Qualcomm announced that it is sampling the industry’s first chipsets for dual-carrier HSPA+ and multi-mode 3G/LTE. According to the PR, these chipsets demonstrate significant progress toward enabling the mass-market commercial deployment of two next-generation network technologies that bring more advanced data capabilities to mobile devices for new global markets.
KDDI held their Fall and Winter 2009 handset launch in Tokyo yesterday with a splash of new hardware on display for the upcoming season. The lineup has 13 new models in total; four coming Sharp, three by Kyocera, two each via Casio and Sony Ericsson and one from each Sanyo and Toshiba rounding out the pack. Most noticeable by all accounts is the jump to 12 mega-pixel camera spec. on both Sharp Aquos Shot models and the CA003 Exilim by Casio which also touts shooting 20 frames per second – thank you very much! The usual fancy touch&try Flash-style site is Here [Jpn] and our best effort machine translation is below.
Clearly the #2 operator has moved aggressively to address their device portfolio offering as they have struggled over the last 18-months with new customer additions. It should be interesting to see the December subscriber numbers and no doubt all eyes now on what DoCoMo and SoftBank have on tap, those announcements also expected very soon, to roll in the coming months as well.
KDDI releases 2 more iida handsets – PLY and Prismoid – in Sept along w/ access. unveils new “Polaris” concept model [J] http://bit.ly/ATXBf
The au Design Project has added to their unique collection of custom models with three new units; Happiness with Dots, Doggie Ring-Ring and the groovy Hand Bag for Space Travel, created by Yayoi Kusuma going on sale here July 30th. These handmade limited edition offerings, priced accordingly from $1,000 to $10,000 each, will be available on first come basis both online and at one of several specially designated shop locations. Considering past success of the INFOBAR, talby, neon, and MEDIA SKIN designs, which were were added to the permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, no doubt the latest iida branded concept will gain approval with certain discerning clients overseas as well.
Wireless Watch Japan spent an interesting week in Singapore at the annual CommunicAsia conference and trade show recently where we managed to shoot this demo of the latest Samsung Jet offering which made it’s debut there on June 15th. Billed as ‘Smarter than a Smartphone’ the AMOLED display is super crisp at 480dpi and it’s 800MHz processor lends power to the speedy brand name. The companies Touch Whiz UI, with drag and drop widgets, and the newly minted Dolphin browser featuring one finger zoom while enabling tabbed browsing of up to five web pages at one time were all impressive additions. Watch the video and see for yourself — Special thanks to Mr. Shin from Samsung for taking the time!
The Teardown Squad over at Tech-On took the latest solar-powered handset offered by Sharp for a test drive and have filed their observations Here and Here. KDDI released the device, also available via SoftBank Mobile, in Tokyo on June 9th. The jist of their testing seems to indicate that, while it does indeed work, the time to get free juice takes somewhat longer, like 85-mins charging for 5-mins of talk, than suggested. To be fair, as with most first wave products over years, surely the performance will improve with future revisions.
