| To Our Shareholders and Investors:
Nearly at a loss for spoken or written words, I am deeply saddened over the devastation caused by the East Japan Earthquake that struck on March 11. I offer my prayers for the numerous persons whose lives were lost, and deep sympathies to those who have been affected by this disaster. At Acrodea, we are engaged in achieving superior ease of use and developing services at the point of contact between the human user and information device. As a newer type of mobile telephone, the smartphone represents an advanced information device that is penetrating the mobile user base at extraordinary speed. Sensing the tremendous pace of this new trend, Acrodea has embarked on reshaping the company from a feature-phone centric middleware business focused around our principal product VIVID UI, to taking large strides in a wholesale shift targeting smartphones. To this end, the entire product lineup was reviewed. In preparation for the imminent smartphone era, the Middleware Business has taken swift steps to shift all assets towards smartphone products and services. First, we started kisekae services for Android handsets. This service had created a new market for feature phones previously. Acrodea’s Kisekae “touch” service for Android is logging a healthy volume of downloads from users. Several dozen content providers are hosted on the service, which is now stocked with over 400 UI theme sets. Kisekae touch is once again laying the foundation for a large market. The entire company is working hard towards establishment of a business scale beyond feature phones, with active development for all carriers in Japan, and service launches in China and Europe. Second, for our VIVID Runtime smartphone development environment, GMO Game Center, Inc., was established as joint venture with GMO Internet, Inc. The business offers robust security and a developer-friendly platform for content creation without OS- or OS-version specific headaches. The main effort is currently electronic game distribution to Android handsets. Since launch of service, user membership growth for the game platform has been steady, while a great potential for global development looms. The business is moving ahead with strong expectations for the future. Although these two pillars form our core business, Acrodea is also preparing a number of attractive products for enhanced smartphone convenience, such as a security solution for Android, a multi-package delivery solution, and others. Aside from mobile handset products, subsidiary AMS is engaged in physical product fulfillment through its EXREGZIO system for product payment settlement, order acceptance and issue, and delivery instructions—providing functions necessary for the operation of e-commerce sites. This business has recorded black ink recently for the first time since inception of operations, and is continuing expansion efforts towards becoming a large pillar of our business while extending alignment to smartphone technologies where Acrodea has strengths. The leading mobile device is shifting from the feature phone to the smartphone, but Acrodea remains unchanged in its commitment to further polishing its engineering capabilities that our stakeholders have recognized, to enabling the best ideas, and to developing solutions distinctly Acrodea—friendly to people, bringing the lead edge closer, and entertaining. Sustaining painful reforms as a consequence, Acrodea has been in the midst of bridging the chasm between the feature phone era and smartphone era. Management and all staff in the company remain committed to delivering beyond your expectations, and ask for your continued support. |
Junya Tsutsumi |
