Unlike traditional video chat services of today, this system renders you as a realistic looking avatar. While that seems like a step backward, I can think of a number of instances where I’d welcome it: An early morning video chat while still in bed or on a bad hair day, for example. (My solution for the latter is a hat, but now that’s a tell-tale sign of bad hair at GigaOM HQ!)

The large headgear certainly isn’t practical, but as a prototype, I see some interesting technology here. Capturing one’s face in 720p resolution with 180-degree fish-eye lenses, adjusting the actual images to compensate for the wide view and stitching the images together in real-time is impressive. The level of captured detail and subsequent rendering is nifty as well: Take a look at the avatar’s eyes when the real person blinks, for example.

Even as an early tech adopter, I realize this solution is more of a demonstration for now. Perhaps Google will take note, however, and adopt some of DoCoMo’s concept with the Project Glass headgear. Until then, I’ll rely on “old school” video calls. Now, where did I put my hat?

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The joint venture company, leveraging the six investing companies’ strong backgrounds in cellular communication technology and vast experience in application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) design and foundry manufacturing, will develop feature-rich, small-size, low-power-consumption semiconductor products equipped with modem functionality. The joint venture company will focus on developing products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards. The products will be sold in markets globally.

This means these companies are confident they can build a better chip than industry giants such as Qualcomm, but it’s also an admission they must work together if they don’t want to miss the wireless opportunity. That’s an opportunity chip firms can’t afford to ignore.

These companies will establish the joint venture by the end of March 2012. It looks like they will integrate the application processors with the modem and other silicon on a system on a chip. Qualcomm is well-known for its mobile chip integration capabilities. Beyond Qualcomm, the announcement is a reminder of how mobile is redefining everything, including the staid world of chips, where former mortal enemies are now part of a joint venture.

The consortium is also a tactical admission by the Japanese that they alone don’t have the technical wherewithal to face the mobile onslaught being unleashed by U.S.-based companies such as Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Google and Apple. Japanese handset makers are increasingly marginalized in the global market because of their own unique mobile ecosystem, which prevents them from achieving large economies of scale.

Mobile is not PC

Intel's mobile phone reference design.

When PCs and servers ruled the roost, Intel has a lock on the market thanks to its x86 architecture. It let AMD follow, but never let it lead, creating a dynamic for the industry that has led to a lack of innovation in hardware beyond the needs of the mass market. AMD pushed the envelope with innovations such as HyperTransport, and being the first to build 64-bit chips, but it was never able to outspend or out-compete Intel.

The mobile world is different. Chip firms start with the same basic ARM instruction set licensed by the British company of the same name, and then innovate from there. There are hundreds of ARM licensees in various segments of the market. Some companies integrate their application processors (the brains) with the radio (the voice) of the phone, while others use separate chips. Qualcomm, for example, is famous for integrating its Snapdragon processor with its radios, and does it well enough that it has become the top baseband chip vendor in the world. But this is a game anyone can play, because no one has locked down the license for the architecture like Intel had with x86.

Even Intel is seeking a baseband advantage, buying up Infineon’s wireless business in January so it had the radio component to sit next to its Atom chips. The jury is out on Intel making it in this competitive mobile world, but it can’t afford not to try. Meanwhile, formerly huge players, such as Texas Instruments, which exited the baseband business in 2008, seems to be losing the marketing battle with its OMAP line of chips. And players such as Nvidia (which bought its own mobile radio company) and Broadcom are seeking their entrée into the market as they realize the mobile device is going to be bigger than the PC ever was.

Back to DoCoMo & Co.

Apple's A5, manufactured by Samsung.

The news that NTT DoCoMo is eager to get in on the mobile game with some kind of joint venture is odd only in that an operator is leading the pack. However, Apple’s success with its A4 and A5 processors shows how deep vertical integration (owning everything from the chip to the app store) can profit a company, and Apple may also indicate why NTT DoCoMo is involved. Currently, Apple’s A5 chips are manufactured by Samsung, although Samsung’s rising prominence in the Android ecosystem has frayed the relationship. Perhaps NTT DoCoMo helps shield Samsung from the wrath of Apple as their co-opetition becomes more fierce.

And Samsung has long worked on radio chips to help it decrease its reliance on Qualcomm, so the idea that it’s part of this venture isn’t all that crazy. The new joint venture isn’t fully baked yet, but NTT DoCoMo said it will invest 450 million Japanese yen ($5.8 million USD) to establish a wholly owned subsidiary, called Communication Platform Planning Co., Ltd. headed by CEO Mitsunobu Komori. Komori is the EVP and CTO of DOCOMO. As the head of a chip platform and with the experience from being at mobile operator responsible for delivering some of the world’s most advanced handsets, he knows what consumers want, and clearly this joint venture is hoping it will deliver it.

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In an interview reported by The Wall Street Journal  on Tuesday, Yamada said the “closed operating system of the iPhone,” which prevents the carrier from pre-loading apps like its e-wallet and i-mode email service, doesn’t work for NTT DoCoMo. The reason that’s a problem? Those software additions are “important for Japanese customers.”

Of course, if that were true, there would be no problem with simply providing instructions detailing how to download the apps from the App Store to iPhone buyers post-purchase. Clearly, if the software was so desirable, customers wouldn’t mind a little legwork to get them. But the reason NTT DoCoMo (and all carriers) want to pre-load software onto devices is to give them more control over the customer and their spending practices.

Apple was instrumental in loosening the hold carriers had on content and access to services on cellular devices. Anyone over 25 remembers a time when if you wanted to browse the web on your phone, you used a terrible, limited, proprietary browser managed by your carrier that probably only provided access to select sites. Music stores, ringtones, wallpapers, etc.: All were once the exclusive province of your network provider. On Android devices, the situation isn’t quite that dire, but the presence of half-hearted attempts at carrier-branded stores and software is still a depressing reminder of a far less free mobile past.

Apple changed all that with the iPhone, which shipped with no pre-loaded carrier software, provided unfettered access to the web, and with the App Store, introduced a litany of choice when it came to services like navigation, another area once notoriously dominated on mobile devices by network operators.

Another reason cited by Yamada for not picking up the iPhone is Apple’s extraordinary upfront commitment requirement. The volume of device orders Apple insists on means carriers have to promote the iPhone heavily, which could result in a huge percentage of its subscribers on Apple devices. That in turn leads to less control of the customer relationship through measures like the aforementioned branded bloatware.

If it simply wanted to extend its reach as far and as wide as possible, Apple could ease its restrictions and allow carriers to preinstall an app or two. That would go a long way toward making its other conditions more palatable to network operators. But instead, the iPhone maker clearly wants to maintain complete control of its product, even if that means throwing back a big fish like NTT DoCoMo.

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Surely it would take longer than 25 minutes for me to download Lion on an LTE connection. I don’t have LTE service to test this idea, but having used it before, my educated guess is that in an area of solid coverage, the Lion install files would take two hours or so to download over 4G, assuming Apple’s servers don’t buckle. My estimate halves the peak speeds I saw on Verizon’s network, which is around the top end of the range Verizon says its LTE customers can expect: 5 to 12 Mbps. That alone doubles the 25-minute download to 50 minutes in perfect conditions, not accounting for any peak boosts. Mobile connections aren’t as consistent as wired ones, however, so speeds fluctuate. Doubling the estimate again to account for that gets me to 1 hour and 40 minutes, which I’ll round up to two hours for other variables.

Forget the fact that most people won’t do this but will instead upgrade their operating system at home or in an Apple store. Dismiss too the data plan tiers that Verizon now offers, giving LTE customers a limited, set amount of monthly mobile bandwidth. I’m surely not recommending that people use 75 percent of their 5 GB LTE plan this month to download an operating system. Instead, I’m simply amazed that the possibility to do so even exists and that it could even be an option in areas with slow wired broadband.

Think back to when Mac OS X Cheetah launched in March 2001; it was a far different cat back then, and so too was the mobile broadband landscape. It wasn’t until seven months later that the first commercial 3G network launched by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. And it would take years before 3G networks were deployed in a majority of the world, some of which are still in progress. We’re now in the beginnings of the 4G age, just as operating systems are no longer packaged on plastic discs but instead are piped through broadband.

No, most people won’t use mobile broadband for this download, but the idea that it’s a feasible option, particularly for those with slower DSL connections, simply amazes me. And while I agree that this distribution method is the biggest test yet for digital downloads, it also shows how fast broadband technologies are changing, partially why Apple spent billions on its data centers, and how we might use mobile broadband networks in the future.

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To be sure, NTT DoCoMo is expected to face future competition from competing LTE networks. Our recent roundup of LTE around the globe notes that KDDI is already trialing LTE with plans for a commercial launch in 2012. Unlike the LTE plans here in the U.S., where the two largest carriers are utilizing the same frequency spectrum — LTE for AT&T  and Verizon Wireless will both use 700 MHz bands — Japan’s first two LTE networks use varying frequencies: NTT DoCoMo’s LTE runs in the 2 GHz band, while KDDI owns 800 MHz spectrum. Short of multi-band devices then, Japanese consumers won’t be easily switching between operators.

Taking a similar approach to Verizon Wireless, who launched an LTE network here earlier this month, NTT DoCoMo is initially only offering LTE data devices, such as USB sticks for notebooks. These dongles will fall back to the carrier’s 3G network in areas that lack 4G coverage. While Verizon is expected to launch LTE handsets as early as the first quarter of 2011, NTT DoCoMo is taking a more measured approach; it plans for LTE handsets near the end of next year. By taking its time, however, the Japanese carrier may offer something that Verizon initially won’t. Verizon’s first LTE handsets will use the faster network strictly for data, while TeleGeography says NTT DoCoMo could offer voice-over-LTE support.

Regardless of the wait for voice support, the world map showing LTE networks is starting to light up like a Christmas tree, with no signs of slowing down. While a gift to LTE proponents, the NTT DoCoMo launch is a figurative lump of coal, perhaps, to those supporting long-term WiMAX strategies.

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Even so, a host of recent home automation announcements could put Z-Wave back in the running, according to Sigma Designs, which acquired Z-Wave chipmaker Zensys in 2008. In my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), I delve into some of the factors for and against such an outcome.

One thing working against Z-Wave is that it’s a proprietary technology with chips made by a single vendor. Sure, it may have members including ADT, Black & Decker, Danfoss, Leviton and Ingersoll Rand. But the ZigBee Alliance has all the big smart grid companies and utilities on board — as well as GE, which just recently named ZigBee its favorite wireless technology for its smart appliance and home energy networking plans.

Still, Michael Weissman, Sigma’s vice president of corporate marketing, laid out some interesting developments on the Z-Wave front to us. One of the most interesting comes from Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo, which said in October it planned a Z-Wave-based home energy management offering, featuring “smart tap” power sensing devices and home routers from Sumitomo.

Japan’s government requires home automation systems to run at frequencies of under 1 gigahertz, which fits Z-Wave in the 900 megahertz range but doesn’t match ZigBee at 2.4 gigahertz, Weissman noted. That could make Japan a big Z-Wave market — unless Wi-Fi in the home takes over that primary function for home networking.

Back in the U.S., Verizon has been rumored to be planning a FiOS-enabled home energy management offering for the past two years or so. But it’s also plotting home networks that runs on technologies like MoCA and Z-Wave, Ann Shaub, director of program management, said in September, with devices coming as early as the first quarter of 2011.

In early December, Motorola bought Z-Wave Alliance member 4Home, a startup that has worked with Verizon and other partners in a host of home energy management configurations. Could it be a preparatory move to work with Verizon’s Z-Wave home strategy?

Of course, just because a vendor is looking at Z-Wave as an option for home energy networking doesn’t mean it is ruling out ZigBee as well. Palo Alto, Calif.-based iControl, a home energy networking startup with backing from Kleiner Perkins, ADT, GE and Comcast, uses Z-Wave for its wireless sensor and management software platform as part of security giant ADT’s ADT Pulse program. But in November, iControl announced a merger with rival home automation provider uControl, which uses ZigBee.

Comparing ZigBee to Z-Wave does bring up an interesting contrasts. While ZigBee is king in the emerging field of energy management networking, Z-Wave has the lead in overall home automation products on the market, with about 250, compared to ZigBee’s 100 certified devices. In fact, behind its lead in home energy management, ZigBee’s second largest market is in industrial sensors — far from the home.

For more on this and other smart grid and energy-smart home technology coverage, check out my Green IT coverage at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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Image courtesy of Ytechblogs via Creative Commons license.

Under the terms of the deal, DoCoMo will acquire the remaining 65 percent stake and make PacketVideo a wholly-owned subsidiary. PacketVideo will continue to operate independently, with its own board of directors and under its same president and CEO, Dr. James Brailean.

Founded in 1998, PacketVideo was one of the early mobile video innovators, claiming that it was the first company to put video on a cell phone in 1999. The company powers mobile music and video services for wireless carriers around the globe, including Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone India, TeliaSonera, Telstra, Rogers Canada, Telus. NextWave acquired PacketVideo in 2005.

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