NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today the FOMA N2701, the first dual-network handset that works both with DoCoMo’s 2G and 3G networks. The N2701 goes on sale nationwide on June 11, 2003.
KDDI has been actively developing technologies and services that fuse communications and broadcasting. As a part of these activities, the KDDI subsidiary KDDI R&D Laboratories, in conjunction with NHK Science & Technical Research Laboratories has developed a prototype mobile terminal that supports linked communications and broadcasting services in an environment similar to actual usage conditions. The services combine mobile phone services and data broadcasting for mobile terminals that support digital terrestrial broadcasting.
KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular recently announced plans to launch five new handsets from the end of May increasing their new lineup of 3G mobile phones (CDMA 2000 1x), a format that enables high-speed data transmission of up to 144 kbps. All the new phones are Movie Mail-compatible, a function that allows users to shoot and send seamless movies. The new handsets scheduled for launch are the A5401CA manufactured by Casio, the A5402S produced by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the A5306ST and A1303SA both made by Sanyo, and the A5303H II manufactured by Hitachi.
Yatta.. an actual Wireless Watch – and Mobile Phone! Will this new model design set the pace for future of wearable devices, seems that time is coming. While it does look ‘kinda’ bulky, and retail price runs pretty rich at about $400, but the geeks in us will still be out shopping this weekend.. maybe we can get a special WWJ discount.. =@_@=
This week, WWJ sits down with Sony Ericsson to look into the design process that animates Japan’s ubercool handset industry. We ask about product planning, design peculiarities of the Japanese market, development for overseas, and about new technologies – like removable memory and swivel cameras. Sony Ericsson is one of Japan’s top handset factories and their new-last-week 505i handset for DoCoMo is the only one with a 1.3-megapixel camera. If there’s something these folks don’t know about creating handsets, it’s not worth knowing. Full Program Run-Time 22:13
During the 505i launch event on Tuesday, Takeshi Natsuno was on stage to demonstrate the F505i’s capabilities – including the fingerprintreader used to authenticate access to the phone’s address book, mail, picture store, and scheduler. When Natsuno applied his finger onto the reader platen glass (located at the bottom of the phone), **nothing happened!** “OK – we’ll try that later,” he added somewhat sheepishly, after waiting for some 30 seconds…
NTT DoCoMo today unveiled specifications of its new 505i mobile phones, a series of six enhanced PDC (2G)-compatible models equipped for advanced i-appli applications based on Macromedia Flash and Java technology. Each 505i model also comes with a camera, infrared port, and external memory slot. DoCoMo expects to introduce the models one by one beginning in mid-May.
After a two-year business strategy planning pause, BREW finally launched in Japan last month. From the consumer point of view, BREW and Java work more or less the same: you navigate a menu, select an application, download it, then run it. There’s little to chose on a technology basis. But BREW – like 3G – may be able to gain a leg up on Java (DoCoMo’s favored choice) if KDDI can continue to roll out cool, fun, cheap, feature-laden (and BREW-enabled) handsets – much as the carrier has done with 3G. Now that KDDI has finally rolled out BREW, we wonder how competition with Java will unfold in 2003? Ironically, BREW’s future may be intimately tied up with that of 3G.
Japan’s cell phone makers, pioneers of the camera-equipped handset, look set to intrude into digital camera makers’ turf as a fierce battle for market share draws them toward photo-phones with million-pixel resolution. No one is yet consigning digital cameras to the high-tech scrap heap, but some of the dozen or so handset makers that crowd the Japanese market are preparing to launch “megapixel” photo phones this year with picture quality good enough to make prints.
In Japan, phones and PDAs are viewed within the industry as separate vertical markets. DoCoMo and other carriers – who control the development and sale of cellular devices – have not seen fit to create a hybrid phone/PDA. Is it fear of loss of control over the subscriber billing relationship? Fear of allowing foreign makers – like Nokia – into the market? Is it the lack of Japanese third-party developers who have worked with overseas platforms (like Symbian)? Today’s program looks at a company helping to stir up a market that needs some stirring.
