Japan's K Laboratory has unveiled what it calls the world's first instant messaging system for mobile phones.
Based on BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, a mobile phone software platform developed by US wireless technology firm Qualcomm, K Laboratory's messaging system allows mobile phone users to exchange instant messages with the Yahoo! Messenger system.
While short messaging is catching on quickly in Europe, Japanese mobile phone users are already exchanging email via their phones, and many see instant messaging as an attractive next-step application for Web-enabled mobile phone services.
Nearly 37 million people in Japan have Web access on their mobile phones, according to the latest data from the Telecommunication Carriers Association.
K Lab's instant messaging system will eventually be compatible with other messaging services, said Kotaro Chiba, chief marketing officer. BREW-enabled phones are due to reach the Japanese market later this year through KDDI Corp, the nation's number two carrier which uses Qualcomm's CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) wireless technology.
On Wednesday, K Laboratory unveiled a new Java-based software platform for mobile phones that allows applications to be written at one-tenth of the size of a standard Java code.
Smaller programmes for features such as games, weather and stock information retrieval are crucial for Net-enabled mobile handsets since transmission costs are high and memory storage capacity is limited.
Java handsets went on sale in Japan earlier this year through top wireless operator NTT DoCoMo.
