Surprise! NEC’s new card mobile phone is just going on sale in the China market. Japan’s number one cellie maker certainly appears to be spreading its wings in China these days, even if, or perhaps because things aren’t looking too pretty at the moment in the UK.
NEC Corp. has developed a cellular telephone with digital camera function that is the size of a credit card, and plans to unveil it next week. Few details of the telephone are available at present and NEC is expected to announce its development and the name of a launch customer at a Tokyo news conference scheduled for Tuesday.
Vodafone K.K. announced today that after early April it will market the V801SH by Sharp, a new Vodafone Global Standard (VGS) 3G handset compatible with Vodafone live! for use both in Japan and abroad. The V801SH is a dual mode handset capable of operating on Vodafone’s 3GPP-based W-CDMA network in Japan and roaming on GSM networks worldwide.
As component shortages build for high-end and camera-enabled mobile phones, Toshiba looks as if it is coming up trumps with a brand new CMOS/ DSP VGA module that the company claims is one of the smallest around, ready for ramping this March. Also take a look at recent news item ‘Mobile Phones Enter 2-Mpixel Era’ Here noting a Complementary Oxide Comeback, with chips on the side, for camera phones.
With the launch of Casio’s A5403CA for KDDI, Sharp’s SH505iS for DoCoMo, and our old friend the V601SH from Sharp to Vodafone, Japan has truly entered the 2-megapixel era. Beyond this, KDDI is planning A5502K with a xenon lamp flash unit this month. With two megapixels and onboard electronic flash, photography with mobile phones will make major inroads into digital camera territory.
The 3G Mobile Forum 2004 was held at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, January 13-16, and attracted over 70 top-class speakers in what we construed was an attempt to hammer out where they think 3G is going. With such a treasure trove sitting on our doorsteps across Tokyo Bay, we couldn’t resist bearing our cameras down on some of the leading lights of the show. The following preview will give you a taste of the upcoming programs we’ll running over the next few weeks. Also included in this clip is a demo of a mobile solar power source that was on display from Korean startup Soleitec, they have this sleek and working re-charger ready to keep your mobile device running when the batteries are dying, all for $30. The device should be ready to ship in 8 weeks and they are looking for partners to sell this product. Our only advice: Don’t save this one for a rainy day! Full Program Run-time 6:13
