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Asia's Largest IT & Digital Trade Show – WPC EXPO 2004

The Asia’s largest IT & Digital Trade Show WPC EXPO 2004 will be held from October 20, Wednesday, through 23, Saturday, at the Tokyo Big Site. The number of exhibitors at the WPC EXPO 10th anniversary will be a total of 323 companies in 1,518 booth units (as of October 5). The show will cover a wide range of digital devices including PCs and peripherals, and also digital home appliances: DVD/HDD recorders, flat-screen televisions, digital cameras, and music players. Furthermore, in the “Business Zone” Hall 1 & 2, forerunner companies from China, Korea and Taiwan will exhibit. Witness the business scene in the Asian countries that lead the world economy.

Mobile TV Rocks!

In his 14 September WWJ Viewpoint, Philip Sugai raised some valid criticisms of the new TV cell phones and points to both technological and end-user behavior limitations that he believes doom TV phones to “DOA” status. Of these, the behavioral problems appear to be the most difficult to overcome. These criticisms, however, seriously underestimate both the technological developments that the devices will undergo in the next 18-24 months as well as the imagination and creativity that Japan’s end-users and broadcasters will apply to receiving and delivering, respectively, useful content via mobile TV (and FM radio).

Part 2 of a two-part series. Previously: MobileTV: Hype or Reality?, by Professor Philip Sugai.)

CEATEC 2004 & Japan's IT & Electronics Industries

The fifth staging of CEATEC JAPAN is nearly upon us. Optimism has returned to the industrial world this year, boosted by strong demand for mobile network-related products and car electronics equipment. Digital home appliances have been especially popular. In the Japanese electronics industry, domestic production reached peak levels of 25.4 trillion yen in 1997 and 25.1 trillion yen in 2000. In 2004, the figure also looks certain to exceed the 20.0 trillion yen mark.

New 3G Phone from Kyocera

KDDI has just announced a new 3G handset, the A1403K by Kyocera [.jpg image], which will be available in Japan at the end of October. Touted as a “Friendly oval form which is comfortable to hold,” it was designed by Ichiro Iwasaki. We have a quick peek on video of what looks like an early prototype of this model at CEATEC 2002. See the press release [in Japanese] Here.

Sharp's New Camera-Phone Module

Sharp has developed a new, 2-megapixel CCD camera module featuring a 2X optical inner zoom lens. Intended for use in high-end cameraphones, the new LZ0P3738 [.jpg image] will be available in quantity beginning in October 2004. Sharp is already marketing the LZ0P3731 2-megapixel CCD Camera Module with auto-focus, but to provide even greater functionality, Sharp has successfully equipped this new module with an optical zoom lens that is switchable between normal and 2X zoom.

Sony Announces New Clie for Japan

This may be the exception that proves the rule, but Sony shows that the PDA isn’t quite dead yet (at least not in Japan) with their latest, the multimedia PEG-VZ90. The biggest news is that it’s the first Palm with an OLED screen, but besides that it also plays back MPEG-4 video and both ATRAC3 and MP3 audio (hallelujah!), includes 802.11b wireless, and has a CF card slot that will take both communications and memory cards (plus the inevitable Memory Stick slot. According to Sony’s press release (in Japanese) this unit hits the street here at the end of September.