Japan’s SoftBank has released the first mobile phone aimed at stock traders. Produced by Sharp, the SoftBank 920SH YK (picture below) enables real-time portfolio checking and online trading. While other phones offer stock trading options, the YK is designed specifically for it.

What is new with this phone is the Stock Trading Key, a dedicated button that allows one-touch trading. The phone’s screen is also optimized for stock watching. SoftBank has a fold-out horizontal screen fueled by AQUOS (makers of LCD TVs) that makes market watching easier, as the phone when unfolded looks like a tiny PC (or something that Kirk and Adam West would have fought over).

Continue Reading »

For the first time fiber-optic broadband Internet is more popular than cable, although most of the growth is taking place overseas, says a new report from British research firm Point Topic.

According to the company, nearly double the amount of customers registered with fiber-optic Internet services than with cable providers—4.2 million customers versus 2.5 million customers in the first fiscal quarter of 2008.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the new subscribers are in Asia, the fastest-growing region of Internet users in the world.

Continue Reading »

You will discover how to wirelessly upload photos directly from you camera to an online photo album, learn that Japan now has more than 6 million fiber-optic subscribers, and that the Japanese are switching in droves to 3G phones.

You will also discover the types of content Japanese cell users put on their phones, their mania for m-commerce, and a cutting-edge innovation that lets you map where you take your photos with a GPS device that connects to a digital camera or camcorder.

Continue Reading »

On September 29th, camera manufacturer Nikon will be launching a new Internet connection service in partnership with Wi-Fi Internet service provider Japan Telecom. Users will be able to send photos directly from the camera to an online photo album wirelessly, without using a computer. This Coolpix Connect service (now called My PictureTown), the first of its kind on the Japanese market, will be introduced at the same time as a new camera, the Coolpix S7c.

The Coolpix S7c camera has built-in Wi-Fi capability for connecting to the Internet at any of the 3500 access points in Japan Telecom’s “BB Mobil Point” public wireless LAN. Coolpix Connect includes 100 MB of free storage space via Nikon Online Album, but users have to be Japan Telecom subscribers. Images are selected for upload to the album using the camera’s LCD screen.

The Japanese Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) has published the latest statistics on cell phone subscribers and mobile Internet users in Japan.

As of August 31st, there were 93.5 million cell phone subscribers in Japan, 81.3 million of whom also subscribed to a mobile Internet service from one of the three leading operators. In the same month, KDDI again won the most new customers (+119,800 for a total of 26.2 million subscribers), followed by NTT DoCoMo (+113,000, total of 51.9 million). Vodafone/Softbank Mobile attracted only 16,000 new customers (15.2 million total). That’s less than PHS (Personal Handyphone System) Willcom, which snagged 48,300 new subscribers (4.19 million total).

Continue Reading »

Mobile Content Forum, the Japanese association of mobile content providers, has published statistics on Japan’s mobile content and m-commerce market in 2005. According to the report, mobile transactions grew by 39% in 2005 to total ¥722.4 billion (€4.9 billion).

The MCF report addresses the two major sides of m-business: mobile content and mobile commerce. With 3G becoming the norm throughout Japan, these two markets saw continued strong growth in 2005: 21% for digital content (22% in 2004) and 57% for m-commerce (52% in 2004). There are 92.6 million mobile users in Japan, 80.5 million of whom also subscribed to a mobile Internet service by of the end of May 2006. Of these, 51.3 million have a 3G handset.

Continue Reading »

The Japanese Telecommunications Ministry has published the June 2006 quarterly statistics on broadband Internet connections. These most recent figures show the number of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections continuing to soar. They now account for 26% of the market.

As of the end of June, more than 6 million households (6.3 million) were subscribing to FTTH. In contrast, ADSL, previously the star of broadband connections, saw its first drop in subscribers in the second quarter of 2006. This decline occurred in major cities, where copper wire is now competing directly with fiber optics.

Continue Reading »

Despite constant media attention surrounding the Internet in China, people still know very little about this new Internet frontier. Hardly anyone can tick off the names of dotcoms that are a part of daily life for Chinese Internet users.

We know all about using MSN Messenger to chat with friends, Amazon.com to buy a book, and eBay to sell a vintage collection of Rolling Stones LPs. Not so in China.

Exit MSN Messenger. The young (typically urban) Chinese Internet community uses QQ to chat online and goes to Joyo.com (recently acquired by Amazon.com) or DangDang Bookstore Online to by the latest Harry Potter book in Chinese. For online buying and selling, Shanghai and Beijing websurfers log into TaoBao.com, the country’s leading online auction site with over 10 millions users—20 times more than are registered with its competitor eBay China.

Continue Reading »

Kamel Ouadi, the new L’Oréal CRM and e‑business director for China, met with L’Atelier BNP Paribas at his new Shanghai office. Ouadi came from Paris in January to implement a new marketing strategy that is already succeeding with eLadies, a site developed in partnership with China’s number-one portal, Sina.com.

L’Atelier: How is L’Oréal using the Internet to market itself in China?

Kamel Ouadi: We are primarily experimenting with the tremendously popular portal eLadies launched in April 2002 in partnership with the number-one Chinese portal, Sina, which attracts two million visitors a day and has nine million members. Our approach is mainly service oriented. We provide information on all our product lines and upcoming events.

Continue Reading »

With 111 million current Web users and a likely 25 million new users by year’s end, China has the stuff to make more than one e-business-smitten investor go bananas. It’s a €1.6 billion market that has really skyrocketed in the past five years, explains Hou Tao, assistant manager of the research department at iResearch, the leading Chinese e-business consulting firm. According to Hou, the bulk of market profits are generated by games, advertising, and search engines.

Games make up the majority of Web-related revenues, totaling more than €60 million, but Hou downplays this: “Growth in this market soared until 2001; it continues today, but at a gentler pace.” Game companies Shanda, NetEase, and The9 alone make up two-thirds of the market.

Continue Reading »