New Technology "Grip UI" on smartphones

Telecom NTT Docomo, the company located in Japan has been trying to seek for a new way to control the smartphone device and recently, introduced the new interface called "Grip UI" in CEATEC JAPAN 2012.

How this UI works is that the phone senses pressure from user's hands on sides of the phone and allows users to launch the programs, navigate through menus and perform other tasks by just gripping the device. It also senses and acts differently depending oh how long and how strong the device is held.

The pressure sensor can also work with accelerometer or gyroscope, which allows the device to sense more precise controls by users. By applying these features, the security on the phone device can be strengthened even more.

Of course, this UI still has some technical issues and they neeeds to be worked out. However, I personally think it has potential to carry the technology on smartphones to the next step.


Here is the Youtube video of "Grip UI." (Warning: introduced in Japanese)

Fast growing social games

What types of social games are hot right now? When you hear a word "social games", I am pretty sure you think of a game like "farmville" made by Zynga. However, social games that are growing fast right now are a lot different from what social games that you would think of. They are so called "Social Games On Smartphones"!

Recently, social games on smartphones are developed and serviced in several different countries and main source of those games are located in Japan. Companies such as GREE, Mobage, or DeNA grew so fast since smartphones came out. These companies are dedicated to design social games on smartphones and webs. Their games are basically very similar to one another but designed to have different interface and graphics. They usually collaborate with the entertainment source such as comics, console games, sports, etc. Their strategies to sell their games are interesting. The social games are free to play but when you actually play their games, you can pay to purchase in-game contents, which makes the players better off than the other players. The game is basically designed to compete with other players, so their market strategy is to sell in-game contents that will differentiate from other player. There are social game players who spend about $100-2000 per week or even per day for the type of social games. That is a lot for a person to spend on a game.

One thing about social game apps is that they are really easy to play. If you carry a smartphone,  you can play pretty much anywhere anytime. Social game apps on smartphones are slowly coming into the app markets and taking customers in. I thought this business model is pretty interesting, therefore I would write about it.

Thanks.