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The Japanese mobile phone industry is one of the most advanced in the world. As of July 31, 2013 there were 139,180,300 mobile phones in use in Japan. This is 110 percent of Japan's total population according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
In Japanese, mobile phone handsets (携帯電話端末 keitaidenwa-tanmatsu) are often referred to as simply keitai denwa (携帯電話) or keitai (携帯) for short.
• Five Cellular Service Operators in Japan •
1. Willcom
- The last PHS Personal Handy-phone System service operator.
2. NTT DoCoMo
- DoCoMo was spun off in 1991 from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), NTT DoCoMo first offered its second-generation service known as Personal Digital Cellular (PDC). It now offers a 3G service using W-CDMA technology known as FOMA. The company is operating a world band W-CDMA network at 2100 MHz. As of March 2016, the number of subscribers is 71 million.
3. KDDI
- KDDI was formed by the merger of KDD (International phone service operator), DDI (nationwide CDMA operator except for Kanto and Tokai area), and IDO (CDMA operator for Kanto and Tokai area) in 2000. They offer the au mobile phone service: its second generation service, using CDMA technology, and 3G service, using CDMA2000. Their operating bands are 800 MHz and 2100 MHz. As of March 2016, there are 46 million subscribers.
4. Softbank Mobile
- Softbank Mobile is a subsidiary of Softbank. Softbank purchased Vodafone Japan at $15b in 2006. Softbank Mobile now offers 3G service using W-CDMA technology at 2100 MHz. Softbank Mobile was also the exclusive service provider of Apple's iPhone in Japan until November 2011. As of March 2016, there were 40 million subscribers.
5. Y!mobile
- Y!mobile, formerly EMOBILE, is the most recent entrant into the 3G market. Beginning in 2005, it has provided 3G data and voice service coverage to 90% of the Japanese population through its own network and a roaming agreement with NTT DoCoMo. Their band is 1700 MHz which is not compatible with other area's W-CDMA phone. As of December 2013, the projected subscriber base was over 10 million subscribers.
• Mobile Phone Manufacturers •
The following manufacturers have marketed and sold handsets within Japan:
Japanese
1. Fujitsu (including Toshiba)
2. Kyocera
3. NEC-Casio(NEC/Casio/Hitachi)
4. Panasonic
5. Sharp
6. Sony
7. DoCoMo
Non-Japanese
1. Apple
2. BlackBerry Limited
3. HTC
5. Huawei
6. Lenovo (including Motorola)
7. LG Electronics
8. Samsung
9. ZTE
Sanyo Electric, although formerly an independent manufacturer of handsets, sold its handset business to Kyocera in 2008. Mitsubishi Electric exited the mobile phone market in April 2008. Nokia discontinued development of mobile phones for the Japanese market in 2009. The DoCoMo M702iS, released in December 2006, was the last Motorola phone launched in Japan until their return to the market in 2011.
Japanese manufacturers have had difficulty marketing their phones overseas. In 2009, out of all Japanese handset manufacturers, Sony Ericsson (now called Sony Mobile) sold the most handsets worldwide (after non-Japanese Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics and Motorola); domestically, Sharp sold one quarter of the Japanese market, followed by Fujitsu, Panasonic, NEC and Kyocera.
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That's all for today!
See you in my next class.
