DoCoMo Strikes Back with 905i-Series

Domestic market incumbant NTT DoCoMo came out with all guns blazing during their press conference at the Grand Park Hyatt in Tokyo on November 1st. For the first time ever they combined the launch for both of their upcoming 700 and 900 series models - a record 23 handsets unveiled at once - and the announcement included several new service offerings as well. Marking another notable difference from previous line-up introductions was the absence of Natsuno-san, famed ‘father of i-mode’ and always energetic MC, from the stage.

The companies flag-ship 905i-series included 10 models which will all come fully loaded with high-speed HSDPA, 1Seg digitial-tv, DCMX m-commerce, GPS, 2in1 dual-sim identity and enabled with GSM chipsets to allow global roaming complete with voice-to-text translation capabilities for English, Chinese and Japanese. Further enhancements in handset design include increased multi-media applications in motion sensor gaming, flat-rate music subscriptions and i-motion videos along with updated i-area mapping and cell broadcast emergency announcement services and Flash Lite 3 pre-installed all coming as standard features across the board. See a few examples [in Japanese] Here.

The new 705i-series models include several interesting exceptions to what has been generally considered in the past to be a lower-end offering. For starters the L705iX (aka Shine) will take advantage of the next-gen. network offering a potential down-link speed of 7.2Mbps and both the P705i by Panasonic and the N705i from NEC will ship with full spec. features of the top-tier 905i handsets. While only 3 of the models have GSM roaming, all of the domestic makers offer the 2in1 sim, DCMX payments, GPS appli, Mega Games, i- motion video and biometric security functionality.

The staggered release schedule announced indicates that we will see the 905i-series start shipping later this month with several designs, including the Cyber-Shot and Viera, coming in early 2008. The 705i models on display, which were all mock-ups, will not start rolling-out until January with the above mentioned L705iX expected sometime in February or March. WWJ Subscribers login for more details and our full 30-minute video program.

Tags: 3G, Camera, DoCoMo, flash, FOMA, Fujitsu, Game, GPS, HSDPA, i-mode, m-commerce, music, nec, panasonic, Sharp, sony-ericsson, video

Posted: 2 November 2007 | Filed: Video Programs, Viewpoint | Feedback | Print |