Comments on: au BOX: KDDI, Motorola and Opera intro new multimedia terminal in Japan http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/09/27/au-box-kddi-motorola-and-opera-intro-new-multimedia-terminal-in-japan/ The Next Generation Internet Trends in Japan and Asia Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:36:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Asiajin » KDDI Running Out of Motorola’s au BOX http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/09/27/au-box-kddi-motorola-and-opera-intro-new-multimedia-terminal-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-2500 Asiajin » KDDI Running Out of Motorola’s au BOX Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:18:46 +0000 http://asiajin.com/blog/?p=1065#comment-2500 [...] au BOX was launched in November, 2008 as a set top box rental service. For 315 Yen per month (~3.5$), customers could play music and DVDs [...] [...] au BOX was launched in November, 2008 as a set top box rental service. For 315 Yen per month (~3.5$), customers could play music and DVDs [...]

]]> By: Isuraeru » Blog Archive » AU Box - Open Source(?) http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/09/27/au-box-kddi-motorola-and-opera-intro-new-multimedia-terminal-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-948 Isuraeru » Blog Archive » AU Box - Open Source(?) Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:30:10 +0000 http://asiajin.com/blog/?p=1065#comment-948 [...] will launch in November a new product and service called au Box. More information can be found in Asiajin (BTW, a great Blog) and KDDI website. The Box is a Motorola CPE, supposedly based on KreaTV Open [...] [...] will launch in November a new product and service called au Box. More information can be found in Asiajin (BTW, a great Blog) and KDDI website. The Box is a Motorola CPE, supposedly based on KreaTV Open [...]

]]> By: mkill http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/09/27/au-box-kddi-motorola-and-opera-intro-new-multimedia-terminal-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-940 mkill Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:14:57 +0000 http://asiajin.com/blog/?p=1065#comment-940 "its main target group is PC-averse Japanese people aged between 10 and 39" ... Considering that you need FTTH to get the device in the first place, I don't think there are many people with high-speed fiber in their homes, but without a PC. Especially in the 10 and 39 age group. At 315 Yen/months, it is much more likely that users get the box _in addition_ to a PC. I'm also not convinced by the title selection in their video service. 5000 titles, that's one wall in a video rental store. Laughable. And it's not on demand, but streamed in 30 channels. Plus, who would ever download music to a device with a meager 200 MB storage? And lock-in to 64kB compression. And abysmal integrated speakers instead of a high-quality audio out? Judging by their video selection, the music store won't be much better. Plus, Internet on the TV? That idea was already dead 1998. It even looks like you can't connect a keyboard. So much for doing mixi on the sofa. All in all, there is nothing in the box that you can't do with a laptop and a few extra cables. It may find its customers as a cheap rental DVD player. The rest suffers from the same problems like all of these boxes: - vendor lock-in with the services: Does it play songs from i-Tunes? - lack of storage - cheap hardware It's nice that mobile service providers realized that they need to push interoperability to stay competitive, but instead of throwing tons of money towards inferior locked-in services, increase usability of their devices! For example, any digital camera I buy has a USB cable so I can load the photos to my PC. Try the same on a cell phone! It's a connector nightmare! And on a cell phone, USB is needed even more, to upload mp3s, to use it as a modem... Making it easy for me to use a cell phone as a modem might even generate revenue for the telco, and even in their main business (connection fees, in case they didn't remember...) “its main target group is PC-averse Japanese people aged between 10 and 39″ … Considering that you need FTTH to get the device in the first place, I don’t think there are many people with high-speed fiber in their homes, but without a PC. Especially in the 10 and 39 age group. At 315 Yen/months, it is much more likely that users get the box _in addition_ to a PC.
I’m also not convinced by the title selection in their video service. 5000 titles, that’s one wall in a video rental store. Laughable. And it’s not on demand, but streamed in 30 channels.
Plus, who would ever download music to a device with a meager 200 MB storage? And lock-in to 64kB compression. And abysmal integrated speakers instead of a high-quality audio out? Judging by their video selection, the music store won’t be much better.
Plus, Internet on the TV? That idea was already dead 1998. It even looks like you can’t connect a keyboard. So much for doing mixi on the sofa.
All in all, there is nothing in the box that you can’t do with a laptop and a few extra cables. It may find its customers as a cheap rental DVD player. The rest suffers from the same problems like all of these boxes:
- vendor lock-in with the services: Does it play songs from i-Tunes?
- lack of storage
- cheap hardware

It’s nice that mobile service providers realized that they need to push interoperability to stay competitive, but instead of throwing tons of money towards inferior locked-in services, increase usability of their devices!

For example, any digital camera I buy has a USB cable so I can load the photos to my PC. Try the same on a cell phone! It’s a connector nightmare! And on a cell phone, USB is needed even more, to upload mp3s, to use it as a modem… Making it easy for me to use a cell phone as a modem might even generate revenue for the telco, and even in their main business (connection fees, in case they didn’t remember…)

]]> By: Six Sense Blog http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/09/27/au-box-kddi-motorola-and-opera-intro-new-multimedia-terminal-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-943 Six Sense Blog Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://asiajin.com/blog/?p=1065#comment-943 <!--%kramer-pre%-->Mark Wilson: Based on the Motorola VIP1830 IP, the au BOX is an integrated set top box that is supposed to bridge the gap between three different pieces of hardware: TV sets, PCs and mobile phones. Users are able to enjoy music and video material<!--%kramer-post%--> Mark Wilson: Based on the Motorola VIP1830 IP, the au BOX is an integrated set top box that is supposed to bridge the gap between three different pieces of hardware: TV sets, PCs and mobile phones. Users are able to enjoy music and video material

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