Strapya has an extensive collection of charms to attach to your ketai including one called Revolve Game which has pinball, space hockey and car racing (to name a few) all packed into a 55mm x 40mm micro package. The unit runs on two LR44 batteries and has an auto power-off function that shuts down when idle for 3 or 4 minutes. It comes in 10 colors and has 99 levels of play – on the black & white screen – for only 680jpy.
By now everyone who can read knows that the big news in wireless this week was the announcement for “Steve’s Amazing New Device”. We’ve had several queries for comment over the last couple of days and reluctantly have decided to offer a few thoughts on his so-called ‘future of mobile handsets’. One might be forgiven for asking “what does this development have to do with Japan” but it was actually the LA Times who started it. Also related, the early rumors swirling in May last year – which were quickly denied – that we would see SoftBank Mobile roll-out Apple Computer Inc.’s new gear here in 2006. If Jobs & Co. actually plan to hit their 10 million sales target, or just 1% of the global share, then a 3G enabled unit for advanced markets like Japan has to be part of their 2007 roadmap.
So, what do we think. After the rough ride WWJ gave RIM got for their market entry Blackberry device, you shouldn’t expect any glowing Mac fan boy type ravings from us. However, there certainly is one definite and positive aspect to this whole discussion.. Awareness. Before getting into specific pro’s and cons of the device itself – as described at launch – for just a moment lets consider the obvious impact on the general marketplace. The very nature of this high-profile move into mobile computing will, as they say, simply have to raise all boats. As more people are exposed to the possibilities of consuming content and services in the wireless arena, better product offerings will no doubt follow. That being said, HTC’s smartphone (video here), running Windows mobile with a full qwerty sliding keyboard and touch screen entry (pointer included), has been available from both DoCoMo and SoftBank in Japan since mid-2006. So it’s somewhat difficult to understand the ‘revolutionary design’ aspect as things already seem well underway.
There are several issues (beyond the no 3rd party apps) at first blush; for starters a touch screen as the ‘only’ input feature – can you say finger grease – seems to ignore the common reality of text messaging. It should be quite interesting to see how they have designed the UI for those big dumb fingers to type e-mail. Battery power will be another major challenge with that nice big screen, especially since it will be running a cpu hungry mobile version of OSX. As most readers should recall the locked-down battery saga with the early iPods, clearly their rev. 1 model of this handset might well be disappointing in that area after 12 months of routine daily usage as well.
It’s an easy prediction that it will be one of the Top Stories in 2007 and we are looking forward to
follow the product and it’s market evolution. The company has taken a very public step into this new space and considering the past success of their mobile music product offerings it should help to breath some fresh air into the telecom industry.
KDDI announced new handsets and services this week for their Safety Navi series, original debut in 2005 and improved January 2006, targeted at the the family / youth market. This latest line-up addition includes 3 new models; the Sanyo A5525SA, Toshiba’s A5523T and a so-called Sweets Cute (also by Sanyo), plus several new advanced GPS offerings. One example shows the progress of a users location through the day – using data collected each minute – plotted on a map and viewed by parents or guardians with authorized access on mobile phones or PC’s. The company also announced something that roughly translates into Automatic Photo where remote requests can be made for the handset to take and send a picture!
Nanosys, Inc. and DoCoMo Capital, Inc., a wholly owned US subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., announced they have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement to develop Nanosys’ nanotechnology platform for potential product opportunities in wireless communications for mobile telephone applications in Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, NTT DoCoMo and DoCoMo Capital will fund development efforts at Nanosys and NTT DoCoMo. In addition, DoCoMo Capital announced its equity investment in Nanosys. Financial details of the agreements were not disclosed.
SoftBank Mobile announced that it has started deliveries of their so-called 705NK, Nokia’s N73 which has been customized for the Japan market, and will be on sale from January 13. The handset features include; quad-band GSM / W-CDMA chipset for global roaming, PC Suite capability for reading Word, Excel, Power-Point documents, a QVGA LCD sreen with3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and music player functions combined with FM radio. It will be available in three colors – deep plum, light sand, and newly added color, metallic red.
NEC Electronics have announced the start of sample shipments of its newly developed chipset for mobile phones. The LSI AP131 accommodates music playing CPU and DSP on its board and adds support for WMV (ASF) and MP (MP4, M4A, 3GP, 3G2). The previous version of this product, the PD99910, had only support for SD-Audio (MP3, AAC) format. NEC is asking 1,000 yen per sample and plans to output one million chipsets per month in 2007.
