- From Lifestyle Tool to Personal Assistant -

DOCOMO's technological leadership and commitment to innovation have already transformed the mobile phone—once a pure communication tool—into a powerful lifestyle tool for shopping, commuting, entertainment, making informed choices and more. But if you have been impressed by i-mode™ mobile Internet, Osaifu-Keitai™ mobile wallet, One-Seg mobile television and other advanced functions and services introduced over the last decade, then you're going to love what's around the corner, says Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, Senior Executive Vice President of DOCOMO.

In a keynote speech at the recent CEATEC JAPAN 2008 exhibition, Tsujimura revealed that DOCOMO intends to revolutionize handsets as no less than "personal assistants"; in other words, transform them from tools that we use to do things into intelligent devices that do things for us.

"The next paradigm will see mobile phones play a much more proactive role, based not only on advances in technology, but also value-added services, including a much more mobilized Internet," he said.

Keys to the Future on Display

Indeed, mobile phones are already used widely as lifestyle tools for diverse applications, including contactless payments and other e-wallet functions, navigation, identity verification and other security protections, entertainment, and much more. But the true potential of personalized services remains untapped, although the first ripples of this wave of new innovation radiated from DOCOMO's booth at CEATEC.

One of the displays, an "intelligent key" phone, converges automotive and wireless technologies to automatically unlock/lock car doors and start/stop car engines, due on the market in 2009. Another exhibit, a prototype "projector" phone, can download video, games, etc. and then convert the content into a 20-inch HVGA (480 x 320 dot) projection on a screen, wall, etc. from a distance of about one meter using its built-in DLP Pico display system.

"We are developing even more advanced services to enable mobile phones to function as 'personal assistants' and support our private and professional lives on a 24/7 basis," says Tsujimura.

To make this happen, DOCOMO is focusing on next-generation services in three strategic areas: mobile broadband, global standardization and real-cyber fusion.

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Lightening Speed and Ubiquitous Connectivity

Mobile broadband will start with Super 3G (also called LTE), which DOCOMO plans to launch in 2010. It will offer speeds as fast as today's fiber-optic fixed-lines—about 100 Mbps—for advanced broadband services, such as a multimedia broadcast recorded automatically by the phone and then played back later on a large, high-resolution (960 x 540 pixels) phone screen.

"Global standardization, the second key, will enable us to leverage the power of mobile broadband," says Tsujimura. Most of the world's major carriers now plan to adopt LTE, which will result in a barrier-free global network that offers constant, seamless connection as users move about the world in their private and professional lives. Moreover, standardized operating systems will lead to a whole new level of sophisticated services due the synergist effects of global collaboration and interconnection.

DOCOMO, which is spearheading global standardization through its support of the Symbian, Linux and Android mobile operating systems, has already announced that it will provide an operator pack based on Linux for FOMA phones in 2009. The company also has great hopes for Open Global Architecture, which should help to lower development costs, inspire more innovation and ultimately lead to a significant enhancement of mobile services.

Dawn of the Personal Assistant

The third field of service development, real-cyber fusion, will enable mobile phones to interface between the physical and virtual worlds as intelligent "personal assistants" capable of performing sophisticated tasks, like PCs, but on a fully mobile basis.

While it's already possible for a mobile user to search for a restaurant and find out how to get there, in the future the phone will be able to automatically alert the user en route if the restaurant fills up, and then provide an estimated wait time and proactively suggest alternative restaurants based on the user's intended destination and registered preferences. Later, as the user heads home on a train, the phone could scan their refrigerator to suggest needed groceries, and then provide video highlights of that evening's football matches, which the phone has automatically recorded and stored.

"Powerful, personalized mobility," observes Tsujimura, "will offer our users unprecedented convenience and flexibility in their daily lives."

It will also create unprecedented business potential for DOCOMO. "Every Web-capable high-speed phone owned by the company's 53 million customers is a powerful platform for delivering a breathtaking range of new services and business models."

 

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