Vodafone K.K. just announced the roll-out, available from today, of a new service called ‘RECO MAIL’ which enables customers to send their favorite mobile content such as music, video and games via MMS and other methods to friends and acquaintances as recommendations. At the time of launch, 17 content sites with an estimated 33,780 files, on Vodafone live! support this new so-called “Super Distribution” copyright protection method communication service.
Sharp Corp. said Friday that it will start selling later this month in Europe two new 3G models specifically designed for that market. The Osaka-based consumer electronics maker, known for its “Aquos” brand LCD TVs, will supply the new mobile phone handsets to Vodafone Group Plc, a Sharp spokesman said. He declined to comment on the price tag, which will reportedly be set in the EUR150 to EUR200 range, on par with similar cellphones sold in Europe.
Willcom has announced an updated model of their hyper-popular smartphone, the W-ZERO3 series by Sharp. The WS004SH will hit the streets here on June 22nd and will be running pretty much the same spec. as the original version, with a couple of small exceptions. They have doubled the onboard flash memory from 128mb and added a 300,000 item dictionary, including a Japanese-English “DicLand Ver1.1” suite. Otherwise, it’s the same Windows Mobile 5.0 OS on an Intel PXA270 416MHz CPU with no improvement on the 1.3 mega-pixel camera or battery pack which have be the only serious complaint issues from owners who were so eager to buy the debut model last year.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and Research In Motion (RIM) announced today that DoCoMo will start marketing RIM’s BlackBerry handheld devices to its corporate customers in autumn 2006. The BlackBerry handheld devices to be sold in Japan will operate on both W-CDMA (UMTS) and GSM/GPRS networks and will be useable around the world for voice and data communications. BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise, and enables secure, push-based wireless access to e-mail and other corporate data.
Dentsu Inc. and Mitsubishi Corporation announced today that they will form a business alliance encompassing the production, sale and rights management of Japanese animated works in Japan and globally. Dentsu brings to this partnership significant capabilities in content and creative production in Japan, while Mitsubishi Corporation has built a strong track record in the export of Japanese animated works, particularly focusing on children’s animation. The partners have agreed to actively cooperate in developing businesses that utilize such new media as the Internet and mobile devices.
Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co. said Tuesday it will start repairing defective software in mobile phone handsets it now supplies for KDDI Corp.’s “au” phone service, resulting in an expense of Y1 billion this fiscal year. The Osaka-based electronics manufacturer said all 506,800 handsets of its “W32SA” model for the au service are subject to free repairs.
NEC LCD Technologies, Ltd. today announced that at SID 2006 in San Francisco it will give a presentation and demonstrate a sample of its new 3.5-inch color quarter video graphics array amorphous-silicon TFT liquid crystal display module boasting a viewing angle and contrast ratio of the industry’s highest class for small liquid crystal display modules. This new LCD module was realized by a combination of super-reflective natural light technology, NEC’s proprietary transflective technology for adapting objects to outdoor light.
An advisory group to Communications Minister Heizo Takenaka will recommend in a final report due out today that the holding company for the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp group should be dissolved around fiscal 2010 and the entire NTT group disbanded, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported without citing sources. According to the article it is far from clear whether the report will become official government policy.
Qualcomm and Microsoft will work together to port the Windows Mobile operating system to certain Qualcomm chips, speeding time to market and potentially dropping the price of smart phones, the companies said. The chips are expected to become available to handset makers in the second half of this year and should hit shelves in 2007. By integrating and testing support for Windows Mobile on Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem chips, the companies hope to help device makers speed product development times.
Warner Music has bought a minority stake in a Japanese firm that produces radio programming delivered over mobile phones. The international arm of New York-based Warner Music announced that it is making a capital investment in FrontMedia and supplying it music in exchange for the chance to expand the firm’s mobile broadcasting and video services on the country’s three major mobile carriers. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
