Track Your Pet By Mobile Phone

Everyone knows that carriers and device makers are looking for any wireless app these days that will drive demand for 3G networks. NTT DoCoMo is working on a whole bunch of futuristic apps that they think will help. One of the big ones is the ability to track your pets with your mobile phone. There's already an initial version for parents to track their children in a Japanese amusement park, but as the systems get smaller, they believe they'll be able to do pet tracking as well. There's also a device in use these days that lets diabetes patients test their blood and transmit the results wirelessly all by their mobile phone. DoCoMo is hoping that these, and other very niche applications will convince the Japanese public to upgrade to 3G already by catering to very speicific needs. So far, upgrades have gone much slower than expected as most users don't see the benefits of a wireless data service that is simply "faster".