> 1. Is it at all possible, short of hitching a plane to Japan, of picking up
> one of these phones for development and demo purposes?
>
No, unless you have a tie in with one of the handset manufacturers, the
only way to get one is to go to a shop and buy one and to do that you
need to prove you are a resident of Japan. Also since you would be out
of the DoCoMo service area you wouldn't be able download i-appli to the
phone. Also, I'm not aware of any cable based solutions that would
allow you to transfer software from PC to Handset that are publicly
available.
The only option would be to use the emulators like i-Jade that have been
mentioned on this list, However, even though they claim to emulate
specific models they're not quite perfect yet so you would need to test
on a real phone before releasing the software.
> 2. Obviously, there's a lot to be envied regarding developing and
> delivering content via i-mode in Japan, given NTT DoCoMo's model (ie.
> apparently, developers can get *PAID*??) Are there means whereby US
> developers and content providers could provide their own services and
> content with DoCoMo?
>
Yes, DoCoMo does allow overseas companies to be official content
providers. However, their criteria is quite strict. For example if you
wanted to deliver content to Japanese customers you would need to be
able to provide Japanese user support. For more info take a look at:
http://www.nttdocomo.com/i/tag/newip.html
> 3. Is there *any* movement underway to translate the Japanese iAppli docs
> (API and specs) into English? Them there sites that automatically translate
> from Japanese make my shrinking brain hurt...
>
I've found that the API docs are very easy to understand even for a
non-Japanese speaker. The method names are pretty much all
self-explanatory. However, I haven't heard much about anyone
translation these docs recently. I know Mobile Media Japan was
planning to but I don't know how they are getting on. I know I'd buy it
straight away of they did!!!
All in all it would be pretty difficult for anyone overseas to develop
and distribute i-appli alone. I would suggest you find a partner in
Japan who could provide the other half of the equation.
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Fri Apr 13 04:53:45 2001