NTT DoCoMo launches a new mobile for business people, remote handling.

The Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has just introduced a new Device aimed at professionals. Manufactured by Fujitsu, the terminal F-06A offers a function of remote control to protect the motive for leaking confidential information, or non-professional use by the holder of the mobile. This terminal will be on sale on 23 January, on the Japanese market only, through the professional services of the operator.

The use of mobile professionals is increasingly important in the Japanese market and there is a strong demand for the protection of confidential information contained in the mobile. The first characteristic of the F-06A is its ability to be controlled remotely, in case of loss or theft of mobile. It is possible to reformat parts of the mobile, such address book, call history, messages, photos or calendar remotely. Also to avoid the abuse of employees on the use of mobile for personal purposes, it is also possible to limit or set some distance phone functions (image sensor, address book, infra red locking, etc.) . To be able to perform this grip remote mobile, you must subscribe to an optional subscription dedicated professional.

For more security information, this phone does not certain duties on mobile memory cards, FeliCa, or data transfer via USB. The entertainment functions (One-seg, music player, etc.) are not supported either.

France: Prohibit the sale of mobile under 12 years?

Excellent news of a future law that would ban the sale of mobile young people under 12 who are "more susceptible because their bodies are still growing"

"Art. L. 5231-3. - Any communication, whatever the medium or the media, aimed directly or indirectly, to promote the sale, supply, use or the use of mobile phones by children under twelve years is prohibited”.

Another article: Article L. 34-9 of the postal code and electronic communications, it is inserted a third paragraph reads: "The radio terminals to be connected to a network open to the public for the provision of telephone service cannot be marketed without an accessory to limit the exposure of the head to radio emissions in communications. "

The precautionary principle is common sense, it has not yet been possible to date to conduct epidemiological studies to determine the health effects of long-term exposure to frequencies emitted by mobile phones. And it is also the case of a population that are heavily equipped with future consumers of tomorrow, then we must care! In any case the world's young people represent approximately 18% of the world population, they remain what to do ....so the marketing services operators will have to show initiative and imagination if the law is passed!

iPhone from the Asian side, or 2009 as the japanese attack on Appstore

The iPhone is not only a revolution in Europe and North America, where its success finally created the conditions for a takeoff of the Internet and mobile multimedia. But it represents a new challenge for the traditional leaders in this area: South Korea and Japan. In very different contexts, the success of the iPhone has changed the look from the actors of the market in these two countries in Europe and could lead to a return in force for developers of applications, including Japanese, on the Old continent.

On the side of Japan, iPhone has a limited success on the archipelago, but its impact on the strategy of the players is likely to be major. Launched by the third operator Softbank Mobile in July, iPhone does not have two main popular functions of the Japanese Mobiles - FeliCa Sim contactless (and its functions as payment and transport mobile) and mobile TV. Unlike the case of South Korea, iPhone has a small impact on the Japanese market. However, it radically changes the look of content providers on the Japanese mobile market from Europe and America.

A new opportunity: 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone
For those publishers Japanese, iPhone is a new opportunity to develop on the mobile in Europe. It makes it possible to create a global market of mobile applications, as software developed for iPhone in Japan, is used around the world (only the cost of translation and localization of content to ensure). Moreover, the repayment of Apple publisher application is much higher than that proposed by European operators, including traditional subscribers downloading anyway few applications.

The publishers of video games from Japan decided to seize this new chance to take a position in Europe. In July 2008, at the Wireless Japan exhibition in Tokyo (the largest mobile event in Japan), I was struck by the number of publishers who annunced their desire to launch applications on the Appstore, and locate in Europe in 2009. It is true that the Japanese mobile market - over 90% penetration of 3G, and the equivalent of 3.5 billion euros in annual revenues for mobile content - is now saturated. Japanese mobile publishers are now investing again in Europe, and sees iPhone as a beautiful and inexpensive door.

A weak signal of this movement is the arrival of Sunsoft. The Japanese publisher, specializing in "casual games" type MahJong, but also well-known in Japan for his "horror games (See the video game" Alice in distorted land: http://jp.youtube .com / watch? v = faDwOSmTl0E, which was a major success on the Japanese mobile, particularly among teenagers) has launched in recent months its Mahjong Solitaire on Appstore for the global market, which represents a test for his Developing iPhone in Europe.

All the information I collected from Japan suggest that Sunsoft, but also other developers prestigious Japanese video game should go on the offensive on iPhone Appstore and during 2009, on this new the media entertainment titles in Japan. 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone.

The New Deck

In the mobile we usually talk about “on deck” and “off deck” , meaning distributing content throught the carrier space or out of his ground. The “new deck” is the new selling place , and it's all about applications and app stores.

Apple’s iPhone app store isn’t the only new deck in the market. Palm has announced a new application store and already has 5,000 offerings that work on more than two dozen devices including their Windows Mobile devices. Blackberry has an app store debuting in the spring and of course Google’s Android Market is already going gangbusters as well...

The proliferation of app stores impacts consumers, businesses and the mobile industry as a whole. For consumers it means that whatever your mobile device is, you can now do more with it. I predict that consumers will begin to shop for their next device based on the apps they can get and/ or stick with a particular device for the apps they have already integrated into their daily life.

The new deck requieres to have a solid and pertinent aplication store strategy, it's clearly necessary.

Knowing which devices are most used by your target audience is a critical foundation step. And ignoring the application market will not work for long.

How do you think the “new deck” will impact our industry?

VOCALIA implementing voice numeration on iPhone

One of the mobile battles of tomorrow will deal with the interface of mobile and voice recognition; here's an application that opens this type of application on iPhone.

Vocalia iPhone is a voice dialing. Talk and Vocalia quickly find the names of your contacts in your directory. Later versions could provide complementary features. Theapplication includes a new option very practical and expected by users: automatic number 1 output, voice confirmation of the person and the number to call. By enabling this option in the Control Panel, under "Browse mode", Vocalia becomes a voice recognition application 100% hands free!

Save the AppStore!

The proliferation of cheap applications on the AppStore is stifling innovation and holding Apple’s mobile touch platform back from realizing its true potential, think developers and companies developing quality mobile softwares.
The question became more obvious with the letter from Craig Hockenberry ( Iconfactory) to Steve Job : http://furbo.org/2008/12/09/ring-tone-apps/

The Apps Store and the iPhone 3rd Party Platform as a whole is barely 22 weeks old. And it's success is staggering. I can't think of any other computing platform (or any media platform for that matter) that has created over 10,000 totally new pieces of content in it's first 150 days. 150 days!!!
25 million iPhones and Touches out there at the moment, that will likely double in a few months, and a few months later too.

But I think it's becoming obvious that something needs to change with the way apps are listed and browsed in the store, as well, I think the business model of the app store is hitting an inflection point.
Apple could introduce more varieties of lists, we've seen them all in other places, fastest movers, most viewed. Apple's headings aren't clear, I presume 'Top' means most downloaded (in the last 24 hours, week?). I'm rather less clear about 'What's Hot' is.

I think so many people are jumping into I phone application development after having heard about that guy who made $250K with a casual puzzle game...but I think that about 80% of them will provide garbage applications that even free I won't pay for it.
With almost 10,000 apps in the App Store, and maybe 20 new apps per day, there's no nice way to give attention to all of those apps!

If you make an iPhone app, I suggest to prepare you to make less than $1000 on your app, for the lifetime of your app , even if you have a few developers and designers working on your app.

I really think that iPhone got a real potential that Apple must preserve, so, it may got to study and reorganize the pertinence of the App store, that will keep on growing...

First advanced UI for Vodafone

The new solution FlipFont (Monotype Imaging) is accessible from Vodafone live!, Vodafone is the first operator in Europe to provide a download service which will change the font of its interface.

The solution FlipFont launches a selection of 10 fonts from 1.40 €.To date phones that supports this UI are based on the Symbian OS.
Even if the service is an important step in the personalization of the user interface, which will expand, it is far from the Japanese Acrodea service ( check previous post).

Mobile data services are expected to exceed $ 200 billion in 2008 for the first time, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. (157 billion in 2007). It is an important growth engines for the future of operators and will therefore give an accelerated deployment of innovative mobile services, including customizing the user interface.

More than a deeper way to customize the mobile and enable a better experience to the user, I think this kind of UI would be a powerful marketing tool for brands and medias.