Many handset models have access The dedicated terminals are now being phased out and M-Stage is accessed via 3G handsets (the new 3G network includes a 64-kilobit-per-second circuit-switched channel in addition to a 384-kilobit-per-second packet channel) as well as PDAs, including Pocket PC devices, Palm devices, and Sharp's Zaurus series. Subscribers can browse a dozen categories that mirror the i-mode menu tree and include News, Business, Finance, Traffic, Maps, Travel, Town Info, eBooks, Culture, Daily Life and Hobbies. There are eight programs in the News category, including three weather programs (from content providers Access, Weather Service, and the Japan Weather Foundation), and news feeds from Nikkei Net and Kyodo. Clips are drawn from news reports and other elements of existing programs; users of the Nikkei Net service can receive e-mail notices when new clips are posted and ready and can also combine their mobile account to get desktop PC access. DoCoMo doesn't release detailed subscriber numbers, which are likely modest, but the M-Stage services (there's also a music download and e-book service) have been expanded since the start of 3G in 2001. The carrier obviously sees this multimedia content as strategic for boosting usage of the new 3G network. The latest 3G handsets are also helping boost media content delivery using enhanced Java and Web functionality. Sharp's just-released NTT DoCoMo SH900i 3G handset features a 2.4-inch (320-by-240 dot) 262,144-color QVGA (quarter VGA) liquid crystal display, with resolution equivalent to a PC monitor from just a few years ago. The images are stunning. It also has a 2.02-megapixel autofocus CCD camera, a 64-tone audio processor, a removable miniSD Card slot, and predictive text input. E-mail messages can handle image and video attachments and deliver up to 5,000 characters. The phone's Java environment can download single Java applications -- games, news readers, or mail clients, among many others -- up to 100 kilobytes in size and store dozens of such applications onboard. Other 900i-series handsets can download even larger, 500-kilobyte Java applications. Java, developed by Sun Microsystems in the United States and first fielded by DoCoMo in January 2001 (and by other Japanese carriers a few months later), is proving to be particularly valuable for news delivery. A mini application can be written in the Java programming language and offered for download via a media provider's wireless Web site. Once installed, the application, or "applet," can run continuously in the background -- even when the handset is closed up and stuffed into a back pocket -- and can download news headlines, text stories and other information in (more or less) real time. The subscriber can customize that data and choose to receive only headlines (with minimal packet fees) or the complete text. Print is still dominant But many media providers still reserve their best content for traditional print or Web distribution, where the propensity to pay is still predictable and users don't have to squint at tiny screens. "On wireless, the stories are edited, or cut, for mobile delivery and usually comprise only two or three paragraphs," says Waichi Sekiguchi, editorial writer in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun's (Nikkei) Business News department. "Eighty percent of our revenue comes from paper," he adds, illustrating the Nikkei's strategy of using mobile distribution as a means to encourage customers to buy the print newspaper. Does the service really encourage people to buy the print version? "Yes, since most are already print subscribers," says Sekiguchi. But he adds that other media outlets don't have the same luck in getting mobile readers to buy print. Wire services Kyodo and Jiji Press, in contrast, don't own traditional print or other distribution channels, so their mobile news services tend to deliver the full text. Sekiguchi adds that most business news consumers -- traders and analysts -- are watching their Bloomberg or Reuters desk boxes for real-time, market-moving information, while mobile users tend to be regular people and not as willing to pay for financial content. He says that over-access is a problem, and all media outlets must contend with "Packet Shi," or "Packet Death" -- what occurs when a heavy user gets his or her i-mode packet bill at the end of the month. Nonetheless, Sekiguchi is positive about the prospects for mobile media distribution. "I think people like technology -- most people love it," he says. He predicts that mobile media distribution will soon evolve into multimedia distribution, and the traditionally separate roles of text writer and photo editor will merge: "Each writer will have to select images to go with his text." Hot News rolls out Java game content developer G-Mode, based in Tokyo's Shinjuku skyscraper district, appears to agree with Sekiguchi's forecast. They have recently decided to expand into the newsreader market, and created the company's first non-game Java application, Hot News, a news and headline reader offered by News Service Center (NSC), a telephone (voice) news service provider for more than 30 years. Hot News, launched April 5, costs $3 per month on NSC's i-mode site and allows subscribers to quickly scroll through continually updated headlines and select individual stories for download. The reader applet offers nine or 10 headlines at once; you simply click on a headline to download the entire text (approximately 200 characters). There is also a "download all news" button allowing all current stories to be received at once (handy, if a little expensive, just before getting on the subway for a long ride). The applet can only download text at this time, but adding image or Flash animation functionality is "not technically difficult," says Yutaka Hashimoto, G-Mode's general manager for overseas business. "From the user point of view, packet fees and time are key," he adds. Later versions will be compatible with "multimedia news." It should be noted that packet fees will soon become irrelevant, as all carriers offer significantly cheaper packet rates on their 3G systems (less than a cent per packet for DoCoMo, for example), and both KDDI and DoCoMo have announced flat-rate plans for 3G. As more of the current per-packet-paying 2G subscribers migrate to 3G, options for media distribution will only increase. Hashimoto says that the present mobile news browsing market is not large: "One reason why it is so small is that current HTML-based browsing is bothersome; you must point and click, and if you are out of network coverage, there will be no response." In a positive note for media content sites, he predicts that people will access news and information even more as the ease of use improves. He also says that this mode of access won't replace traditional newspapers, since both have benefits: "Traditional newspapers have a big advantage in presenting long stories, analyses, charts, and graphics, while mobile has good advantages for quick delivery." Hashimoto also says that a version of Hot News could be developed based on the BREW (Binary Runtime for Wireless) programming environment. BREW is provided on cell phones that use the CDMA network standard developed by U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. Japan's No. 2 market carrier KDDI uses CDMA and has won a commanding lead over NTT DoCoMo for 3G subscribers with the technology. KDDI is widely expected to eventually drop Java in favor of BREW. Japan's carriers have even started experimenting with mobile media content delivery that avoids using the packet networks whatsoever. Also see sidebar: "Father of Japan's Mobile Web Code Enabled Generation of New Devices" NEXT ISSUE
Part Two: The Video Phone Craze
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