Just in time for 3GSM, mobile auto-racing fanatics in Spain can snag a Mclaren Mercedes branded cell phone [.jpg image] from Vodafone. Apparently the collectors edition, for 69 Euro with a two year contract, will be made available to mark Alonso’s switch from Renault to Mclaren Mercedes in the upcoming 2007 Formula One season. The Sharp 770SH ML handset features a QVGA screen, 1.3MP camera, MP3 player, miniSD card slot and USB.
Happy New Year greetings from Masayoshi Son and friends at the former Vodafone Japan – now SoftBank Mobile – came in the form of this press release [.pdf in Japanese] announcing they will offer a limited flat-rate voice package starting mid-January. The 980jpy per month deal allows unlimited voice calling and mobile mail, effective between SoftBank 3G customers, from 1 a.m and 9 p.m. Son also apparently promised if competitors decide to follow his lead, offering a lower rate, within 24 hours he will undercut their prices.
DoCoMo will keep initial investment on its so-called super 3G network down to 100-200 billion yen ($841 million-$1.7 billion), according to reports in the Nikkei shimbun. DoCoMo has spent a total of 2.8 trillion yen on its 3G network in the past six years. Since the company will use existing base stations and other equipment for the super 3G, it would be able to keep down the necessary initial capital spending, the Nikkei said.
It was the best of times, it was… well, it really was the best of times! Also, as the famous line from Dickens goes, it was the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness and the season of.. Mobile!
Looking back on 2006, it’s hard to decide which news from Japan’s mobile scene was the most spectacular. Vodafone pulled out, Softbank stood up, mobile number portability struck, a record number of new handsets hit the street and – as December winds down – Motorola and Samsung are shipping first foreign-made 3G units into Japan.
A ‘quick’ look at what caught WWJ’s attention in ’06 after the jump.
NEC Corporation announced that it has started delivery of a new 3G (W-CDMA) Node B series “RS381, RS880.” The new series features Remote Radio Head (RRH) architecture, which divides the Node B into a main controller and a compact RRH outdoor unit. This allows flexible installation as the RRH outdoor unit can be installed within several dozen kilometers of the site, enabling response to a variety of situations and conditions.
Seiko Epson Corp. has developed an ultra-sensitive, ultra-compact GPS module to meet high demand from manufacturers of mobile phones and other handsets with GPS functionality. Volume shipment of the S4E19863 series has already begun, the product has been loaded in all GPS-capable models of the FOMA903i series phones recently released by DoCoMo. According to the companies press release this chip is the world’s smallest commercial GPS module at 7 mm x 6 mm x 1.28 mm.
