MAYA SYSTEM, which inherited the FREETEL brand from the bankrupt Plus One Marketing, will release "jetfon" in August 2018. This model has a built-in "cloud SIM" developed by uCloudlink, which is based in Shenzhen, China, and when traveling overseas, you can purchase a rate plan that matches the country or region. The charge is cheaper than international roaming, and in the cheapest area, you can communicate up to 300MB for 380 yen (tax exempt) per day. [Correction]
A similar mechanism is also used in uCloudlink's Wi-Fi router, and MAYA SYSTEM also sells and rents terminals as "jetfi". Jetfon can be said to combine this with a smartphone. Instead of providing the uCloudlink service as it is, the price plan etc. is also customized for Japan.
Cloud SIM-equipped smartphone "jetfon" launched by MAYA SYSTEMAlthough some similar products have been released overseas, this is the first time in Japan that a smartphone has a built-in rewritable SIM card. How will MAYA SYSTEM sell this terminal? We asked Chizuru Inoue, President and CEO, and Kentaro Minami, Manager of the Product Operations Department, about the content and strategy of the new jetfon that the company is launching.
President Inoue of MAYA SYSTEM――First, please tell us again what kind of product jetfon is.
Mr. Inoue The product is a combination of a cloud SIM and a smartphone. In Japan, it will be marketed as a world smartphone and will be marketed under the brand jetfon. As Japan's first global smartphone, we aim to provide communication without borders.
The reason behind the launch of this product is that there are still many people who do not know how to use the Internet overseas. Jetfon's role is to make it simpler.
Prepaid SIMs are certainly cheap, but you don't know where you can buy one, it's a hassle to find one, and even if you go to a shop, you won't be able to communicate in Japanese. If you don't know, the hurdles are high. On the other hand, international roaming is still a bit expensive. There is also a rental Wi-Fi, but you have to apply in advance, you have to wait in line at the airport, and there are problems with having two devices.
Although the number of overseas travelers is flat, rental Wi-Fi is steadily growing, and the need to use the Internet overseas is expanding. Meanwhile, jetfon is characterized by its ease of use, high communication quality, and reasonable price.
Mr. Minami The biggest feature is that it is equipped with a cloud SIM, but I think that there are many users who can travel, so we adopted a durable aluminum body and aluminosilicate glass on the surface. It is a product that can withstand even tough use. In addition, since it supports many frequencies and has all common sensors, it can be used conveniently not only while traveling but also in Japan.
[Correction: 14:50 on July 20, 2018. Regarding the type of glass on the surface, there was an error in the explanation of MAYA SYSTEM, so it was corrected.]
As a point unique to Japan, it corresponds to J-Alert and also sounds emergency bulletins for missiles and flood damage. VoLTE can also be used, and au VoLTE is planned to be supported by an update. The price is 39,800 yen (excluding tax).
――How much will it cost?
Mr. Inoue The actual charge for international roaming starts at 1,980 yen (tax exempt, the same shall apply hereinafter), while Wi-Fi router rental starts at around 680 yen, but we offer 300MB starting at 380 yen. . There are plans for 1 day, 7 days, and 1 month, and in Asia, 3 GB for 1 month is a great deal at 1880 yen. Since it uses a cloud SIM, it also has the advantage of being able to connect directly to the high-quality networks of overseas carriers. Also, for China, we will prepare a VPN service (so that you can use apps and services that are regulated by China's Great Firewall, such as Google and Twitter).
Purchasing a plan from a dedicated app before traveling And, in order to be used by Japanese people, we are adapting it to Japanese specifications, and the "Glocalme" application that selects the price plan is also properly localized in Japanese. Credit cards for payment also support JCB (not only VISA and Master Card). In addition, although it is limited to corporations, we have made it possible to pay bills after payment.At first, we considered using only credit cards, but we wanted to remove various restrictions. We want to make the hurdles as low as possible, and if we only use cards at that time, it will be difficult for the target business use. At first, there were talks of 5 or more, or 10 or more, but we decided to drop those restrictions.
―― To begin with, why don't you use the FREETEL brand, which you've gone to great lengths to obtain? I felt a little wasteful.
Mr. Inoue FREETEL has a well-established brand image and has the impression that it is a cheap smartphone. With this terminal, I would like to put out a new message called cloud SIM instead of cheap SIM. In that case, it is a decision that it would be better to launch a new brand called jetfon. However, FREETEL has a good image overseas, such as in the Middle East, and there are hundreds of thousands of users in Japan, so we are considering how to proceed.
―― The hardware does not seem to have changed much from uCloudlink's base model. Would it be possible to put the know-how cultivated in FREETEL in the direction?
Mr. Minami There is also a successor machine, and we are also working on its development. We entered the terminal while uCloudlink's project was in progress, so the reality is that there weren't many things we could do. It was limited to legal compliance and customization for domestic use. But the next model is just the beginning, so we can get more involved here. I think we can pack more of our ideas into a more attractive product.
―― For example, the FREETEL terminal has a special feature unique to the FREETEL terminal, such as the camera being compatible with dual cameras and being equipped with natural facial features. Can we expect more from these places in the future?
Mr. Minami: We also have engineers at our company, so we were able to tune the images this time as well, but next time we would like to focus more.
Mr. Inoue People who are familiar with the product tend to pay attention to the specs and performance, but I think it would be interesting to customize it so that it already contains useful applications such as a translation application or a currency conversion application when traveling abroad. thinking about. It's still at the idea stage, but if we do that, I think we can change the ratio of FREETEL users, who currently account for about 80% of male users. I would like to increase the number of women.
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