Vodafone KK will introduce after late April the VC701SI Vodafone Connect Card, a datacard compatible with its 3G W-CDMA network in Japan. Capable of modem and communication functions, the VC701SI, manufactured by Seiko Instruments, is Vodafone’s first 3G CompactFlash (CF) card data terminal.
KDDI announced a new line of 3G phones to be available end of February 2004. The models include the W21H by Hitachi, equipped with a mega pixel camera, the first of the kind among CDMA 1X WIN mobile phones; the Sanyo A5405SA, equipped with functions such as “pair function” and “smart mode” and the Sony Ericsson A1402S, equipped with a 2.3 inch QVGA LCD and au’s first infrared ray communication function.
ACCESS, a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet technologies, announced today that it has collaborated with Nokia to demonstrate ACCESS’ acclaimed NetFront mobile browser for WCDMA optimized releases of Nokia’s Series 60 Platform. With a broad range of plug-in support, NetFront enables downloading and playing of popular content formats such as RealMedia or MPEG4 movies, music, and SMIL packages. NetFront’s versatility makes it a perfect launch pad for multimedia and infotainment on the move.
Olympus Corp. has announced that it has developed a new bar code system that enables camera cellular phones to read STCodes that are printed on newspapers, etc. A service will be launched March 4 in which a cell phone that reads the code printed on a newspaper, for example, will automatically connect to a specific Web site that will then transmit an audio format of the selected article.
Sharp Corporation announces that it will commence shipment of its new GX30 mobile phone with built-in megapixel CCD camera and color LCD to the world’s largest mobile community, the Vodafone Group. The GX30 is the first mobile phone in the European market to be equipped with a megapixel CCD camera. The new model will be released by Vodafone operators around the world starting March 2004.
With what might turn out to be impeccable timing, Matsushita Electric Industrial is shipping what Panasonic is touting as a breakthrough technology called nuMAICOVICON to replace CCD and conventional CMOS for camera loaded mobile phones. Imagine a technology that’s as cheap and cheerful on power consumption as CMOS, but delivers CCD quality, add in a good chuck of production and the Panasonic people could have a product that will save quite a few purchasing managers’ careers. This isn’t a future technology story: Panasonic are deadly serious. They have already started banging out about 2.2 million of the 1.3 megapixel version now, are adding a 2 megapixel version next month and want to ramp to 8 million units a month by October! WOW!
