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KDDI Introduces Seven New 3G Handsets

This week was a new-cell-phone-announcement triple-play! Following DoCoMo on Tuesday and Vodafone yesterday, KDDI’s au brand held a press conference this afteroon at the super-swank New Otani hotel to unveil an impressive spring line-up. From L. to R. (below): Toshiba’s W41T with Japan’s first built-in 4GB HDD, the slick-styled Neon, is the latest addition to the in-house Design Project; Hitachi’s W41H ‘One-Seg’ digital TV phone; Casio’s W41CA, featuring a FeliCa mobile wallet; Kyocera’s W41K is a ‘Full Function’ camera phone with a 3.2-megapixel cam; SonyEricsson’s W41S is also FeliCa IC-enabled; and finally the Sanyo W41SA, which has an interesting handwritten character scanning application. The new fleet will hit store shelves starting in February along with the introduction of an enhanced Listen Mobile Service.

KDDI Introduces Seven New 3G Handsets by Mobikyo KK

First Korean 3G Phone, New 3G Services for Vodafone KK

First Korean 3G Phone, New 3G Services for Vodafone KKAt a Tokyo press conference today, Vodafone Japan announced four new 3G terminals including a model provided by Korean maker Samsung. This is the first Samsung model to become available in Japan. The Vodafone V804SS (image at right) is said to be the world’s thinnest 3G handset and features a 2.3-in QVGA main LCD display, 2 cameras, stereo twin speakers, music features and the “Deru Moji” 3D Pictogram Display. The other handsets include models from Sharp (V804SH), NEC (V804N) and Toshiba (V904T).

The devices should be available in the market by mid-March.

With these latest models, Vodafone Japan also introduced three new 3G services: “Deru Moji 3D Pictogram Display,” which enables pop-up 3D animations in received messages and is compatible with the 804SS, 904T and 804N; the “Vodafone live! CAST” service, which delivers “mobile magazines” to handsets overnight and appears to be similar to KDDI’s modestly successful EZ Channel content delivery service (compatible with the 904T and 804N); and, the “Vodafone Address Book,” a service that lets customers back up their handset address book to a network server so information remains safe even when a handset is lost or broken (compatible with the 904T). WWJ subscribers log in for more details and images.

DoCoMo Announces 702i-series 3G Handsets

DoCoMo Announces 702i-series 3G HandsetsNTT DoCoMo held a press conference in downtown Tokyo this afternoon to announce the spring roll-out of five new handsets in the 702i-series for FOMA 3G phones (Sharp, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Panasonic). The series includes three ‘designer’ models — a first for DoCoMo. The carrier invited three prominent designers to work on the SH702iD, the N702iD and the F702iD. If the solid success with designer models enjoyed by competitors KDDI and Vodafone is any hint, DoCoMo should do modestly well with this new low-budget series.

Big D appears unconcerned over the potential conflict in the series’ naming. The three designer 702s are dubbed “iD” — possibly for “i-mode designer” or “independent designer.” However, the Fujitsu model is also FeliCa- and mobile Suica-compatible, and all FeliCa models to date have been dubbed “iC” (indicating ‘IC chip’). Should the Fujitsu therefore be the F702iCD? The giant carrier also seems keen on promoting its new iD credit-card (website) having created this cool ‘Vitruvian Man’ logo that we’ve noticed splashed all over Tokyo the last few weeks. That new m-commerce application is included on the Fujitsu 702iD model (but not the SH702iD or the N702iD) and we expect there could well be some confusion in the marketplace between these unrelated iD brands.

This is the first 70x-series to offer automatic Security Scan, which uses automatic downloads in the background to update phones with the latest security software from DoCoMo. The five models will be exhibited at Aoyama Spiral from January 17 to 22. More details on today’s press conference after the jump

DoCoMo Orders Axalto USIM's

Axalto announced it has been selected by DoCoMo to supply advanced USIM cards for DoCoMo 3G services. The Axalto USIM proved to be an ideal vehicle to solve national and international roaming issues of DoCoMo, while providing strong support to its 3G migration process. Designed to ensure the continuity of service for DoCoMo’s subscribers regardless of the network technologies, DoCoMo users will be able to connect with PDC network when in Japan, as well as internationally with W-CDMA and GSM networks when overseas.

Sharp 2006 Handset Shipments

Sharp expects its total handset shipments, to grow 18 percent year-on-year to 13 million units in 2006, with 3G-enabled models accounting for 50 percent of shipments, said Noboru Hanioka, head of Sharp’s overseas telecom marketing division. By 2008, Sharp’s overall handset shipments should reach 20 million units, Hanioka predicted.

Cellphone Makers Restructuring

Digital deflation, the market aberration that sees prices fall as fast as products improve, is hitting no industry harder than cell-phone hardware. Handset makers are restructuring, but the problems may be bigger than any single company can handle. In a recent interview, NEC President Akinobu Kanasugi said the company aims to decide by June on a drastic restructuring measure, such as operational alliance and integration with a rival. “If we fail to recover profitability (this year), we will be punished by the stock market,” he said.