Yahoo! Keitai

From Sega Retro

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Yahoo! Keitai, previously Vodafone Live! and J-Sky was a mobile internet service created by J-Phone before the company was purchased by Vodafone, then SoftBank. It offered a means to allow mobile phones to access the internet.

Sega began supporting the service in Japan in November 2000 with software releases by WOW Entertainment[1].

With the release of the J-SH07 in 22 June 2001, J2ME support was added, and a tie-in with United Game Artists and Space Channel 5 meant every phone was bundled with Tsuwa Shichouritsu.

Hardware

Unlike its main competitor, i-mode, the Yahoo! Keitai service did not have consistent naming schemes for its products, and much of the terminology would change as Vodafone, then SoftBank took over operations. Like many third-parties Sega chose to group handsets by the size of the J2ME applets (officially Java appli (Javaアプリ) then V-appli (Vアプリ) and finally S! appli (S!アプリ).

50KB

Starting with the J-SH07, J-Phones could run J2ME applets up to 50KB in size.

Technical specifications

List of games

100KB

The J-SH51 in 2002 upped the size to 100KB.

Technical specifications

List of games

256KB

The J-SH53 upped the size to 256KB

Technical specifications

List of games

256KB Ver. 2

In 2004, rather than increase the maximum size of applets, a decision was made to improve other areas of the standard, allowing for real-time 3D graphics.

Technical specifications

List of games

3G

When Vodafone started selling 3G-enabled phones, the standard changed again.

Technical specifications

List of games

Gallery

References

  1. http://www.sega.co.jp/sega/corp/news/nr001031_1.html (Wayback Machine: 2001-07-10 20:10)


Japanese mobile phone internet services
i-mode | J-Sky/Vodafone Live!/Yahoo! Keitai | EZweb | Air-Edge | emobile | Y! Mobile
Portals
Game Parade | Medal Desu. | Pet * Sega | Pocket Works | Puyo Puyo! Sega | Sakura Taisen Keitai Club | Sega Ages | Sonic Cafe | Ulala no Channel J | WOW Ja Park | WOW Sports | Club C-Mode