The future of mobile media distribution is being made in Japan, and there may be profound business and cultural reasons for that -- reasons that may preclude similarly complex systems from being realized elsewhere anytime soon. Writing in Bungei Shunju in November 2003, University of Tokyo professor Takahiro Fujimoto said Japanese manufacturers excel at "products whose functions require many components to be designed in careful detail and mutually adjusted for optimal performance." He explained that this requires close teamwork within a company as well as cooperation with suppliers. Japan's cell phones, its wireless Internet data services, and its nascent digital broadcasting enterprises are perfect -- if complex -- examples of Fujimoto's mutually adjusted systems working in optimal performance. The following is a map to this new world of Japanese mobile technology -- how digital FM cell phones have come of age there and hand-held digital TV, delivered by satellite, may not be far behind. In December 2003 Vodafone Japan grabbed headlines with the world's first analog TV enabled cell phone, the second-generation V601N made by NEC. The handset has an analog TV receiver integrated into the phone, and users receive signals just by turning on the device and pressing a button, just like on any TV. The phone can grab up to nine screen frame captures (no video) for later playback. Admittedly, the V601N is more of a marketing test than a full-fledged technology rollout; more than an hour of TV watching will kill the battery, although the TV tuner automatically turns off before the battery is fully exhausted so as not to leave mobilers without voice service. Also, there is no integration between TV programming and mobile Web services, and TV broadcasters have yet to create programs formatted or produced specifically for mobile viewing. "We wanted customers to get used to the idea of having a TV on the phone," says Matthew Nicholson, spokesman for Vodafone Japan. "We don't have a revenue model yet." Nonetheless, the phone is selling "very well," according to Nicholson -- Vodafone doesn't release sales results by model -- and in fact experienced an upsurge in sales when a new, all-white version was released in March 2004, according to one researcher at market data provider Multimedia Research Institute.
Vodafone appears sufficiently confident in the TV phone that it released a new version from Toshiba in late April. This one includes both a TV and an FM radio receiver, and allows up to 12 minutes of TV programming to be captured as video for later playback. But the recorded files can't be moved off the handset and battery life is still weak.Furthermore, experience gained with analog TV and FM reception via cell phone might just give Vodafone a boost over competitors when digital broadcasting becomes a reality. Digital terrestrial TV has already started in some areas in Japan and will roll out nationwide by 2006.
Yuichi Kogure, an ex-ASCII journalist, a self-professed cell phone enthusiast, and an instructor in mobile media studies at Toita Women's College, says that "(analog) TV phones are now for test marketing only," adding that they "don't have much merit." He points to the advent of digital TV as the key to attracting broadcasters who can then be expected to create digiTV programs that include feedback, real-time participation, contests, surveys, and other media and marketing services. Digital programming could be delivered as easily to cell phones -- battery technology notwithstanding -- as to stand-alone digital TV receivers.
Can control TV programmingA digital TV signal could have a hotlink embedded in a program and displayed on screen; a viewer need merely click on the link to initiate some action such as popping a browser window or sending an e-mail. Kogure thinks, however, that the real use of a cell phone with digital TV will be to control watching, not watching itself. "It's tough to see a real TV image; the screen is too small," he says. "But you can use the phone to control programming -- to choose the beginning and end of a recording session." He also mentions using a cell phone to interact with a TV commercial, and sees this as a natural evolution to the current technology, called "Toku Number." With Toku Number, a mobile user inputs a special code number displayed in a print, outdoor banner, or transit advertisement into the "Tokusuru" mobile Web site (there's one on all three carriers' systems), which then causes the phone's browser to pop open at a preset marketing Web site. Heavyweight 3G carriers NTT DoCoMo and KDDI appear to be listening carefully to visionaries like Kogure. In April 2004 both announced test-bed examples of 3G cellies equipped with digital TV reception chips. NTT DoCoMo's "OnQ" model (whose maker remains confidential) enables TV program viewing for five minute or 10 minute niches -- while waiting for a bus, say, or sitting at the dentist's office. KDDI, working with KDDI R&D Laboratories and NHK Science & Technical Research Laboratories, has created a 3G cellie that can receive and display two hours of terrestrial digiTV programming. The handset, made by Hitachi, includes a BML (broadcast makeup language) browser which can display broadcast data along with the TV image. Can store hours of TV In DoCoMo's case, the service concept is based on time shifting -- a rehash of the old analog VCR marketing angle, but now DoCoMo is hoping users will use the OnQ to grab and take mobile previously recorded digiTV programs. The phone consists of a phone and cradle; the phone has memory sufficient for one or two recorded programs, while the cradle incorporates a hard drive storing several hours of TV (the phone can also receive live digiTV broadcasts). The company expects its time-shift approach to minimize battery life and coverage gap issues, making viewing digiTV much more like i-mode browsing or e-mailing. At least some of the vision predicted by Kogure is already coming true, but using good old-fashioned FM radio and an ultracool cell phone called the "FM Keitai." In partnership with handset maker Sanyo and broadcaster Tokyo FM, KDDI launched the FM Keitai in December 2003. The phone is a 3G handset that incorporates an FM receiver and comes with a pre-installed BREW application that displays programming information as well as the lyrics of the currently playing song. The BREW applet receives a feed sent from Tokyo FM. In what has to be one of the first examples of using mobile data as a feedback channel to enable listener interactivity anywhere, listeners can click on a link when they hear a favorite song and download that song to their phone in the form of a "Chaka Uta" music file (but limited to only 30 seconds). The song can be played back as often as desired, but not transferred off the handset. Clips are encoded in AAC+ format, similar to MP3 format, and the phone can hold 50 or 60 songs. Average cost is about a dollar per track, and the files are delivered by Label Mobile, a startup joint venture funded by the major music labels in Japan.
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