Kisekae: The Dress-up Handset

Today, the mobile phone is not just a device with functionality but is also a fashion accessory. We see many boys and girls who decorate their handsets with stickers, cover cases and beeds. Besides the device’s physical appearance, people also customize their wallpaper (main display on handset) with their favorite pictures. That same trend can be found in Japan, but in a more advanced stage: Japanese people once desired to personalize all interfaces in their handset, including SMS sending/receiving screens, outgoing/incoming call screens, menu interfaces and so forth. This desire gave birth to what is now called “Kisekae”.

1. What’s Kisekae?

Kisekae literally means “change what is being worn to something else” in Japanese (i.e. the Barbie doll is called “Kisekae” doll in Japan), though for our purposes the common software application term of “skin” may be appropriate, as in “change the skin (interface appearance) to another”. With the Kisekae tool provided by mobile operators, third parties can develop content for all handset interfaces with images and Flash Lite files and provide it as a package, and consumers can change all interfaces simply by installing it with a single click (NTT Docomo has a introduction to its Kisekae tool in English on its website).

2. Customizable Interfaces

The interfaces that are customizable with Kisekae content include:
•    the Menu Screen
•    the Main Display
•    the Screensaver
•    SMS Sending/Receiving screens
•    Phone Call screens
•    Signal and Battery Icons

3. Wide Variety of Content Available for Purchase/Free

A large number of third parties already provide hundreds of varieties of Kisekae content packages. Users mainly download the content from mobile operators’ content portal sites and/or third parties’ websites. Both buyable and free Kisekae content is available, and consumers primarily prefer content with the following themes:
•    Fictional/Comic characters
•    Animals
•    Brands
•    Celebrities
•    Athletes




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October 11, 2008 · Filed Under Japan, Mobile 2.0

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China Unicom Is Promoting iPhone 3G

iPhone is stepping closer to China. A very interesting finding in China Internet Conference is that China Unicom is promoting its 3G (WCDMA) with iPhone and Blackberry.

The evidence is found on a leaflet for promoting China Unicom’s WCDMA service. We reported several days back Apple is recruiting in China for iPhone business, the guess we made China Mobile will be the partner of Apple now apparently is wrong. Apple’s negociation with China Unicom must be easier than with China Mobile. China Unicom can give a better offer to Apple since iPhone can help it win a better market share in China 3G market.

September 26, 2008 · Filed Under Mobile 2.0, Webcrunch

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