Japan: Googles mobile future
In the past Japans number one carrier DoCoMo relied on Microsoft as well as on its own mobile services to attract and retain users but took a blow, back in 2007, with it’s DoCoMo2.0 campaign.
DoCoMo2.0 – NOT
The campaign, the services and the handsets did not excite Japanese consumer at all. Users were expecting a “web2.0″ concept but that was far from reality: The “2.0″ concept was about having 2 separate mobile numbers/mail addresses on one singe SIM card plus some small features like movement sensors and music download.
So if this is what DoCoMo2.0 was about then how will DoCoMo3.0 look like? 3 phone numbers on one SIM card? Not quite. The carrier was eager and willing enough to learn from its mistakes and made a big step from its closed ecosystem into the arms of the current online superpower: Google.
Getting in bed with Google
Early this year DoCoMo announced a long term strategic partnership with Google. This not only included the launch of Android devices lates this year but also the tight integration of Googles services in DoCoMos mobile ecosystem. KDDI already struck a small deal with Google a few years ago to integrate Google search on its carrier deck but this deal now goes far beyond that.
“Googlomo” mobile
DoCoMo will integrate services such as Youtube, Google maps, Google calendar Gmail, Picasa into its ecosystem and also provide them preinstalled on their mobile handsets. While Youtube and Google maps already have been launched on the i-mode platform the rest will follow later this year.
The future of mobile advertising
One even more interesting point is the integration of Googles AdWords system into the carriers deck. To top this Google will also offer display ads on DoCoMos services. So in a way Google will become the main ad service for DoCoMos platform.
All in all this is the first time for Google to fully roll out their scope of services to a mobile platform. And this platform is very big: DoCoMo has an installed user base of around 48 million mobile internet users. Over 80% of these users are 3G and 3.5G users. So this will be the big “real-life” test for Googles mobile future and the future of mobile advertisement.
The future of web2.0?
If you take into account that Japanese handsets are one of the most advanced handsets in the world today featuring GPS, RFID, WVGA screens and high-speed internet then this will might be the start of a new era which goes beyond what we have experienced as “web2.0″ in the past.
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