In episode 17, we talk about the battle between iOS and Android in Japan. ; We cover things like market share, the new product announcements from Sharp and predictions for the future.

We cover the 3 biggest mobile phone network operators in Japan, Docomo, AU, and Softbank. Including background info, history, strategies and future prospects. In the second part we go in-depth with Softbank and its CEO Son-san

5 Interviews from Techcrunch Camp Japan

First news, was of Rakuten (the online shopping mall we covered in Episode 014) switching to using English in their meetings as well as their purchase of buy.com for US $250 million. Next we talked about our new video camera, the DSLR Canon EOS Kiss x4 (also known as the Rebel T2i or EOS 550D, depending on where you are). What do you think of the video and sound quality, compared to previous episodes? And also we have a new video editor (me), so if you notice any problems just leave a comment and I will personally look into it. The next part, is a new segment, which we named Ken’s 30 seconds, even though a little bit longer than that. Ken introduces the way he learns Chinese and how you can learn Japanese via Smart.fm brought to you by Cerego Japan. As a sidenote, Kim of jisho.org (one of the best online Japanese <-> English dictionaries) works there. Of course, the iPad in Japan is a topic that we could hardly not mention, especially with the whole sim-lock nonsense from Apple and Softbank. Hiro’s reserved his iPad, and I’ve decided not to get one. On a related note, since he is getting the wifi only model, he gives his final verdict on the emobile vs WiMax. Finally we mentioned WordCamp Yokohama, Japan’s 4th big WordPress meet-up. Hiro promises interviews, which I will do my best to edit and get ready soon. Disappointingly the videos we sent to WordPress.tv of WordCamp Kyoto never seemed to have appeared. We’ll probably be posting these to messa.tv directly. Hope you enjoyed this episode, as ever we are delighted to get feedback whether good or bad. Leave us a comment or send us an email!

A brief introduction to Japan's #1 online shopping mall, Rakuten

Interview with Patrick McKenzie

We started the show with the Google vs China sagat, Hiro quizzed me on the reactions on Hong Kong citizens (I was in Hong Kong when the controversy started.) And he was surprised at the lack of surprise. Next up was some digital entertainment news, and the latest add-on for the PS3. The torune is a digital tv tuner but it also let's the PS3 record shows. With this add-on, added to the Blu-ray, Internet, YouTube abilities, the PS3 could be poised to become the defacto home entertainment center in Japan. And if that wasn't enough, DMM announced on-demand video streaming to the PS3. We forgot to mention that the ads that DMM are running feature Chiaki Kuriyama of Kill Bill and Battle Royale fame. One more piece of Sony related news was TransferJet, a new wireless memory card that sends data faster than USB2! (But of course useless for other brands of digital camera). And finally we talked about the Kindle DX International version vs the as yet unannounced iPad. We recorded this episode one day before the big announcement. I basically sum up the why I was waiting for the iPad and held off ordering the Kindle DX. And that was episode #13, a shorter sweeter episode than recent ones. Hope you enjoy it, and leave a comment! We're starved of comments :)

We shared our New Year resolutions for messa.tv and messaliberty. hulor, blog posts and WordPress development all got a mention. 2009 was a busy year in the tech world in Japan and we reviewed it, Top 5 fashion. See if you agree with what we thought were the biggest or most important events of last year (with special mention of Ken's new big screen TV). Continuing with the Top 5 style, we did predictions for 2010 for the Japanese tech world, including the battle between Twitter Japan and Ameba Now. Predictions are always tricky to get right. Check back with us regularly to see if we get any of them right through the year. But we are also interested in hearing from you and so we are giving away this special and pretty amazing puzzle in our first competition. You can make any picture from its 300 pieces, and it works best with portraits. Check out the link for more info. To enter the competition, all you need to do is send us via email, or leave a comment below with one of your own predictions for 2010 for the Japanese IT/Web/Tech world. The best or most interesting prediction will win the puzzle. The competition is open to anyone and we will send it anywhere. Looking forward to your many interesting predictions!

This episode covers topics such as messa.tv JP, crunchpad, kindle in Japan, Chris and WordBench

In this episode, we started with a brief report on WordCamp Kyoto 2009 and discussed our favourite parts.