Goin' Mobile Japan

Trendwatch: New regulation will increase demand for GPS-equipped mobile handsets.

Mobile handsets equipped with GPS are expected to be in high demand since the adoption of a new regulation mandated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The new regulation, which went into affect in April 2007 and is often referred to as “Japan’s e911”, stipulates that all new 3G handsets are required to be equipped with GPS technology. The main purpose of the regulation is to be able to accurately determine a callers’ location in the event of an emergency and relay that information to the police or fire department. Emergency calls from mobile handsets have rapidly increased and the Japanese government had been planning to add the mandate for the past couple of years. The ministry has set a goal to have 50% of all handsets equipped with GPS by April 2009 and 90% by April 2011.

KDDI is the most advanced carrier in terms of providing GPS handsets and services. Since KDDI released the first GPS handset in December 2001, total shipments of GPS handsets have reached 20 million units. Currently, almost all KDDI handsets are equipped with GPS technology. KDDI’s EZ Navi Walk is a GPS-based pedestrian navigation service that has gained more than 2 million subscribers since its launch in September 2006. DoCoMo has recently been catching up to KDDI and currently has 13 handsets equipped with GPS in the market. DoCoMo’s service includes ”Imadoco? (Where are you now?)”, a child and friend tracking service that currently has 200,000 FOMA users.

au EZ Navi Walk (Japanese language site)
http://www.au.kddi.com/ezweb/service/ez_naviwalk/index.html

DoCoMo Imadoco? (Japanese language site)
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/service/location/imadoco/index.html#p01

GPS featured handsets will stimulate the creation of innovative location-based services in addition to advancements in mobile technology. For example, Asahi Kasei Micro Systems developed a new sensor that measures the magnetic energy of the earth’s surface with a 6-axis electronic compass. This sensor measures gravity in addition to measuring the X, Y, and Z-axis. Ricoh and Yamaha are also developing various sensors with similar technology. Mapping, security and monitoring, SNS, gaming and job search/placement companies are some of the industries that can benefit from this new technology.

Although the outlook is bright, there are some key issues facing current GPS technology in Japan. Current GPS location information is not perfectly accurate and location information has an average error range of 10 to 100 meters. Also, GPS may not work when users are behind buildings as the handsets are unable to receive a strong signal. These issues are expected to be resolved with the launch of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite (QZS) in 2008 which is a joint project between the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It will be interesting to see what new technologies will emerge and how they will be marketed in order to truly develop a GPS-based society in the next 3 to 5 years in Japan.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
High Accuracy Positioning Experiment System Using Quasi-Zenith Satellites System
(Japanese language site)
http://qzss.jaxa.jp/02.html http://qzss.jaxa.jp/03.html