November 25, 2010 (Tokyo, Japan)—Acrodea, Inc. (President: Junya Tsutsumi), headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, announced that Kisekae touch would launch on November 26 (tomorrow) as a service for the IS03 Android™ smartphone released by KDDI, Inc. By using this platform, Android smartphones can readily implement kisekae (appearance transformation) services, and content providers will more readily gain entry to the kisekae content market for Android smartphones.
The “au one Kisekae” service for au Android smartphones will successively introduce content provisioning sites that are adding content supporting Kisekae touch.
Kisekae touch 
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Like way the service has been enabled for conventional feature phones, users may also select standby content and menus to convert the appearance of their Android smartphone in a single step. Appearance content with preferred character designs can be downloaded from provisioning sites, and appearance settings can be customized as desired.
How to Use Kisekae touch
Notes:
1. The screens above are general representations.
2. The service requires the use of a microSD card.
3. The application is free, but incurs a data communications fee to download.
4. The details of content offerings may differ among the various content providers.
5. Usage of certain content may require payment.
Supported handset: IS03
Services and Companies Planning Content
             Ateam, Inc.: Kisekae Design Collection
             Avex Marketing, Inc.: Kisekae mu-mo for Android (tent.)
             Sanriowave Co., Ltd.: Kitty & Sanrio
             Dwango Co., Ltd.: Kisekae Dwango
             Field System, Inc.: uistore
             Primeworks, Inc.: Custamo
             Namco Bandai Games, Inc.: Kisekae Kyarappa!
             GMO Media, Inc.: Kisekae.com
*Handsets supporting the service and content joining the service are expected to increase further.
About the Kisekae touch Service Platform
As the underlying technology enabling the transfiguration or appearance transformation (kisekae) of the user interface (UI), Acrodea’s VIVID UI® was adopted by the major mobile communications carriers in Japan and led to the creation of a new mobile content market. VIVID UI was deployed in approximately 80% of handsets shipped during Fiscal 2009 (Apr 2009 – Mar 2010), and has become the de facto standard in this space. Since its birth in 2006, the kisekae market has seen rapid and continuing growth. Net sales in 2009 were shy of 10 billion yen (155% of prior year).1
Based on its technical capacity and experience of supporting the kisekae services to date on VIVID UI, Acrodea has developed Kisekae touch, a user interface transformation service for smartphones, particularly targeting Android handsets. The offering not only enables re-skinning of wallpaper and transformation of icons, but enables hierarchical menus with enriched expression and allows animation effects, as well as 3D displays.
Content creation is supported further with the Kisekae touch Package Tool, in addition to the VIVID UI® authoring tool VIVID UI Workshop. The Package Tool makes kisekae content creation easy for Android handsets, and can leverage kisekae content resources developed for conventional handsets. With the contemporaneous launch of the delivery system, content developers will be able to immediately supply content after creation.
Kisekae touch also incorporates an extremely secure mechanism for DRM2 that fully encodes the content. Since illegal use of kisekae content is prevented on Android handsets, character properties can be activated safely. In summary, Kisekae touch delivers the entire eco system: the Home app, content creation tools, DRM, and delivery system. Content providers can readily enter the kisekae market for Android handsets.
Acrodea is committed to upgrading Kisekae touch in the future, such as support for SWF files3. The development effort will continue for the inclusion of greater numbers of content providers and users, as services successively launch with domestic and global operators.
Notes:
1. Survey results of 2009 mobile content industry structure by MIC
2. Digital Rights Management, which is technology to protect copyrights of content expressed as digital data, and restrict illegal use.
3. Standard file format for playback of motion video created as Adobe Flash.
| Overview of Kisekae touch—Appearance Transformation Service for Android Handsets |
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Acrodea, Inc., is a software technology R&D firm involved in middleware technology for mobile terminals. The company is particularly focused on interface technologies connecting between the user and terminal, and currently provides UI (user interface) technologies and email enhancement technologies to the market. We are also applying R&D energy towards the enhancement of graphics performance, which is indispensable in facilitating usage of mobile platform interfaces. Listed on the Mothers Market (Code: 3823, TSE), Acrodea is headquartered in Tokyo, and maintains an overseas presence in Seoul, Korea; Helsinki, Finland; and Seal Beach, California, U.S.A. For more information, please visit http://www.acrodea.co.jp.
For inquiries about this release, please contact the following:
IR-PR Group, Administrative Dept. at Acrodea, Inc.
TEL：+81 3-5768-8606 Email products@acrodea.co.jp
