TOKYO-The number of subscribers for picture-phone services in Japan has exceeded 15 million, according to data released by carriers. The first camera phone service, Sha-mail, was initially developed by J-Phone, a Japanese business unit of Vodafone Group.
J-Phone on Wednesday announced the number of subscribers of Sha-mail exceeded 8 million on Tuesday.
NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, two rivals of J-Phone, last year launched similar services riding on the big boom of Sha-mail. NTT DoCoMo launched its version of Sha-mail in June 2002, and by 10 January, the subscribers of NTT DoCoMo’s “i-shot” service reached 5 million. KDDI had 2.47 million subscribers of its picture-phone service as of the end of last year.
In separate KDDI news, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan on Wednesday announced it would start releasing quarterly business results in the fourth quarter of 2003. It will be the first time a Japanese carrier will release quarterly business results.
As part of its effort to improve its transparency, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) decided to force all the listed companies on the market to release quarterly business results. KDDI said it would release quarterly cash flow, average revenue per user (ARPU) and other vital data.
