Steve Nagata

Still scheduled to be completed this year, the renovation work on the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station is still under way. The new domes over the North and South entrances can now be seen popping up from the scaffolding surrounding the building.

For as long as I have known it, Tokyo Station has been an underground building. The Marunouchi side was a quick post war knock off of the original building and has for all intents and purpose been a condemned building for years. This new renovation is supposed to return the building to its pre war original state. I’m dreaming of a new, but classic design that will add visibility and access to the tracks and bring ye station out of its underground cocoon. Tokyo needs a signature station like Grand Central in New York or Moscow subway station. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see this landmark rise again in a few months.

Read more on Tokyo station here. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōkyō_Station

Three days and 26 hours in the can. I’m writing this on the train to my last day live streaming the Belgian Beer Weekend Tokyo event at Roppongi Hills Arena. Just 8 hours left!

Had a very fun trial run this week with my gypsy Internet TV studio. I think I’m liking the name “Studio@stevenagata” for this monster of mismatched parts from my closet, computers and electrical tape. So far no major hiccups, but a few minor technical glitches I’ll have to work on.

The biggest problem so far has been errors on the Roland VR-5 mixer causing some of the saved streams to corrupt on closing. I lost a few bits I had meant to save including a music act that I thought went pretty well. Since we are not archiving online the video, I’m afraid, is lost forever. Will have to run some endurance tests to try and nail down the problem. Otherwise I might look into on off board video recorder like an Atmos Ninja.

It’s been fun to see so many friends stop by the event. Hoping a few more might make it by today. Keeping the stream up can be pretty draining so I wasn’t able to chat much, but hope that today will be a bit lighter as I starting together the hang of things.

The event itself has been super cool. Great bands, good food, 62 types of beer and a crowd expected to top 20,000 for the four days. Early metrics showing we’ll beat that number decisively with online viewers. Super thanks to Akoni KK, Rob Van Nylen and Dean Fujii for bringing me on board for this event. Hope to do more like it in the future (I hear talk of a possible fashion show! (^_^) ). Also big props to ace Cameraman and super geek Joseph Tame for putting in 4x hours over the agreed work and covering all the concerts like a pro.

Definitely stop by if you have time today. It’s really a great atmosphere. Or tune in on the livestream at http://bit.ly/bbw2011. More detailed reports on my studio later *I hope*

Ok, first of all I need to come up with a better name than that.

Some work recently has given me the chance to play around with higher level AV gear and in typical fashion I kinda got a bit carried away. A couple of years ago, comrade Danny Choo convinced me to give live streaming a shot, Ustream had just published their iPhone app and I had great fun running around Akihabara streaming micro tours.

I’ll be honest. Personally I watch very little on Ustream, and I NEVER watch my own stuff. The jarring motion when I move the iPhone around makes me carsick in about three seconds. But I do see a strong value there if things are done well, and simply put, I love the gadgets.

In the world of content, the combination of real time and video is the tip of the sword, and combining valuable content, modern technology, and logistical planning can create a new level of communication never before seen. Yeah, it’s basically cable access tv spliced onto the Internet, but think about it. Cable access tv spliced to the Internet. The potential to waste time in vain pursuits shared equally with the power to topple governments.

But I digress. What I am really talking about is the opportunity for Steve to play with gear. And Steve likey the toys.

The studio I’ve set up is man-portable, folding up into a few large equipment boxes. Not fun to trudge around town with, but in a pinch a single person should be able to transport all the gear in one trip to set up pretty much anywhere.

Based around a Roland VR-5 video mixing board, up to three live video feeds can be mixed with pre-recorded media and computer output and output via built in USB interface to a computer. I’ve got a Mac mini set up as a media server/titleing machine and a MacBook air with Ustream Pro as the primary uplink computer. Of course it can just as easily output to Twitcasting, Livestream, or Vidcaster. There is also a Behringer Xenyx 1002FX audio mixer to augment the VR-5′s more basic sound mixing capabilities, and a Shure SM48 dynamic microphone, as well as an old classic iPod for audio. Finally I threw in a cheapie crapgadget 10 inch display that can serve as a display for the Mac mini, and output or preview monitor for the VR-5.

The end result of all of this is a setup that could theoretically be handled through the Ustream Pro software interface, but in practice would overload a server class computer in seconds. And what can I say, I really, really like having lots of buttons and dials to work with rather than fiddling with setup menus and drop down options.

Serving as cameras I have my aging Sony HDR-CX520 camcorder and my new wireless cambot. If I continue down this path of destruction I’ll likely have to augment this and am stealing glances at the new Sony NEX-VG20 as a possible future addition.

Combined, this setup allows me to effectively run a small live TV production studio. Better yet, I can move it around and set the whole thing up pretty much anywhere (with an Internet connection) in about an hour (a bit slow due to my phobia of wires). I’ll be running the first production test of this full setup at the Belgian Beer Weekend at Roppongi Hills this coming weekend if anyone wants to check it out in person, and hope to be able to push the power of the studio in some other projects in development. Of course if anyone is interested in hiring my studio to stream an event , i’d love the help to offset the cost of the equipment. As they say, no job too small, no fee too big!

Of course as with all of my creations the studio is a work in progress and I’ll be enhancing and tweaking along the way. Always looking for suggestions on improving the setup or new gear recommendations so if you have any thoughts, please drop a line in the comments.

Just put the finishing touches on my new wireless camera platform. It’s still a bit rough and I know there’s a revision on the way, but it came out surprisingly well for a first draft.

The head is a .3 MP CCD camera attached to a 1.2 ghz wireless transmitter. The antenna for the transmitter makes up the right arm and I threw in an LED lamp for a left arm for balance. Loose cables and a monster 6,800 maH LiOn battery fill the backpack.

Range is a bit of a problem. I think it will reliably transmit about 10 meters with Line of sight, maybe further, but indoors through walls that’s about the limit. I need to work on an improved antenna for the receiver to improve that range.

It’s basically just a webcam on a tripod (an old Gorillapod I had lying around) but I wanted to do something fun with it. It’s pretty fun to put it on a table somewhere and have people say “hi”. I guess future versions can add things like a pivot head and facial recognition, as well as a mobile base to turn it into a full robot, but overall not a bad project with some random parts I had lying around and about $10 in pieces for the body.

What do you think? What does the next draft need?

On a walk this afternoon through the Akihabara area I found a neat little space. About three blocks north of Akiba station, hidden under the tracks is this gem. Last time I saw this area, it was a dark and kinda scary storage space. Actually I thought about using it as a backdrop for some photography projects. Now, it’s been cleaned up, painted and converted into a mini artspace.

There is a large open gallery, lots of small boutique shops typical hipster goods. Even a cafe with free wifi, power plugs and free to use iPads! With comiket in town, Akiba is even more packed than normal, but just a few hundred meters off the main drag this space is quiet and cool.

Not sure how long this will last, but if you need a quiet break near Akihabara, might be fun to check it out.

2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN
http://www.jrtk.jp/2k540/

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Oooo So many toys!

Made some updates to my desk so I thought I would throw down a quick post.

First of all, I found this great flexible arm for iPads at the Rare Mono shop in Akihabara.  I’m not entirely sold on the positioning right now.  it’s a bit high and I don’t have quite the range of motion I would like, but it does work pretty well.  It’s particularly nice when using it to stream media (like old Firefly episodes) while I am typing away.  As an added bonus I can slave the screen and use it for a second monitor.  It’s also a pretty good setup for using the iPad with facetime and Skype for videoconferencing.  Would be perfect for Google+ hangouts, but no support on iOS yet.

Also added a lamp, mainly to help or videoconferencing.  Unfortunately monitor light alone makes me look even more zombielike than usual so the added light should help keep The Walking Dead references to a minimum.

The desk is getting pretty crowded with all the gear loaded up on it.  I’m sure I get more than my recommended daily allowance of EM radiation from all of this.  But what would I do without my toys?

Anyone care to try to identify the rest of the gear in the shot?

Ever hunting for the ultimate mobile setup, I’ve just put the finishing touches on my latest revision of my mobile workstation. This time around, I’m aided with a new MacBook Air 11 inch laptop for a “Pro” configuration.

With the new Sandybridge 1.8ghz i7 chip, this tiny netbook size computer packs some big-boy scale power, enough to let me tether the iPad 2 as a second monitor using the Avatron Air Display app. This way I can run the system as either a dual monitor computer or as two separate machines. I can also add a Bluetooth keyboard and a wireless trackpad to the mix to get that full desktop experience.

Throw in the iPhone for video chatting and etc, and I have three powerful computers that can work together and have enough power to run a small TV station or two Japanese nuclear power plants.

The scary part about this is that including the stands and a wireless cellular router for Internet anywhere, the entire setup weighs just over five pounds, or less than a 15 inch MacBook Pro laptop and it all fits inside the smallest laptop bag I own. Of course I expect a few stares if I set the whole thing up in a cafe and start coordinating an orbital launch while munching a scone.

Progress has allowed us to make computers lighter, smaller, more powerful, and even cheaper at a frightening pace. I expect in just a couple of years I’ll look at this setup and scoff at it’s pitiful specs. But I figure this should last a few months or so.

Would you go out in public with a rig like this? Post a comment below and let me know.

Today has been a very surreal day. Online, I have been following continued scandals in Media with the #notw, Japan has seen quite a few developments in recovery efforts from the earthquake, food contamination and continued problems with the nuclear reactors, and a major story development with the sentencing of Lindsey Hawker’s killer. Not to mention a major OS upgrade for Apple computers, 2 new models, both in my potential upgrade path.

In the real world, it’s been a normal, very pleasant day. Had lunch with a good friend, met another later on for a quick chat and update. Not to mention phenomenal weather. Starting to feel a split between my real and online persona and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. Online I feel tied to a world much larger than myself and follow events that have little to do with me personally, yet when I look at the real world around me, I feel like I could turn it all off and lose nothing.

Or maybe I just need some caffeine

Progressing along on my digital makeover, I have just about finished my home network makeover. The heart of one of my main motivations for this overhaul, this stage will probably be the most expensive, but hopefully the least time consuming.

A couple of weeks ago, my home NAS (network attached storage) device started showing errors. A 2 terabyte Buffalo Quad drive array, I had this system set up just as a home media server. For about 3 years it’s done a pretty good job, but I was not surprised to see the system starting to go. After all I run the server 24/7 and this is a consumer grade NAS, so I guess it was about time. I picked up a replacement drive and started a recovery cycle. With a 2TB system of course this takes a while. I was expecting less than 24 hours, so when I noticed the drive still recovering after a day I checked up on the system. Total crash.

Of course I’m not happy about this. Over the next week and repeated attempts to recover the drive, the process continued to get stuck at about 80% and then died. Since I have no critical files stored on the drive (mostly tv shows and movies, and all my audio files have a redundant backup) I gave up. After all, a Raid 5 array is supposed to prevent problems like this from happening and this isn’t the first time a Buffalo drive has left me in a lurch.

So since I am working on this whole data reform thing, I decided to bring my whole network up to code. The Buffalo NAS is now headed for the scrap heap and I have replaced it with a Data Robotics Drobo FS. Rather than going with a traditional NAS array, the Drobo offers a unique system that allows you to mix and match any hard drives to create a storage array. You can live swap in and out drives (one at a time) without any data loss and I can upgrade the five bay array as I need more space. I started out with two new 2.5TB drives found at a very reasonable 6,800 yen in Akihabara and filled out the last three bays with 500 GB drives salvaged from the Buffalo. Together that gives me 6.5TB of space with a usable area of 3.6TB. The redundancy requires the loss of usable area, but as I replace the old 500GB drives with larger drives I’ll get better efficiency.

(in the picture, some remnants of my old network. An old Mac mini w/ external drive and my old Airport Express)

While I was at it, I replaced by Apple Airport Extreme base station with a new Apple Time Capsule Router/NAS. The Airport was even older than the Buffalo and was getting near end of life. I’ll be able to move my Time Machine backups currently being save to a FireWire external drive to the time capsule putting all backups on my network. The FireWire drive will become a workspace drive and that pretty much leaves my desktop machine clean. Should a quake hit tomorrow knocking my computer desk over, I should be able to recover everything with little to no data loss. The final step will be to automate online backups for critical files and high priority media (photos, video projects, work files etc.) and we should be set.

This also is a good time for me to clean out old drives and servers from my closet. I still had my first generation Terastation, the first NAS I used almost a decade ago (when one terabyte was more space than anyone needed), and it will also be making an appearance on the trash heap. One thing that made me laugh was that to remove the drives from the Terastation, I had to nearly disassemble the entire machine. Over 40 screws had to be taken out and the whole unit broken down into almost 10 pieces just to take out a single drive. Another thing that I like about the Drobo is that it is insanely easy to upgrade the drives. No screwdriver required, I can just slot new drives in right out of the box. I don’t even power the unit down, just have to wait for the array to stabilize after I remove a drive, then pop the new drive in and wait a few seconds and it’s ready to go. Very much like the Apple philosophy of “it just works”.

We’ll have to see how long this configuration will survive. I’ll be happy if it goes at least two years, but these days it’s so hard to predict future developments. Now for the hard part, organizing all my data and information. Will be looking at some tools to help with that in future posts.

Joseph had covered a few language apps over two posts last year (see part 1 and part 2). Here’s a new one.

Midori is a Japanese/English dictionary useful if you are studying Japanese or if you find yourself lost in translation. This app is especially convenient for students, mainly for the following key features when studying Japanese:

• Fast searching for translation terms. Whereas a lack of speed exists in many Japanese dictionaries, this app performs very well;

• Kanji details are shown with an animation for the correct strokes drawing order;

• A large number of examples using the searched word, which is great for learning purposes;

• finally: bookmarks, kanji lists based on JLPT and a translation mode that automatically separates searchable words from particles.

In a nutshell, the strong point of this app is its speed and an easy, clean and minimalistic interface. Added bonus for the translation mode, really helpful to do searches of terms from an article.

Apple Store link

The rumor lingers since 2008. Since times when the iPhone was still not out in Japan and negotiations were under way to introduce it: DoCoMo wants the iPhone.

iPhone on DoCoMo

I’ve been saying it again and again, it’s not just a sea monster type of rumor, one that would only be coming out of pure wishful thinking. Last September, as my au/KDDI iPhone prediction was being confirmed, I wrote:

Let it be written down though, my bet is that DoCoMo will reach an agreement with Apple in 2012.

And the Wall Street Journal is confirming talks are still under way. Apparently, the road blocks are still about the conditions. With the massive power DoCoMo holds in Japan, there’s no wonder its executives want it their way.

In the words of Ryuji Yamada, CEO:

If the introduction of the iPhone results in the mass majority of our products occupied by the iPhone, then that’s a scenario that’s difficult to us to swallow.

How to read this? First, it’s clear that Yamada just knows the iPhone would be massively popular on his network. Surveys have confirmed over and over that a big chunk of its subscribers would switch to the iPhone if given the possibility.

WhosE customers?

Read between the lines though and you understand that DoCoMo wants to mold the iPhone to its strategy. DoCoMo would basically like to pre-install some of its services (via applications), while Apple insists on a clean experience, unobstructed by any carrier.

Apple won’t bulge. This is a given.

DoCoMo wants its i-mode and e-wallet on all its smartphones.

Add the number of iPhone NTT would have to commit to and there’s this fear that its relationship with customers wouldn’t be as tight as it currently is.

It’s not Gunfight at the O.K. Corral yet, but we clearly have a standstill.

DoCoMo’s smartphone future

DoCoMo, with its almost 60m subscribers, holds basically 50% of the cell phone market in Japan —au/KDDI and SoftBank being the two others— and has been very strong with its Android strategy, making the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S huge successes in a country when customer loyalty is still extremely strong, number portability notwithstanding.

It has sold north of 3.6m smartphones in the first half of 2011 with an important rise in ARPU, but also in data consumption. The shift towards smartphones is accelerating at DoCoMo and that above number could reach 9m by the end of the year.

Some analysts are even predicting that those would be the only type of phones by 2015 for all networks in Japan.

If you read the numbers throughly though, you’ll realize that DoCoMo has been losing customers at a slightly higher rate (let’s say 20%) than its two competitors since mid-October. Mid-October? Yes, when both au/KDDI and SoftBank released the iPhone 4S.

No wonder DoCoMo is still interested.

The iPhone 4S has been out for two weeks in Japan. And sales are riding high, really high.

BCN Rankings has released its well-known figures and they’re quite impressive.

Now, bear in mind that these numbers are to be considered with a disclaimer: the rankings are based on point of sales surveys covering lots of mobile specialty shops and consumer electronics resellers but excluding a very big player: the Apple Stores.

Also note that there are no official numbers from Apple itself or the two carriers who offer the handset, SoftBank and au/KDDI.

Yet, those numbers allow us to witness some trends.

Week 1: the iPhone steals the show

In the first week, the iPhone 4S took the first 6 spots.

1. iPhone 4S 64GB (SoftBank) — 10.4%
2. iPhone 4S 32GB (au/KDDI) — 10.3%
3. iPhone 4S 64GB (au/KDDI) — 9,4%
4. iPhone 4S 32GB (SoftBank) — 9.1%
5. iPhone 4S 16GB (SoftBank) — 8.2%
6. iPhone 4S 16GB (au/KDDI) — 6.3%
7. Samsung Galaxy S II (NTT DoCoMo) — 3.4%
8. Xperia acro (NTT DoCoMo) — 3.3%
9. iPhone 4 16GB (SoftBank) — 2.3%
10. Xperia acro (au/KDDI) — 2.1%
11. iPhone 4 32GB (SoftBank) — 1.7%

BCN did aggregate sales market share of that week, which percentage you see appended above. If we aggregate the 4S-only numbers (the iPhone 4 is not carried by au/KDDI), we’ve got a slightly higher market share for SoftBank at 51.8% —that’s 19.4% for the 64GB, 17% for the 32GB and 15.4% for the 16GB, while au/KDDI has 19.2% for the 64GB, 17.5% for the 32GB and 11.7% for the 16GB.

Again, these numbers are just what they are, trends. The market share is even less relevant for, I repeat it, the Apple Stores are not surveyed, which completely skews numbers when some other phones do not have separate points of sales (the four phones following place #11 are feature phones on NTT DoCoMo, followed by four other Android-powered smartphones all on DoCoMo as well).

Early 2011 sales better than 2010

BCN went further and computed an indicator of the “level of enthusiasm” for the iPhone, by comparing their numbers with historical data from the iPhone 4 in 2010. But, once again, the comparison needs explaining: in 2010, there was only one carrier, SoftBank, while this time, we’ve got two, a big difference. The “enthusiasm” is also blurred in a haze of first-timers that were loyal to au/KDDI (on surplus, did they switch from an Android smartphone for instance or are they smartphone-first-timers?), iPhone-carrier switchers (from SoftBank to au/KDDI), iPhone-upgraders (with a two-year contract on the iPhone 3GS, some didn’t jump for the 4 last year), etc. But still, there seem to have been 2.4 times more sales on the iPhone 4S release day the similar day last year. And if you go through the weekend, a four-day period, this number rises to 5.4x.

Not too shabby. Let’s see if this sustains in the long run, with the influence of stocks hanging in the balance.

Another trend we spot: the 64GB version was the most popular during week #1. Totally expected if you want my two cents. You see, most early adopters rush at that time and look for the higher-end model —the break-down is 36.8% of sales for the 64GB, 36.1% for the 32GB and 27% for the 16GB.

Am I right? Week #2 seems to prove my point.

Week 2: au/KDDI rises

1. iPhone 4S 32GB (au/KDDI)
2. iPhone 4S 16GB (au/KDDI)
3. iPhone 4S 16GB (SoftBank)
4. iPhone 4S 64GB (au/KDDI)
5. iPhone 4S 32GB (SoftBank)
6. iPhone 4S 64GB (SoftBank)
7. iPhone 4 32GB (SoftBank)
8. Samsung Galaxy S II (NTT DoCoMo)
9. Xperia acro (NTT DoCoMo)
10. iPhone 4 16GB (SoftBank)

BCN didn’t rank the market shares this time around.

Two weeks is really limited to be jumping to any conclusion. The higher-priced model took the aforementioned expected hit, but it could also be slightly influenced by stocks hovering low forcing a choice towards the 32 or 16GB versions (see this thread on our forums about current availabilities and note that Apple Stores traditionally get priority, which could explain that some shops have empty shelves).

More interestingly, au/KDDI seems to dominate the sales a bit more. It could be that early adopters who also had the possibility to upgrade from their SoftBank contract did, while the novelty effect is stronger for au/KDDI’s subscribers.

All this is pure speculation from my part. These numbers only tell a partial truth —sorry to have bored you by repeating this to death.

One thing is for sure though: my estimate of 7.5m iPhones sold in Japan will have to be revised soon.

I had a very nice conversation last week with Anthony Joh, who recently launched a podcast from Tokyo, a city he just moved in after a chapter in Bangkok.

We talked about the hot topic of the month, the release of the iPhone 4S, that I’ve been covering quite extensively in here.

I had a great time with Tony. His experience getting an iPhone for the first time in Japan reminded me of mine in July 2008 —it was actually the reason I started the first version of this blog (see the first post ever here).

Things have changed for the better if you’re a foreigner with limited Japanese skills, though. SoftBank, the first carrier that got the Apple handset here, now does a good job listing all the paperwork needed in advance.

You can listen to the show on iTunes, download the MP3 file or head to Tokyo-Podcast to stream it.

They took their time. It’s only for the first day of pre-ordering that au/KDDI and SoftBank are releasing the price information for their iPhone 4S.

au/KDDI

The newcomer first. au/KDDI is accepting pre-orders at brick and mortar shops from today, even if I’ve gotten a few reports of points of sale being not ready at all for this last-minute release. Take a look at its new iPhone page to learn more.

It offers the iPhone with a two year contract. The basic plan will cost you JPY 780/month.

The accompanying data plan is unlimited and costs up to JPY 4,980 per month (the data packet price is not detailed). An included free wifi plan is announced, but no details are available as of yet.

The iPhone 4S is “free” —as in fully subsidized— for its 16GB version and will respectively cost JPY 10,320 and 20,640 for the 32 and 64GB versions, the cost being accrued during the 24 month period.

A more expensive plan with free calls to other au/KDDI customers from 1am to 9pm and free texts to those same ones without 24/7 will cost you JPY 980/month (outside of the aforementioned period, texts costs JPY 3.15 and a call is priced at JPY 21 per 30 second segment).

au/KDDI is touting the number portability by offering you JPY 10,000 if you become a subscriber until the end of January 2012. That means that the iPhone 4S 32GB would cost only JYP 320 instead of JYP 10,320 overall, and the 64GB would come down to JPY 10,640 only.

This is clearly to lure SoftBank customers, but it also applies if you’re on NTT DoCoMo. We’ll see how that works out.

No word about tethering, I wouldn’t bet anything on it though. Unlocked iPhones 4S from au/KDDI are highly improbable: Apple hints that unlocked 4S will only be the GSM versions —or those activated by a GSM provider. In Japan, Softbank.

It is also uncertain if the pricing will hold or if it’s only part of the launch campaign (the data pricing might rise up to JPY 5,000+/month next February).

Asiajin mentioned earlier that KDDI is planning to expand the iPhone 4S point of sale network from a current 1,200 locations to 5,000 at the end of October.

SoftBank

SoftBank is also accepting pre-orders as of today.

At the time of this writing, the price structure remains the same as before. Two year contract, JPY 980 for its White Plan, to which you have to add the S! Basic Pack at JPY 315 per month (basically the mobile email service). Full run-down on its iPhone page (SoftBank has the pricing in English).

The data plan is still unlimited, with a minimum monthly fee of JPY 1,029 and a max of JPY 4.410 per month —the data packet being priced at JPY 0.084. Remember that tethering is not supported.

SoftBank will still sell the iPhone 4. For “free”. As will the iPhone 4S 16GB. Free with the discount: you pay the device JPY 1,920 per month (1,680 for the 4) but get a similar discount for the 24 months of the contract.

Only if you buy the 4S 32GB will you get a discount of JPY 1,920/month while having to pay for it JPY 2,400 month —or an actual monthly payment of JPY 480. Same discount for the 64GB version, but a monthly JPY 2,800 —a difference of 880.

Complicated enough? Basically, all in all, without the extra services you can get, the iPhone 4 and the 4S 16GB will cost you JPY 5,705/month, the 32GB JPY 6,185 and the 32GB JPY 6,585. None of those are unlocked.

Something eludes me in this strategy: why on Earth would you take the iPhone 4 8GB instead of the iPhone 4S 16GB?

Maybe it’s that SoftBank just had to price the 4S like au/KDDI.

If you’re a 3G or 3GS owner with SoftBank, you’re eligible for free upgrade plans during the launch campaign that runs from October 14 to November 30.

In the same blitz against au/KDDI, SoftBank is promoting a limited offer for all current or new iPhone subscribers: a “free” iPad 3G data plan. It allows you to get data for your Apple tablet at the low price of JPY 315/month, no subscription fee. First 100MB are free and then you get charged JPY 0.0525 per data packet to a maximum of JPY 4,980/month.

The comparison

Gigazine has made the comparison for us (thankfully since it’s a bit tricky). It’s all in the graph below. It doesn’t include the promotions I’ve mentioned here (like that JPY 10,000 cash back from au/KDDI), assumes you’re going to reach the upper threshold of the data plan (remember that we don’t know how much KDDI charges per packet of data) and it only compares the similar plans for convenience: Simple Plan Z from KDDI (at JPY 980/month that includes free calls/texts) and SoftBank’s White Plan (also at JPY 980/month with some free calls/texts too) but gives an interesting overview. According to it, au/KDDI is actually more expensive. I’ll let you be the judge of it.

The real difference is in the data plan. I can bet SoftBank will react shortly.

One thing is for sure, competition is good. Let the price war begin —because, really, it hasn’t started yet.

UPDATE: excellent au/KDDI price chart translation on SBS’s website (thanks to @serkantoto), I also totally agree about the theoretical data speeds comparison —as I had stated earlier.
Steve Nagata has more details on SoftBank’s iPad offer (thanks @hirokotabuchi).
Steve also argues that the SoftBank iPhone 4 could be directed at people who could be ineligible for a 2 year contract. Makes sense.
Note that Apple Stores are not taking pre-orders, they will start to sell the handsets on October 14, 8 am on a first-come first-serve basis.

I have no words. I’m just sad. As are Joseph, Pietro and Steve.

Mr. Jobs. Thank you.

We know since last night that au/KDDI is officially the second carrier to get the iPhone in Japan.

While no release date has been publicly announced, we learnt that KDDI decided not to wait until 2012 and the upgrade of its mobile email service to start selling the device.

What we know for sure is that SoftBank will start selling the iPhone 4S on October 14.

What we also know is that SoftBank CEO, Masason, has decided to fight back the competition.

MASASON THROWS THE GAUNTLET

Look at that tweet he sent an hour ago:

What is Masason saying yes to? SoftBank has download speeds of 14.4Mbps —the same touted by Apple yesterday, dissing the 4G talks— and 5.7Mbps uplink , while au/KDDI only offers a maximum of 3.1Mbps downlink with a 1.8Mbps uplink.

It’s interesting to note that the original tweet was meant as a question, asking the CEO if the difference was due to SoftBank using W-CDMA, aka HSDPA, while au/KDDI relies on CDMA EV-DO Rev. A standard.

Masason just went for the affirmative on those numbers. If that’s not called opening the hostilities… “KDDI, raise to the challenge!”

KDDI Data Standard

It’s certainly true that specs for this latter standard would need to be upgraded to the Rev. B to reach the 14+Mbps range.

Now, KDDI had actually announced some time ago it would upgrade to a subset of the aforementioned Rev. B standard to allow for some channel bundling, leading to a theoretical downlink of 9Mbps. I must admit that I would need to verify if those plans came to fruition and whether the entire network is —or will be— concerned.

And those numbers would have to be tested for both SoftBank and KDDI to not remain purely theoretical.

The fact of the matter remains: SoftBank is feeling the heat from the competition and Masason will not throw the towel. I can’t say that I don’t admire his fighting spirit.

Ready to rumble?

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the download and upload speeds, thanks to Andrew Wright.

au/KDDI, Japan’s second biggest cell phone carrier, has just confirmed it will carry the iPhone 4S. I predicted that right.

It will go ahead with the sale of this new handset irrespective if its mobile email service —a key element for Japanese users— is made compatible in time.

KDDI had 2012 in mind

Earlier plans had KDDI releasing the iPhone in January 2012, in order to upgrade its EZweb email conduit first. It seems however that the possibility of reaping nice profits at the launch of the new iPhone 4S in two weeks made the company change its mind.

Yes, you read that right, iPhone 4S could be sold from au/KDDI this month already.

The official release date for the iPhone 4S in Japan is October 14.

Apple makes it official

Apple Japan has updated its “where I can buy” page with the new au/KDDI option (and it seems the website is getting hammered by requests already, showing amazing interest: it’s 4am in Tokyo now)

The iPhone hasn’t appeared on au/KDDI’s website yet, either because it’s very late in the night or for a specific date hasn’t been set by KDDI yet.

SoftBank is feeling the heat. It’s releasing no less than 11 Android-powered handset for its fall collection. The iPhone 4S will arrive in SoftBank’s store on October 14 for sure.

UPDATE, October 5 2011, 6.45pm JST: au/KDDI’s website was briefly updated with the iPhone 4S before removal, confirming the impending launch. However, the mobile site still features the handset, with a direct link to Apple Japan:

Credits: iSummit Ustream channel, Nikkei

I kinda felt it. I was wrong. By a week.

The official Apple Ginza Store page on Apple Japan has indadvertedly updated its website. The iPhone 4S will be out in Japan on October 14. In black and white. With the same form factor than the current iPhone 4.

It means that it’s part of the first roll-out and that the US will get it at the same date.

The website mentions a new possibility to chose the carrier. As Akky rightfully says it on Asiajin, it could only be a straight traduction from the US text. I’ll have to wait if I had the other prediction right last March, i.e. that: SoftBank has no competition in Japan from au/KDDI.

It seems a new iPod Nano will make its debut too.

UPDATE: Apple Japan restores pre-updated page (thanks to fellow Mobile in Japan editor Joseph Tame)

UPDATE: it’s official, it’s the iPhone 4S that will be released on October 14, both by SoftBank and au/KDDI.

Credits: Netafull for the original story