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New Nokia 3G Mobile Phone for Japan

The dual-mode GSM / W-CDMA “Nokia 7600” handset which was announced last October will finally hit the streets in Japan by middle of June. At the suggested retail price of 73,290 yen (or approx. $700 usd) and apparently not supporting Vodafone Live, although it conforms to the .3gpp standard, we wonder just how well this will be recieved. The unit does have a camera built-in its stylish Euro design [.jpg image] to compliment the bluetooth and global roaming sim card functions, and will be available at Nokia shops online and at Narita airport.

Summer Handset Parade on Video

Summer Handset Parade on VideoThe Tokyo Business Show 2004 opened yesterday with a light show and pounding music that highlighted Vodafone on center stage. They have taken a beating in the marketplace — and the press — lately over the lack of new handsets, but here are 5 fresh-for-summer models that should make the critics, and customers, take notice. The V602SH from Sharp would seem to be pick of the litter with its industry-first, 2x-optical-zoom camera and huge, swivel-style LCD screen. The sleeper surprise unit, upon closer inspection, has to be the V401D from Mitsubishi with its Super-CCD Honeycomb 2-megapixel camera and — another industry first — a side-mounted finger tracing control feature to operate screen scrolling and camera zoom!!! We were in for another treat afterwards wandering by the DoCoMo booth to see they had just rolled-out the new micro-mini Premini by Sony Ericsson. If you couldn’t make it out to Tokyo Big Sight in person then we hope you’ll enjoy this quick video clip from our adventure. Program

Vodafone K.K. Testing Flash-OFDM

Vodafone’s answer to 3.5G and NTT DoCoMo’s HSDPA will be trailed here later this year. Vodafone will be conducting fast low-latency access with seamless handoff Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Flash OFDM) trials in the second half of the year in Tokyo that will test the ability to run 3Mbps wireless data networks.

NEC Launches New Fixed Point-to-point Wireless Access System

NEC Corporation announced today the launch of PASOLINK Mx, a new line-up of fixed point-to-point wireless access system in the global market boasting the World’s Largest Bandwidth Capacity. PASOLINK is chiefly designed for telecom carriers’ backhaul, business and emergency networks. It offers simple and highly reliable fixed wireless solutions.

Vodaphone KK Unleashes 2.5G Terminal Blitz

It’s been a year or so, but finally Vodafone K.K. is attempting an aggressive rollout of impressive (albeit) 2/2.5G handset terminals clearly aimed at fun– and the young. Over the next couple of months the company is adding 5 terminals [.pdf here], including the new V602 from Sharp and V601 from Toshiba that have mulitimedia features even more impressive than those aboard DoCoMo 900i series, as well as an improved radio phone from Sanyo and a clearer TV picture from Sharp. Better still, last week’s news that Vodafone has decided to adopt a FeliCa compatible removable solution for contactless payments shows the company is definitely on board with promoting the mobile phone away from a communications/ game device into become a viable e-commerce tool not only here in Japan, but potentially accross the vast Vodafone empire.

DoCoMo's 506i Series Launch Event

DoCoMo's 506i Launch EventWe’re not too sure about NTT DoCoMo’s motivation for fielding the first three models of the new 506i-series second-gen cellys. Sure, Big D have got to stay in front of the public eye with new models, new colours, etc. Japan’s consumer terminal market is nothing if not intensely competitive and trying to sell six-month old cell phones — which have often already lost 50% of their value at retail — is like, Oh, Soooo six-months old… Missing a slot in the handset upgrade cycle can be costly, as No. 3 competitior Vodafone has found to their regret. Full Program Run-time 14:32