Posted on September 29, 2008, at 8:37 AM .
Word coming straight out of Tokyo is that RIM is looking to release the BlackBerry Bold in Japan by early 2009. While the average Japanese person has smartphones that are lightyears beyond ours, with cold fusion and laser support, RIM’s COO Donald Morrison sees a huge opportunity in the enterprise space:
“The challenge for us is to get our products localised,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a briefing to introduce the Bold in Japan. “Once they are localised and pass the certification, the opportunity, particularly in the enterprise base, is an essentially still wide open market.”
NTT DoCoMo is already selling BlackBerry in Japan and in addition to the BlackBerry Bold, plans to almost double its smartphone line-up to 10 by next year to tap growing demand for phones with computer-like capabilities. For our friends in the land of the rising sun who just can’t wait, check out our full BlackBerry Bold review below.
The Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review (with full device specs)
BlackBerry Bolds Around the World map
(via Reuters)
Posted on July 7, 2008, at 8:33 AM .
Japan had been struggling with language support issues and BlackBerry, but now that the BlackBerry 8703 will be available on BIS for ¥ 3,045 or about $US 30, it looks like the brand is getting some traction. The BlackBerry Internet Service will be available August 1st. to customers who don’t have a corporate server handy, which opens up the market considerably. While the 8703 has most of the same guts as the newer models, it’s still distinctly lacking their good looks and style. It goes without saying that Japan will have some pretty stiff competition in wireless, so if RIM means business there, they might have to fast track the device catalog to catch up.
(Far East Gizmos via Rimarkable)
Posted on October 25, 2007, at 8:16 AM .
Getting felt up on a train isn’t so great, right? Well, depends on the circumstances, but for the sake of conversation, let’s say you weren’t asking for it. Game developer Takahashi released an app two years ago for your mobile called Anti-Groping Appli which has been gaining popularity. The program flashes progressively threatening messages on your mobile to touchy-feely horn-dogs on crowded Japanese trains, starting at “Did you just grope me?” working its way up to “Shall we head to the police?” with each key press. It’s a free download, but searching for sites in Japanese is a bit outside of this blogger’s scope. Leefe has managed to dig up a download link, but it doesn’t look to be compatible with BlackBerrys. If you’re packing anything else, give it a shot!
Posted on October 24, 2007, at 7:39 AM .
NTT DoCoMo has announced that their Nanimail application, which facilitates Japanese character recognition, will be compatible with the BlackBerry 8300, 8800, 8820, and 8830 on November 1st, with 8100 and 7100 software coming out December 1st. Oddly, this app was developed by DoCoMo’s American branch; you’d think that when it comes to writing Japanese, you’d want to keep operations at home. In any case, this character input software complements the Japanese language support update to the BlackBerry OS back in July, and should offer our buddies across the pond a full-bodied BlackBerry experience.
Posted on October 18, 2007, at 2:08 PM .
Pantech has announced that they’ll be releasing the A1407PT in Japan come November, which conducts sound, both incoming and outgoing, through your skull. Crazy, huh? Conducting conversations this way supposedly cuts down on ambient distortion, and also provides clearer listening for folks with hearing disabilities. The bonephone is a niche-y technology, but innovative nonetheless. If a mobile just partially used the technology to clean up call quality, it would certainly see more widespread use.
Posted on July 17, 2007, at 7:50 AM .
The Japanese language support we mentioned last month has come to fruition, with BlackBerry software updates happening next monday. Not only are menus going to be in Japanese, but input support is also on the way. Anyone on a BES will also get an update to facilitate the new features, along with the desktop manager. With that out of the way, maybe BlackBerrys can make some headway into Japan beyond visiting businesspeople.
