Terminal Technology
Terminal Technology

Terminal Technology

Sprint Introduces the Sanyo Katana

The legendary Katana, best known as a precision instrument sword used by the Samurai, has a new identity, that of a cutting-edge wireless phone by Sprint and SANYO. This ultra-thin handset features Bluetooth and a built-in VGA camera. Making its debut throughout the month of July in four bold colors, including Mystic Black, Blue Sapphire, Cherry Blossom Pink, and Polar White, which is a color that will be sold exclusively at RadioShack, the Katana will be available at Sprint Stores, online and at select third-party retailers for $279.99 or $79.99 after rebates with a two-year subscriber agreement.

Motorola and RIM Rolling in – SoftBank a No-Show?

Last week saw an interesting double play for mobile devices in Japan as both NTT DoCoMo and Willcom announced new phones — DoCoMo’s 7-Series — or new PDAs — Sharp’s oddly named W-Zero3[es]. These, combined with the continuing speculation on the this fall’s entry of RIM’s Blackberry email device (will it have Japanese text input capability?), made it a busy week for wireless watchers.

On Tuesday, WWJ was first on the Web with a full report and images of DoCoMo’s new 7-Series, a mix of models from Sharp, Panasonic, NEC and Mitsubishi, as well as from US maker Motorola…

Another Smartphone Soon Via Willcom

Willcom, Microsoft and Sharp have introduced their next generation smartphone. The Zero3 [es] is powered by Intel’s PXA270 CPU at 416MHz, with 128MB of flash memory and 64MB of SDRAM. In addition to the Windows Mobile 5.0 (Japanese) operating system, the phone also comes with the Opera mobile browser and Flash pre-installed. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, miniSD removable memory, a USB 2.0 port and QR code reader. According to the press release, they are working on seperate W-Fi, Bluetooth and 1Seg TV tuner cards to be released at a later date.

Fujitsu's Mobile WiMAX SoC Solution

Fujitsu Microelectronics announced its Mobile WiMAX System-on-Chip (SoC) solution and roadmap at the Annual Wireless Communications Association Conference 2006. This highly integrated one-chip MAC and PHY mixed signal baseband SoC is designed to optimize both performance and power consumption using Fujitsu’s 90nm process technology, and is especially well-suited for PC cards and mobile devices. The Fujitsu mobile WiMAX SoC is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.16e-2005 Mobile WiMAX standard.

Sanyo Nokia Deal Called Off

Sanyo Electric has given up potentially lucrative plans announced in February to tie up on mobile handsets with Finnish giant Nokia as the firms had failed to reach a compromise. “The plan of setting up a joint venture with Nokia in CDMA mobile handsets is over, as both sides saw difficulty making concessions in sharing patent rights and other company assets,” Sanyo Electric spokesman Akihiro Oiwa said Thursday. The plan was one pillar of Sanyo’s restructuring efforts.

Industry to Create Open Mobile Linux Platform

Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone have just announced their intent to establish the world’s first global, open Linux-based software platform for mobile devices. A world-class Linux-based platform aims to provide key benefits for the mobile industry including lower development costs, increased flexibility, and a richer mobile ecosystem – all of which contribute to the group’s ultimate objective of creating compelling, differentiated and enhanced consumer experiences.