Stat Spot: Japanese mobile payment brands
4
…Japanese mobile payment systems will share the same point-of-sale terminal as local players combine to expedite the rollout of technology in the retail environment. JR East, NTT DoCoMo, JCB and bitWallet will collaborate to develop a sing…
The new network citizens
An interesting announcement from KDDI regarding RFID technology: the Japanese operator is selling a Bluetooth RFID reader which communicates with mobile handsets to relay information from RFID tags. The first deployment is targeted at enterprise …
Vodafone launches first own-brand 3G handset
Vodafone will start selling its 710 3G handset in October, the first marketed solely under the operator’s brand. It is manufactured by Chinese ODM Huawei Technologies, but the specification and design have been defined exclusively by Vodafone.
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Zi makes progress with Qix
Zi Corporation, best known for its predictive text entry software, has secured an agreement with a ‘major multi-national’ operator for the rollout of its Qix product. It hasn’t named the new customer yet, but the deal represents a significant bre…
Something for the weekend…
Near-field communication
There is an extensive technical overview of contactless near-field communication technologies and their role in the mobile environment on the RTT site. Read it here.
Blackberry branches out for consumers
RIM has …
Stat Spot: Osaifu-Keitai handset penetration
13m+
…Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet handsets among DoCoMo’s customer base of 55m Japanese subscribers. DoCoMo uses Felica contacless technology for payments, ticketing, ID and other services. Source: NTT DoCoMo.
DoCoMo’s vision for the future
“The penetration rate of credit-card payment is extremely low in Japan compared with other industrialized countries. However, if the convenience of ‘Osaifu-Keitai’ can be enhanced with a credit function, the market could very well grow to a scale…
Virgin TV service to launch next month
Virgin Mobile’s DAB-based mobile TV service will launch to UK consumers on 1st October. It will offer four TV channels, including BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and E4. There will also be interactive programming and 50 radio channels.
The service a…