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Panasonic Introduces the X300 Cell Phone to Europe

Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., introduces the unique X300 to the European market. Designed with a one-push pop-up screen, the X300 is the first phone of its kind. The tri-band phone also features a 65K colour screen, video record and playback capability, polyphonic ring tones, Multimedia Messaging (MMS) and built-in camera. Mr Masatoshi Kitade, Managing Director, Panasonic Mobile Communications Europe, comments: “The X300 is an exciting addition to Panasonic’s product line up. Its innovative, pop-up screen design transforms a high-quality mobile phone into a digital camera. With the capability to shoot short video clips as well as still shots, the X300 is at the cutting-edge of mobile technology. We are proud to be the first to offer a phone of this design, continuing our tradition as pioneers in the industry.”

DoCoMo to Release SH900i 3G Phone

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the SH900i, the fourth handset in the new 3G FOMA 900i series, will be released on March 20, 2004.The SH900i, like other 900i models, is equipped with a Macromedia Flash browser to enjoy rich content enhanced with highly fluid animation. It handles Flash applications of up to 100K and is equipped for richer, more sophisticated online games than ever before.

Micro-Browser and Java Module Selected for Panasonic's European i-mode Handset

ACCESS, a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced that its Compact NetFront Plus micro-browser and JV-LiteTM 2 Wireless Edition, a Sun authorized JVM that complies with the J2METM standard, have been selected by Panasonic for deployment in its first European i-mode(R) handset, the P341i. Panasonic also selected ACCESS’ AVETM-SSL encryption module for this deployment. Panasonic’s decision to use Compact NetFront adds to the millions of i-mode devices that already rely on ACCESS browser technology to power their Internet functionality.

Disney Mobile Content for Vodafone live!

Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) announced a global distribution agreement with Vodafone to provide Disney Mobile services to Vodafone live! customers in the following markets: Australia; Egypt; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Malta; The Netherlands; New Zealand; Portugal; Spain; Sweden and Switzerland. WDIG and Vodafone’s relationship began in October 2001 with the launch of the Disney Mobile service on J-Phone (now Vodafone K.K) in Japan.

KDDI/ DoCoMo 3G Phone Wars Simmer

At his regular press briefing yesterday, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa said that DoCoMo’s ongoing battle with KDDI to make the best 3G mobile phones is a battle that sometimes KDDI wins and one that sometimes DoCoMo wins, but that strategically, in terms of new services, it’s a war that DoCoMo will win. As of February 2004 the handset battle pits KDDI’s W21H, A5405SA and A1402S against DoCoMo’s 900i series, with the latest, the Panasonic model out about now. Behind that, there’s a speed war, with DoCoMo hastening the rollout of HSDPA initially at 3.6Mbps then 14.4 Mbps vs. CDMA1X WIN’s best-effort 2.4 Mbps. The more important issue for Tachikawa, however, is which carrier will successfully develop a new era (or as he mentioned-about 8 times- a “paradigm shift”) of services over the next two years.

Nokia and ACCESS Collaborate on Advanced Browser for 3G Multimedia Phones

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.

NEC 3G FOMA 900i Launches Feb. 22

The model that many customers have been waiting for, NEC’s version of the 900i, are to go on sale on Feb. 22, NEC and DoCoMo said today. Meanwhile, DoCoMo has said it’s going to show FOMA off at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 in France next week with a direct link to Japan. Excitement is growing about the 900i series, with informal impressions collected by WWJ, plus hard evidence that we’ve heard from InfoPLANT indicating that NEC’s 900i could be a smash hit.

iSuppli touts $3.5b Mobile Gaming Biz in '07

Read all about it Here guys and geeks- that’s a x100 market expansion thanks to the wonderful world (gaming environment) of wireless phones. iSuppli analyst Jay Strivatsa says that while mobile gaming has not to date been taken seriously, the advent of 3D graphics and 10,000 polygon/sec drawing capabilities of new phones such as Mitsubishi’s D505i and our fave, the Sharp J-SH53– performance that’s already double that of GameBoy Advance — are going to help push the mobile phone gaming market to $3.5 billion in 2007 from $300 million last year. That’s according to the company’s Consumer Electronics Market: A Disruptive Year Ahead in 2004.

Potential and Pitfalls for Playboy on 3G

Potential and Pitfalls for Playboy on 3G“We know what kind of contents sell, we know what the customers want and we can create a great user experience for the users on the networks,” says Playboy.com’s VP of Global Licensing, Markus Grindel, talking to Wireless Watch Japan in Part 2 of our exclusive video coverage from the 3G Mobile Forum 2004. With adult content helping kick-start and then drive the VHS and DVD revolutions, estimates of a $4-7 billion market for this content category in the wireless space in 2006 don’t seem far-fetched at all. But a number of roadblocks, including carrier technologies, billing and DRM pose significant hurdles as well. “Right now its very hard for me to determine if someone receives an image from us if that image is being sent to someone else. How old is that person.. I don’t know, and that’s a key factor to figure out,” says Grindel. Full Program Run-time 12:47

Not Selling Sex on the Japanese Wireless Internet

We finally filmed the introduction to our latest video program – outside an establishment called “Sexual Harassment Corporation” – one of four or five adult industry vendors, including a brothel and a “Love Hotel” in a side street off the main drag, where prostitutes jump out and routinely proposition drunk salarimen (and the happily married author). There isn’t a station on the Yamanote line that isn’t crowded by similar scenes, and there there’s hardly a carriage on the JR line that doesn’t have, shall we say, full-blown advertisements for adult mags and manga that show Japanese girls seemingly as young as 14 flirting and flaunting themselves. Let’s face it, sex sells in Japan. Which brings us to wonder why Playboy.com is being blocked from the official Mobinet space.