Buzz - Win7 Mango Handset for KDDI

Several sources reporting the folks at KDDI will debut a Win7 handset in August running on the next-gen. Mango platform: http://bit.ly/pHNaYL

Plenty of discussion around the web recently with respect to a Nikkei news brief on Win7 handset by Fujitsu for KDDI. Lets start with rough machine translation of that original source:

KDDI of the model first in Japan equipped with Windows phone 7
2011/7/16 2:02 Information origin Nihon Keizai Shimbun

KDDI(au) puts a new product that adopts basic soft (OS) for a smart phone of Microsoft of U.S. (MS) (high performance cellular phone = [sumaho])”Windows phone 7″ on the market at the end of August. Windows phone 7 is OS for real [sumaho] of first MS, and the product of KDDI becomes the first bounce in Japan. MS provides the service such as the data storage free of charge, and aims at the rally with [sumaho] OS early of Apple Computer USA and the U.S. Google also in a Japanese market. New machine etc. of KDDI

Sticking with the trusted Nikkei channel for a moment, they also posted this nugget on July 6th:

Microsoft Eyes Japan Release Of Windows Phone By June ‘12

TOKYO (NQN)–Microsoft Japan Co. wants to launch Japanese sales of smartphones based on the most advanced version of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, the firm’s president said Wednesday. At a briefing session on management policy, Yasuyuki Higuchi said the company wants to bring the Windows Phone to Japan within the year through June 2012, though he did not specify a date.

While in our many years of watching the industry, and local media players, the Nikkei is always a pretty good on getting the scope. What’s not clear is the Mango angle on this one; although def. possible since the MiX 2011 event in April, as we had noted here, made it clear that Japanese Kanji characters would be supported going forward.

At any rate, the so-called IS12-T model, as ‘envisioned’ in this mocked-up that’s also getting some attention, (note: the actual page is Here) may well be announced in August. However, it’s unusual for a handset to be announced and released in such short order.. of course it does happen. Meanwhile, interesting to see if it ends up looking more like the DoCoMo F-07C Windows phone announced in May and due on shelves sometime in July.

Otherwise, if you have not seen this Mango intro. video yet, well worth a boo. Brandon Watson, Director, Windows Phone 7 at Microsoft, gave great presentation and demo to developers in Helsinki May 25th - Yes, we were there..

Update July 19th: Whoa… press invite just came through for media event with all the key players mentioned above = would seem props to Nikkei in order for pushing the needle!