot of good pictures on this page as well as more on the page on the PDA Kobo site introducing the 168RS.