KDDI Takahashi Says Handset with Enhanced BREW and GPS Functionality Will Be Launched This Fall

K-tai Watch
September 19, 2003

Makoto Takahashi, KDDI Solution Business Content Director, delivered a speech entitled KDDI's Content Business 2003 at WPC EXPO 2003 on September 18. He mentioned that au outdid its competitors in terms of pure monthly subscription growth in April through June and August, and that the number of CDMA2000 1x users surpassed 10 million. He also explained the amount of packets transmitted per au user has drastically increased and data ARPU has inched up, while pointing out that the fact that the volume of NTT DoCoMo's packet data communications has not expanded suggests that PDC's data speed of 28.8Kbps is approaching its limit. With the 1x service, the value chain where low packet rates leads to increased traffic volume, which leads to good content like Bring-tone melody, which then leads to increase in content sales, has been established, according to Takahashi. Mentioning that DoCoMo's chain is beginning to collapse, he highlighted that it's important to create a solid value chain in the mobile Internet business.

Citing that ring-tone melody had hit 20 million downloads by mid-August, he argued that one of the reasons for the service's success is the pay-per-download system, which differs from DoCoMo's systems. With the au charging system, record companies can set price on their own, a business model advantageous to the record companies. However, he stressed that monthly fees are the basic content business model.

Referring to BREW, he unveiled that BREW will be implemented on all au models. This fall, KDDI will release BREW2.1 handsets which are loaded with features such as a VGA LCD, BREW-enabled camera control, improved performance, and collaboration with data folders. He said that it will not be until next spring when all au models support BREW. Explaining that Java has reached its limit, he asserted that the most important thing is application boot-up speed and Java cannot provide that with low-priced handsets. He pointed out that Java may have made a mistake in setting objectives. Another advantage of BREW mentioned by him is the fact that BREW has been accepted globally by various carriers including Verizon. Stating Verizon's success in its mobile Internet business where the company has developed a browser in BREW and provided ring-tone melodies. The fact that Qualcomm provides an integrated platform which includes charging, authentication, and downloading syst ems is another advantage of BREW over Java, which is just a technical standard. Of the handsets sold by Verizon, 41% are now BREW-compatible. He also mentioned that KTF of Korea has sold 4.6 million BREW handsets. "We can't invest in overseas businesses on our own like DoCoMo has, but we can work with Qualcomm, and we are creating an environment where Japanese content providers can export their content," said he, reiterating the importance of collaboration with overseas companies.

Takahashi commented that GPS-based navigation will evolve into a new phase this fall, stating that man navigation is a new form of navigation which features network-independent autonomous positioning, geomagnetic sensor-based head-up, and voice navigation functions. In the EV-DO age, he said that packet rates go down while content gets richer.