Android by AU Smartphone Launch

Nov. 26th was launch date for the new Sharp android device in Japan via KDDI with upwards of 500k pre-ordered units http://bit.ly/ge0iu4

The seemingly long wait is over with the so-called Android by AU smartphone (official site), produced by Sharp, hitting the street in Tokyo yesterday. As clipped from a couple of Jpn articles below, near 300k units were pre-ordered online leading up the Nov. 26th launch and many estimate another hefty chunk from the physical shops could see a whopping 500k handsets flood the market this weekend!

Consider that DoCoMo will start taking orders for their latest ‘droids soon as well so there could easily be like 1M new baby green machines running amok out there by sometime around year-end. Suppose the Lady GaGa campaign on TV here the last few weeks can take at least some of the credit. Should be rather interesting to see the official TCA numbers for November.. @_@

Machine Translation:

KDDI(au) new smart phone “IS03″ became the main force of the sales battle the market. It is the last resort of the rally for KDDI delayed starting with a smart phone. It is said that the number of tentative reservations by the Internet reached 270,000.

The number of tentative reservations greatly exceeds 50,000 shop reservations of “Galaxy S” that NTT DoCoMo put on the market last month. The KDDI president of Takashi Tanaka for the next term ‘I am surprised at many of the reservation. I want to begin the revival of au here. It is said that 600,000 or more will have been ordered to Sharp of the manufacturer. Via Asahi

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The Bic Camera Yurakucho branch in front of Yodobashi Camera at Akihabara Station became the hall of the event to many exhibit of working actually sample that can be operated taking the exhibition corner of IS03. The product of two or more manufacturers arrived to special accessories of the liquid crystal protection film and the case, etc. The terminal that can be bought without appointment is said that the possibility of lost early is high though prepared some numbers. Via Nikkei Trendy

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NTT DoCoMo begins the preorder of Android smart phone ‘REGZA Phone T-01C’ on December 1. The schedule at the release date is described in the guide for the press, and the impression forestalling it to KDDI that schedules the sale of the same terminal.

REGZA Phone T-01C is Android smart phone made by Fujitsu Toshiba mobile communications. A wide four-full inch VGA liquid crystal installed, and it enjoy One Seg and the animation of ‘YouTube’ by the high-resolution. It corresponds to ‘Wallet cellular phone’, infrared date communication, and ‘S p mode’ and ‘DoCoMo market’. The first waterproof function in a DoCoMo smart phone can be used. OS when shipping it is Android 2.1. The upgrade to 2.2 is scheduled next spring.

DoCoMo accepts the reservation from the 1st to the day before of the commercial launch of December in the DoCoMo shop in the whole country. In E-mail delivery for the press concerning this announcement, it touched about the release date as there is a possibility of changing though Friday, December 17 is scheduled on the release day. Via LiveDoor