Sha-Mail (写メール, Sha Mēru) was a 2G mailing and picture messaging service launched by J-Phone (now Softbank) in 2000 that allowed users to take a photo with their mobile phone and send it to another user on the service as an email attachment.[1] A related service introduced in 2002, Video Sha-Mail, let users record and send videos as well.[2] Sha-Mail was widely successful upon its launch, became a household name in Japan,[3] and sparked a boom in camera phone services worldwide.[4] The term derives from sha, the first part of the Japanese word shashin (写真, 'picture'), and mail (from email).[5]
Sha-Mail development was led by Keiji Takao, who previously worked for Mazda. Takao came up with the idea on a sight-seeing trip to Hakone with his parents, where he saw a woman on a cable car using her mobile phone, apparently struggling to operate the device and unable to send a photo of the view.[2] He recalled: "Here she was, a lady furiously typing into her handset and trying to relay her feelings and excitement to her children or husband. I said to myself, 'Gee, wouldn't it be easier if there was some sort of an image to send with?'"[6] Takao also reportedly took inspiration from a survey he had read about adolescent girls keeping disposable cameras alongside their phones in their purse.[7] J-Phone, meanwhile, was under pressure from competitors KDDI, which had a faster network, and NTT Docomo, which was preparing to move to 3G, and the company believed it could differentiate itself by focusing on email.[6]
J-Phone launched the Sha-Mail service in November 2000 with the help of electronics company Sharp Corporation, who developed the J-SH04 phone with a built-in, back-facing CCD camera.[2] The J-SH04 was among the first phones in the world with a fully-integrated camera, and at the time, Sha-Mail was Japan's only service of its kind.[3]
The service was quite successful on the market, particularly with young people. J-Phone had sold around 3 million handsets with Sha-Mail enabled by January 2022.[1] Almost three years later, 10 million users were on the service,[2] with around 5 million users using Movie Sha-Mail. In 2002 Vodafone, which had by that point acquired J-Phone, launched Vodafone live! as a global service. By December 2002, the European launch of Vodafone live! brought in more than 380,000 users.[6]
This rapid growth helped J-Phone move from #3 to #2 in total wireless data subscribers. J-Phone's competitors followed suit. Market leader NTT Docomo introduced a similar service with Sharp called i-shot and another named Foma, KDDI's au introduced "Photo Mail" and "Movie Mail" services, and KDDI subsidiary TU-KA introduced "Picture Mail."[7] In the US, AT&T (a NTT Docomo affiliate) launched the mMode Pix feature on Sony Ericsson T68i devices.[4] Sha-Mail's popularity also spawned tie-ins such as a magazine called "J-Phone Sha-mail Hearts"[7] and the TV Aichi series Syamekke, which encouraged users to send in photos and text messages relating to weekly topics, later to be broadcast on the program.[1]
In November 2002, Japan's fair trade commission raided Vodafone's headquarters upon an accusation that the company had prevented retailers from lowering the cost of Sha-Mail enabled handsets upon launch.[8]
Though Vodafone planned to make Sha-Mail a centerpiece of its 3G service,[4] the company lagged well behind its competitors in moving to 3G and capturing users; as of 2004 fewer than 20% of Vodafone subscribers were subscribed to 3G.[9] Thus the now-obsolete Sha-Mail never upgraded to 3G, effectively ending Sha-Mail once support for 2G networks ceased.[citation needed]
The word Japanese word shamēru, often abbreviated to shame (写メ), now commonly refers to any text message with an image attached.[3]
