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Summer Handset Parade on Video

Summer Handset Parade on VideoThe Tokyo Business Show 2004 opened yesterday with a light show and pounding music that highlighted Vodafone on center stage. They have taken a beating in the marketplace — and the press — lately over the lack of new handsets, but here are 5 fresh-for-summer models that should make the critics, and customers, take notice. The V602SH from Sharp would seem to be pick of the litter with its industry-first, 2x-optical-zoom camera and huge, swivel-style LCD screen. The sleeper surprise unit, upon closer inspection, has to be the V401D from Mitsubishi with its Super-CCD Honeycomb 2-megapixel camera and — another industry first — a side-mounted finger tracing control feature to operate screen scrolling and camera zoom!!! We were in for another treat afterwards wandering by the DoCoMo booth to see they had just rolled-out the new micro-mini Premini by Sony Ericsson. If you couldn’t make it out to Tokyo Big Sight in person then we hope you’ll enjoy this quick video clip from our adventure. Program

Vodafone K.K. Testing Flash-OFDM

Vodafone’s answer to 3.5G and NTT DoCoMo’s HSDPA will be trailed here later this year. Vodafone will be conducting fast low-latency access with seamless handoff Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Flash OFDM) trials in the second half of the year in Tokyo that will test the ability to run 3Mbps wireless data networks.

NEC Launches New Fixed Point-to-point Wireless Access System

NEC Corporation announced today the launch of PASOLINK Mx, a new line-up of fixed point-to-point wireless access system in the global market boasting the World’s Largest Bandwidth Capacity. PASOLINK is chiefly designed for telecom carriers’ backhaul, business and emergency networks. It offers simple and highly reliable fixed wireless solutions.

New Global Passport 3G Phone

KDDI will release a new 3G handset, the A1305SA, in June. The new model [.jpg image] made by Sanyo Electric features 144Kbps data transmission and global roaming. Designed for international travellers, users of this handset will be able to bring it overseas use the same number, without applying separately for an international roaming service. The handset’s dimensions are 47w x 92h x 24d mm, and weighs 102 grams.

DoCoMo Earnings Release FY2003

NTT DoCoMo today announced the company’s consolidated financial results (NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and subsidiaries) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. Operating revenues were 5,048.1 billion yen (up 5% year-on-year), operating income was 1,102.9 billion yen (up 4.4% year-on-year), income before income taxes was 1,101.1 billion yen (up 5.6% year-on-year) and net income was 650.0 billion yen (up 205.9% year-on-year).

Vodaphone KK Unleashes 2.5G Terminal Blitz

It’s been a year or so, but finally Vodafone K.K. is attempting an aggressive rollout of impressive (albeit) 2/2.5G handset terminals clearly aimed at fun– and the young. Over the next couple of months the company is adding 5 terminals [.pdf here], including the new V602 from Sharp and V601 from Toshiba that have mulitimedia features even more impressive than those aboard DoCoMo 900i series, as well as an improved radio phone from Sanyo and a clearer TV picture from Sharp. Better still, last week’s news that Vodafone has decided to adopt a FeliCa compatible removable solution for contactless payments shows the company is definitely on board with promoting the mobile phone away from a communications/ game device into become a viable e-commerce tool not only here in Japan, but potentially accross the vast Vodafone empire.

Japan Keitai Truisms

In a report released April 6, Tokyo-based Ipse Marketing gave the results of a survey conducted in January 2004 on the degree of usage of advanced phone features. The report said that users of mobile phones are “more adept at utilizing various functions in a mobile phone than they were a year ago,” and specifically highlighted Java application programs, movies, video, and the use of an external memory card as new features that the average i-moder in the street is increasingly using…

DoCoMo's 506i Series Launch Event

DoCoMo's 506i Launch EventWe’re not too sure about NTT DoCoMo’s motivation for fielding the first three models of the new 506i-series second-gen cellys. Sure, Big D have got to stay in front of the public eye with new models, new colours, etc. Japan’s consumer terminal market is nothing if not intensely competitive and trying to sell six-month old cell phones — which have often already lost 50% of their value at retail — is like, Oh, Soooo six-months old… Missing a slot in the handset upgrade cycle can be costly, as No. 3 competitior Vodafone has found to their regret. Full Program Run-time 14:32

Gaining 3G Handset Market Share

In the burgeoning global WCDMA handset market, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are gaining market share. Hutchison Telecom is reportedly in talks with LG to purchase WCDMA handsets worth 1 billion dollars, or several million units. Last year, Hutchison Telecom procured 3G phones from Motorola and Sony-Ericsson. The carrier, however, experienced a delay in supply of handsets for several months due to fatal defects in software of 3 million units of 3G handsets received from NEC of Japan and Motorola.