“R2” struggling for stronger appeal with design

   The Subaru mini cars are expected to be shifted gradually to OEM (original equipment manufacturer) cars from Daihatsu Motor Co. over three years from 2009. In the meantime, Fuji will develop a small FR sports car powered by a flat engine jointly with Toyota Motor Corp. The two companies will begin selling the new model of cars in late 2011. Has Fuji found way to survive by this latest tie-up?

   Through the latest tie-up strengthening, Toyota has expanded its investment in Fuji to 16.5%. The 31.2 billion yen to be obtained from the investment increase will be spend as part of the expenses for the construction of a plant for manufacturing small FR sports cars.

   The halt of mini car production by Fuji has been rumored since October 2005, when Toyota replaced GM as the biggest shareholder of Fuji. The rumor started as the Toyota group included Daihatsu, which replaced Suzuki Motor Co. as the top mini car producer in fiscal 2006, and the business activities of Fuji and Suzuki overlapped with each other.

   If Fuji was conducting its mini car business smoothly, there was no problem. In reality, however, Fuji's mini car business was not without difficulty. The "R2" and "R1," which Fuji made the last-resort effort to appeal to the market by emphasizing their designed and performance, did not sell well. The Subaru's market share dwindled as Suzuki and Daihatsu competed for the top place, while Nissan Motor Co. entered the mini car market with the OEM cars from Suzuki and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Rumors spread among dealers that the developing of the next generation cars has come to a halt.

Full model change of Legacy in 2009 is a hurdle

   The research and development works of carmakers are expanding against the background of the business globalization and the advance of the environment and safety technologies. Fuji put on the U.S. market the crossover "Tribeca" cars, and the company will introduce new cars powered by horizontally opposed engines to the domestic mini-van market which the company has hitherto neglected. Moreover, the company is planning to complete the cars powered by flat diesel engines which are absolutely necessary for expanding sales on the European market, while it is also trying to develop the next-generation flat engines and CVT (continuously variable transmission) and auto bodies to suit such engines. There is no guarantee that the company can successfully achieve all of these.

   It is understandable now that it was imperative to do some shake off and concentration for the survival of the Subaru cars. It is meaningless to wish that the "R2" and "R1" had been successful hits.

   The minimum requirement for the company to secure a position in the car industry is that it will be successful with the Subaru cars powered by flat engines starting with the "Legacy" that is due to go through a full model change in 2009 and the small FR sports car to be developed jointly with Toyota. The FR car powered by a flat engine is a unique idea. It might provide a chance to open a new world for small sports cars. It is hoped that the company will live up to the expectation of not only the Subaru fans but car lovers of the world.

   Audi Japan KK has been selling the "A4 Avant 2.0 TFSI Quattro Dynamic Line Black Limited/White Limited," which is an "A4 Avant" car with special specifications, since April 15, 2008.

   The sale is limited to a total of 150 units of the cars in both colours. It is priced at 5.23 million.

   A total of 6,669 people ranging in ages from 15 to 65 living in the Tokyo, Kansai, Nagoya, Sapporo, Sendai, Fukuoka and Hiroshima areas, were subjected to the survey conducted between Oct. 24 and Nov. 5, 2007.

   Of the total population, males represented a natural decrease for the third consecutive year, while female population is continuing natural increase. Amid the decreasing birth rate and aging population, the population of the young aged between 0 and 14 years showed an increase only in Tokyo.

"905i Series" sold well but did not have impact

“905i Series” sold well, but…

   According to the number of users of mobile phones (including PHS) in Japan in fiscal 2007 announced by the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) on April 7, 2008, the number of users of DoCoMo phones had increased by a net 173,700 as of the end of March 2008 to an accumulated 53,387,700. There are 107,339,800 users of mobile phones and PHS altogether in the country. The market share of the company dipped below 50% at 49.7%. Its market share was 52.2% at the end of March 2007. The decline in the market share was due in part to the fact that the company withdrew from the PHS service in January 2008. It was the first time in 11 years that the market share of the company went below the 50% mark.

   As reported by J-Cast News in December 2007 that DoCoMo was going out of its own "lonely" business stagnation as its "905i" was doing well with a 60% rise in sale, 1 million units of the "905i" mobile phones were sold in less than three weeks after they were introduced to the market in late November 2007. But the brisk sales did not seem to have contributed enough to the company's business results for the whole year.

   In the meantime, the market shares at the end of the fiscal 2007 rose 0.4 percentage point over a year earlier to 29.5% for KDDI, which was ranked second to follow DoCoMo, (with its au brand and two-colour brand phones), and rose 1.8 percentage points to 18.1% for SoftBank Mobile, ranked third. The market share of iMobile, which entered into the mobile phone industry in March 2007, was 0.4%.

   Of the two companies which are closely catching up with DoCoMo, SoftBank Mobile is conspicuously going ahead with offering "free services ." In January 2007, SoftBank introduced the "White Plan" service in which calls made between the phones sold by the company were free of charge. The company then offered free calls between the members of the same family. In 2008, the company further introduced the "white discount rate for students" in which students do not have to pay the basic charge for contracting for the use of the company's phone service. As a result, the company marked net increase of 543,900 in the number of the users of the company's phones. The company maintained the top place in the net monthly increase rate consecutively for 11 months.

   KDDI introduced a free call service for calls between the members of the same family in March 2008 and the number of the users of its phones increased by 505,000. The company is racing neck and neck with SoftBank Mobile.

Though DoCoMo's infrastructure is the best of all…

   DoCoMo seems to be narrowing the increase rates of the number of its clients by itself, and other companies are closely catching up with it in terms of the market shares. Some experts in the industry coolly comment, however, that it has been unnatural for a single company to occupy a market share of more than 50%. Yuichi Kogure, an expert on mobile phones and author of the "Phone rate, are you not overpaying? Mobile phone evolution 10 years from now" and other books, says:

   "Since the 1990's, the number of mobile phone users has kept going up, and, today, the market is in the state of maturity with every person having a mobile phone or two. The mobile phone companies are vying to obtain the limited number of customers now, and DoCoMo, which currently holds the largest market share, is easy to become the target for attack by other companies in the industry."

   About the reason for the decrease in DoCoMo's market share, he noted the line up of the designs of the phones the company provide the market with by saying:

   "SoftBank offers various types of phones for different concepts, such as those for 'watching TV' or those for 'taking pictures,' but the phones offered by DoCoMo, no matter which one of them a customer may choose, all have the same set of functions. All of the DoCoMo phones are the same without any uniqueness."

   DoCoMo was asked if it had any measures to regain the market share. On the report on the market shares, it simply said that it had no comment. But itadded:

"We offer free-of-charge calls among the members of the same family for 24 hours a day from April 1. We will emphasize this new ser vice for the first thing to do. At the same time, we plan to make all-out efforts to keep our customers whom we serve now."

   But the company may not be able to avoid such comment that it is only following the footsteps of SoftBank.

   Kogure said that what he had said did not mean DoCoMo is no good. And he added:

"In the mobile phone industry, the importance of services tends to be stressed. In reality, however, the most important thing must be the quality of the network and other infrastructures. In this respect, DoCoMo should unquestionably be the best of all. It seems that the company is unable to make full use of the advantage."

   Nissan Motor Co. will begin selling the "Livina C-Gear," the third model in the Livina series designed primarily for global market, in China to start with before the new car will be put on the markets of other countries, the company announced on April 7, 2008.

Orders rushing in for Crown Hybrid cars

   Orders for the 13th model of the Crown amounted to about 24,000 units over the one-month period following the new model was unveiled and marketed on Feb. 18, 2008. Those for the 12th model that started to be sold in December 2007 totalled more than 22,000 units in one month. The monthly sales targets were 5,000 unites for 12th model and 5,500 units for the 13th model. The orders received for the two models were thus more then four times each.

   When the 13th model was unveiled, the company disclosed to the mass media that the accumulated order receipt target over the one-month period following the marketing of the car was 11,000 units, or double the monthly sales plan. Toyota, however, directed to the leaders to secure order receipts minimum of four times the sales plan, instead of the two times. It had been seen difficult until the middle of March to attain the target, but in reality the targets were exceeded.

   Difficulty that faced the dealers in obtaining the orders four times the sales target was persuading the professionals mainly in Tokyo to replace their cars with new ones. As a result, the purchase contractors from corporations increased to 35% of the total contracts as against the corresponding percentage of 30% for the 12th model.

   The interest in hybrid cars of business firms are continuing to increase because of rising fuel prices and their efforts to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. The purchasers of the Crown cars spread widely among the business firms, government agencies, organizations, professionals and individuals. Especially, it is understood that professionals, including medical practitioners and lawyers, and owner-taxi drivers sowed their interest in hybrid cars more than earlier expected.

   The accumulated order receipts for the 13th model cars over the one-month period was made up of 50% Royal, 40% Athlete and 10% Hybrid, compared with the orders for the 12th model that was made up of 70% Royal and 30% Athlete. This showed a sharp increase in the orders for the Hybrid. A pessimistic view was expressed, however, that rejuvenation of the car users was not progressing as desired.

Would users be kind enough to wait for slow deliveries

   The users who replaced their old models of Crown to new models in placing the orders over the one-month period following the new models were marketed accounted for 65% in case of the 12th model. This percentage rose to 70% in case of the 13th model. The dealers said that the users of the Crown cars who primarily intended to trade their cars for the Lexus GS or IS had decided to not do so. Lexus LS cars sold well as the users of the Toyota Crown Majesta and Celsior traded for them. While brisk orders for the 13th model of Crown cars could be taken as a good trend, the Toyota dealers that deal with both the Toyota and Lexus cars would face management difficulty if the clients of the Toyota shops eat into each other's brand names.

   The hybrid cars to be marketed in May will be sold mainly to corporations and government agencies, and Toyota predicts that hybrid cars will account for 15% of the 13th model cars to be sold. In Tokyo and other major urban areas, hybrid cars are expected to account for 30% of the 13th model cars to be ordered as many professionals are unlikely to change their cars in these areas.

   Of the monthly sales plan of 5,500 units of the 13th model cars, 800 units are hybrid cars. As the accumulated advance orders over the one-month period after the unveiling reached 2,400 units, the deliveries will have to be waited for two months after the marketing in May until July. Toyota is making effort to increase the production capacity for hybrid cars, but it will by in 2009 that Toyota Motor Kyushu and makers of parts can catch up.

   What should be taken into consideration here is that Toyota is now planning to start the production of new hybrid cars that are fitted with lithium-ion battery and plug-in hybrid cars, while other carmakers are also planning to introduce attractive cars. This makes the dealers wonder how long the individual users, who are looking for new technology, would be willing to wait in case the deliveries of the Crown hybrid cars are delayed to long.

   There were users who were certain to wait when the LS hybrid cars were sold. But the future is unpredictable in case of the Crown hybrid cars. Many professionals and individuals tend to decide whether or not to buy the Crown hybrid cars only after test-driving them, and it seems to take some more while before they decide.

   As for the software, "Wii Fit" topped the list with about 1,762,193 units, followed in order by about 1,659,315 units of the "Mario Party DS," 1,616,377 units of the "Wii Sports," 1,554,852 units of the "Super Smash Brothers X" and 1,354,447 units of one of the "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon" games. Nintendo thus occupied the top five places of the software sales list.