SoftBank Mobile announced yesterday it will begin sales of the Sharp 910SH [ .jpg ] 5-megapixel cameraphone in October. According to the specifications, the new model touts a 2.4-inch VGA view finder with blurring correction and a multi-point auto-focus system. Also noted, it has a 3-speed optical zoom feature, bluetooth and QR barcode reader along with face-recognition capability for its embedded FeliCa osaifu ketai (wallet-phone) function.
WWJ Editors, 28 September 2006
The long summer silence from SoftBank on the rebranding of Vodafone K.K. to SoftBank Mobile is over with no less than 12 press releases issued today in advance of the official launch on 1 October. The company has introduced 13 new handsets, a variety of updated service offerings and new personnel. As mobile number portability (MNP) arrives on 24 October, and with strong competition from market leader NTT DoCoMo and No. 2 carrier KDDI, the struggling former Vodafone franchise clearly needed to get their house in order.
Some little-known news: Industry insiders here were surprised to learn in late August that the long-time head of Qualcomm Japan, Ted Matsumoto, had moved over to SoftBank taking on the title of CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) for Masayoshi Son’s newly minted celco. The official announcement was made during a wide ranging press conference that also introduced Cameron Diaz as the star attraction for their new advertising campaign that planned to blitz TV and outdoor ads over the coming weeks.
On the network front, they have announced that ‘Super 3G’ (HSDPA), with availability limited to the greater Tokyo area, will start in October to service their new HTC – X01HT smartphone. This Windows Mobile-enabled unit will default to regular W-CDMA (or GSM/GPRS overseas) in areas without high-speed coverage. The company also announced new applications and services ranging from the widely expected Yahoo Mobile Search integration, “Hot Talk” instant messenger, a “3D Town” event guide map, and – finally – a “Live Monitor” scrolling text push service.
NTT DoCoMo announced today that starting September 29, they will market the FOMA M2501 HIGH-SPEED PCMCIA Type II data card [ .jpg image ] for speedy mobile packet transmissions with PCs. Downlink speeds of up to 3.6Mbps are available in HSDPA service areas in Japan. The card works on W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS networks.
We just noticed this article by Brad Stone on the Newsweek website and smiled quietly to ourselves… he gets it! Nothing in the way of news there though – if you’re a regular WWJ reader – but for main-stream media consumers based in the U.S., it’s certainly one of the better pieces we’ve seen in some time. The obvious reason for accuracy therein comes from the fact that he actually spent a little time here in Tokyo on vacation this summer and had the chance to really test drive a great handset. While Brad’s item did miss on a couple of points (DoCoMo launched their DCMX mobile credit card service this spring with biometric fingerprint authentication capability on Fujitsu phones, for example), overall it’s refreshing to see a story without too much “Gee Whiz, Martha”-material about how people in Japan are using their cell phone to surf the web or send email.
MediaSeek has released a new mobile phone OCR-based application called “Camera Dictionary” (Kamera Jiten), which translates English words into Japanese characters by simply scanning the mobile phone’s camera over the word. The characters of a scanned word are then matched to a dictionary database in real-time ensuring that dictionary lookup is both fast and accurate. The application will be distributed via content provider Enfour Inc. on their EZweb menu site “General English Dictionary” (Sougoeigojiten). Also included is a client server facility where the user can access more detailed information such as explanations, examples, and even pronounciation sound files from the main online dictionary.
According to a company press-release today SoftBank mobile will release the first handsets branded with it’s corporate logo (replacing Vodafones) starting Sept. 2nd. The Sharp 705 series 3G phones will be limited to 10,000 units and feature the usual specs. with 2 mega-pix. camera, ASV display and bluetooth on-board. They have also released images of the popular 1Seg digital TV enabled 905 model, made by Sharp as well, with the SoftBank logo however no details were provided about it’s availability.
