Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times

Summer 2010 – Japan Superphone Specs

For those who wonder Why Japan Couldn’t Make a Phone Like This.. it would be easy to shred your one-way approach, maybe we’ll get around to that yet. Meanwhile, lets just look forward for now shall we..?!?

A quick review of the new F-06B for DoCoMo by Fujitsu just released to the market here on June 12th. It’s the first example, that we can find, of a waterproof handset that has both slider and twister design, guess that was an engineering challenge. Touting 13MB camera with 4128×3096 .jpg resolution and full touch screen – with scrawling input – on 3.5 inch WVGA TFT display at 16.77 million colors or 480×960 dots. Continue>>

Sharp 3D Mobile Camera Module

Sharp announces the camera module to which it can take a picture of 3D image of the high-definition television (1280×720 pixels) for the mobile device on May 12. The sample is shipped in July, and it mass-produces it by the end of 2010. Installing in a digital camera, a cellular phone, and a smart phone, etc. is scheduled.

Sharp Rolls Kin with Microsoft

With two low-cost devices hitting the U.S. soon – and predictable APPL fanboy bashing – Sharp has delivered it’s first major built-to-order product, of any likely scale, for major global markets. The formally code-named Pink, now Kin-series, units tout touch screens with decent mega-pixel cameras and on-board storage targeting the youth market for casual mobile web surfing markets and SNS activities. While we had to snicker at the final quote on their PR Note: This product is not designed for the Japanese market, however, it’s a fools game to ‘short’ a clear desire – in the land of WalMart – to get a better than average deal.. 😎

Japan Mobile TV from Full Hi-Def

Renesas has announced [JPN] their latest application processor for terrestrial digital broadcasting. The so-called “SH-Mobile MT1” for next-gen. mobile handsets is the first in the industry to enable watch and record/reproduction of 1Seg TV from Full HD feeds in Japan and begins the sample shipment in April, 2010.

Japan Trials RCS Initiative

The GSMA today reported significant progress with its Rich Communication Suite (RCS) initiative, a service that provides mobile operators with a feature-rich portfolio of interoperable communication services, enabling customers to access a wide range of advanced messaging applications direct from their handset’s contact list.

KDDI to Offer Mobile Insurance Plans

KDDI is planning to roll out the “au Femtocell” – a miniature base station to be used indoors by summer 2010, and will commence trial operations in locations throughout the Kanto region beginning March 2010. “au Femtocell” is a miniature base station that creates a small mobile coverage area of a radius of approximately 10 meters; the service will be offered to the consumer market.

Japan Handset Sales Slip 10%

Japan’s domestic shipments of cellular phones and personal handyphone system handsets declined 9.9 percent on the year to 3.13 million units in November. The decline followed two straight months of year-on-year increases, which had snapped a 14-month string of decreases through last August.