Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide.
Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008.
He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics.
Nintendo is really lucky to own the Super Mario brand: after the bumpy, Mario-less launch of the 3DS in Japan back in February, big N is seeing record sales for its portable console. As predicted, sales in Japan for the 3DS crossed the four million unit mark before the end of the year, namely sometime between December 19 and 25.
That’s the week Nintendo sold 510,629 units 3DS systems, according to Japan’s biggest video game magazine Famitsu [JP]. In total, the company has shifted 4,135,739 units in the country since the launch on February 26. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata earlier predicted the 3DS will find 4 million Japanese buyers sometimes in February next year. → Read More
They have been fighting against the concept of making customers pay for extra game content for years, but as previously reported, Nintendo has now changed its strategy. According to a report by Japanese business daily The Nikkei, Nintendo has chosen Fire Emblem as the first game on the 3DS to offer paid download content.
Fire Emblem: Kakusei, the latest title in the classic RPG series, is scheduled for release in Japan in spring 2012 (it has been announced earlier this year).
→ Read More
Big news from Asia’s mobile market today: Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo (55 million customers, over US$50 billion in sales per year) is teaming up with five other tech powerhouses to develop chips for next-generation mobile devices. Docomo’s partners are NEC, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd., Panasonic, and Samsung.
The goal is to use synergies in the six companies’ expertise in developing small and eco-efficient chips to supply to mobile device manufacturers in Japan, Korea, and other places. Docomo says the main focus will be on “products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards”. → Read More
We’ve been waiting for large-sized OLED TVs at least since Sony rolled out the cool (but too small) XEL-1 in 2007. Various bigger OLEDs and “breakthroughs” have made the news in the years after that, and now LG says it’s ready to showcase the world’s biggest OLED TV at CES 2012 (which kicks off on January 10).
Sized at 55 inches, the panel has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and has been developed by using the Oxide TFT technology, according to LG. The company has been working on bigger OLED devices for quite a while now, for example a super-thin 31-inch model (which was shown last year). → Read More
S-LCD Co., the joint venture for making LCDs for TVs between Sony and Samsung, will soon be history. The Japanese company today announced it will exit the 50-50 venture by selling its share to the Korean rival for US$940 million, after seven years of collaboration.
After inking a final agreement, Samsung is ready to absorb the South Korea-based joint venture into its existing LCD business and turn it into a 100% subsidiary. Samsung’s LCD business will then be the second-largest in the world by revenue, trailing only LG Display. → Read More
India is getting a second government-sponsored tablet. The first model (the so-called Aakash) sold out in just a few days after it was launched online last week, but maker DataWind has already followed up with another 7-inch model, the Ubislate 7. It was actually announced a few weeks back, but is now available for pre-order, priced at US$57 (US$10 more than the original Aakash), and features much better specs.
The Ubislate 7 comes with the following features. → Read More
It seems Sharp saw good sales when the company launched the so-called AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH on the Japanese market, the world’s first clamshell Android phone. Today, Sharp’s AQUOS PHONE IS14SH [JP] went on sale in Japan, and again they squeezed a ton of smartphone functions into a feature phone body.
The obvious target here are customers who want to type on a physical slide-out keypad but don’t want to miss out on the typical specs a Japanese Android phone is offering. → Read More
Japan, one of the most advanced mobile nations in the world, doesn’t want to be a “cell phone Galapagos” anymore, at least when it comes to payments over NFC. Paying with cell phones is already ubiquitous in Japan, but now the country’s top three telcos (NTT Docomo, KDDI au, and SoftBank Mobile) are trying to switch from the Nippon-only Osaifu Keitai system to the Type A and Type B NFC standards used globally.
The problem for the carriers is that Osaifu Keitai (“Portable Wallet”), which is based on Sony’s FeliCa RFID smart card technology, isn’t compatible to the Type A and B NFC standards. Docomo, KDDI, and SoftBank have set up the so-called Japan Mobile NFC Consortium to coordinate the domestic adoption of those standards with “service suppliers and handset manufacturers”. → Read More
It’s a common platitude in the gaming industry: it’s the killer titles that make or break a video game system. One case in point is Nintendo whose 3DS sales in Japan, one of the biggest video game markets in the world, are expected to cross the four million mark two months earlier than expected.
Just two weeks ago, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said this will happen “in February next year”, but Japanese business daily The Nikkei is now reporting that cumulative domestic sales of the 3DS will reach four million before year-end. The newspaper is referring to stats from Tokyo-based market research company Enterbrain, which says Nintendo managed to sell a weekly record of 390,000 systems between December 12-18 (and 380,000 units between December 5 and 11). → Read More
A group of researchers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo has developed a car seat [JP, PDF] that can identify drivers when sitting down. The trick is that the system measures the pressure people apply on the seat through a set of 360 sensors.
Each sensor is measuring pressure by its own and sends the information to a laptop, which aggregates the information to show key data like the highest value of pressure, area of contact on the seat (see below), and other factors. According to its makers, the system was able to identify drivers with 98% accuracy during experiments. → Read More
The Robocalypse is near: Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute is working on a humanoid that will stand 13 feet (4m) tall, which is much taller than most other existing robots of its kind (the latest version of Honda’s Asimo, for example, is just 130cm high). It will also sport a built-in cockpit.
Hajime Sakamoto, president of the institute, is on a mission. After having successfully developed a 7-foot robot in 2009 (pictured above), the plan is to build the aforementioned giant robot next, before following up with humanoids that are 26 and 59 feet tall after that. → Read More
There can be no doubt that Japan is the country of vending machines, and this newest model is perhaps the most advanced yet. Developed by Japan-based tech companies Sanden and Okaya (and Intel), this “vending machine 2.0″ features a 65-inch see-through display with full HD resolution as the biggest selling point.
When there are no potential customers around, the display shows a digital clock and various animations to attract people. Once a person is standing in front of the machine, a facial recognition system determines the gender and approximate age and serves up personalized ads. → Read More
Sony has managed to sell a total of 321,407 PlayStation Vitas on December 17 (the day it was launched in Japan) and 18, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu is reporting [JP] today. This pretty solid number means that big S has sold about 46% of its initial shipment of Vitas (which is rumored to be around 700,000 units) in 48 hours.
The Famitsu says that back on December 12, 2004 (the day the PSP was launched), Sony sold a total of 166,074 units in 24 hours. Nintendo was able to sell a total of 371,326 3DS systems in the first 48 hours after launch in Japan on February 26 this year. → Read More
Most online music services have a common problem: it takes too much time and effort to get started and engage with other people. Users usually need to create playlists after registration, look for existing friends using the service or invite new ones, hope that friends really add the songs and bands they like, etc.
If this has been done, sites like Turntable.fm, for example, only work well when a sufficient number of friends are online at the same time and new ones keep joining. Enter Beatrobo, a new social music community, which tries to simplify online group listening by automating the process and making the experience asynchronous, not real-time. → Read More
It’s not the first spider-like robot out there, but it’s almost certainly the most advance one: a team of researchers at Osaka University in Japan has developed Asterisk [JP], a six-legged insect robot that can perform a few pretty interesting moves.
Perhaps the most interesting feature is that Asterisk can pick up objects with two legs, lift them on top of its body and carry them away. Asterisk is also able to climb up stairs, lower its body to move through narrow spaces or move along a net attached to a wall. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has introduced LG’s awesome Optimus Android phone in Japan yesterday. It’s compatible to Docomo’s 4G service Xi and follows the launch of the handset in Korea and North America.
The Docomo version comes equipped with NFC and a digital TV tuner for Japanese users wanting to watch 1seg channels on the 4.5-inch, 1280×720 IPS display. LG did not build in an infrared connection, however (which many Japanese mobile subscribers got used to on their feature phones). → Read More
It’s now video game history: after the 3DS didn’t sell as well as expected, Nintendo decided to go for a sudden, massive price drop for its portable console worldwide. In Japan, for example, the price fell by 40% from 25,000 yen to 15,000 yen. Later, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata apologized to buyers and promised a bunch of free games for early adopters, no matter where the device was bought.
It took them a while, but Nintendo finally sent out an email to users in Japan that contains all ten Gameboy Advance titles that are part of the so-called “3DS Ambassador Program” (which is to make up for the price cut). → Read More
The 3DS sure had a bumpy start, but it seems Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata’s hunch that sales will pick up (we reported last week) is right. According to Japan’s biggest video game magazine Famitsu, the 3DS sold a solid 378,114 units between December 5 and 11. Nintendo reported 371,326 units sold in the first two days after launch in Japan, but the last week was the most successful one for big N after initial interest got weaker (see graph below).
Apart from the general boost for the video game market as a whole observed every holiday season, there is one specific reason for the spike the 3DS has seen last week: Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3G, which went on sale in Japan on December 10, and apparently made many new players buy the system. → Read More
Honda caused quite a splash a while back with the introduction of the U3-X, a personal mobility robot that’s basically a motorized unicycle (and that our own John Biggs was “impressed” with after taking it for a test drive last year). And now, at the Tokyo Motor Show 2011, Honda took the wraps of a pretty similar robot, the so-called Uni-Cub.
In fact, Honda says it has been working on mobility solutions for single drivers since 1980. Just like with the U3-X, this new model makes it possible for drivers to ride in the direction they want to go by just moving the upper body or operating a joystick (the robot can also handle lateral movements). → Read More
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