Sharp
Sharp

Sharp

Vodafone's 2-Megapixel Camera Phone

Sharp’s V601SH handset hit the Tokyo streets in late December with a rollout price under $200 (19,800 yen). It features an embedded 2-megapixel CCD camera capable of capturing 2.02 million effective pixels and comes with autofocus and 20x zoom capability. The 2.4-inch QVGA CG silicon screen provides a bright and clear image display and is compatible with Bitflash’s vector imaging technology that allows documents (such asMicrosoft Office and Adobe Acrobat) to be scaled with very little loss of quality, so users can easily zoom into a specific area on a large spreadsheet document. The unit can also record 320 x 240-size .3gp video clips at 15 frames per second as well as display still images, games, and video clips on a TV using the video output function. In addition, the V601SH is the first cell phone to support Bow-Lingual, an entertaining dog barking translation function based on a toy device first offered by Takara. The software, contained on an SD memory card (which you have to purchase separately) can be loaded into the phone. When you’re within 15 inches of a dog, the program can register and is supposed to analyze the beast’s barks. We just shot a video episode featuring a live demo of a hound ordering a Doggy Treats and Perrier that will be coming online soon! (only WWJ could make this possible folks…). Meanwhile, as we get geared up for our January 2004 Wireless Watch programming, take a look at this short video clip we made using the V601SH on New Year’s Eve at the Hakone Shrine. Kotoshimo Yoroshiku! Win. Media 56k 300k

2004 to be the Year of 3G in Japan

A quarter of all mobile-phone users in Japan are expected to switch to a 3G service by March 2005. Analysts say DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless carrier, could add a million customers a month in 2004, once improved phones are released. Meanwhile, DoCoMo’s rivals, KDDI and Vodafone KK, are also expanding, leading executives to predict that 2004 will be the year of 3G in Japan. “If 3G is validated here, a lot of carriers and suppliers will point to Japan as a success,” said Mark Berman, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo. “This could touch off a 3G rally” worldwide.

Toshiba, Fujitsu Get Bluetooth Certification

Toshiba Corp and Fujitsu Ltd each have developed a new mobile phone with connectivity based on “Bluetooth,” a technology specification for short-range radio links, and received the Bluetooth logo certification needed for their sales of the phones. Their movement is believed to be directed at the Japanese market. There are not many Bluetooth-enabled cell phones in the Japanese market — Sony Corp launched the “C413S” in 2001 and Sharp Corp already offers a PDA terminal and a PHS terminal based on Bluetooth.

DoCoMo Plows $343.8 Million into 3.5G HSDPA

Signaling its seriousness to get its HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) network and concomitant mobile/smart phones up and transmitting in 2005, NTT DoCoMo said today that it is plowing 37 billion yen ($343.8 million) into 5 Japanese handset and network builders AND Motorola Japan Inc. What is immediately surprising about this move is that once again, as with yesterday’s media extravaganza on the new 900i phones, long-term handset partners Toshiba, and handset maker and major infrastructure builder Sony Ericsson are both missing. But it now looks like DoCoMo feels its time to start really kicking in the efficiencies to differentiate itself from KDDI’s WIN service both in terms of performance and, more critically, to faster recoup the considerable investment the company has made in 3G as it probably gears up for a packet price war with KDDI and Vodafone KK. And then, there is the leveraging of Motorola’s Linux links too!

DoCoMo Unveils FOMA 900i 3G i-mode Phones

“This is just the beginning,” Takeshi Natsuno, Managing Director of DoCoMo’s i-mode Planning Department, told Wireless Watch of the new flagship 5 FOMA 900i handsets that DoCoMo showed today and that should be released in or around February 2004. Before about 600 journalists, Natsuno’s message was that, after two years of battling battery/bulk problems, here finally, were 3G phones capable of 2G performance in terms of standby time and weight. But beyond this, DoCoMo has clearly worked hard to differentiate the phones from being more than “Super 505i” and hinted that the company was considering lowering data packet rates to compete with KDDI WIN and Vodafone K.K.’s recent Happy Packet rate cuts. But wow! What’s loaded in the the new fab 5, for example 500 Kbytes of gaming capability will be inevitably be the Final Fantasy for gamers (the game appears to be preloaded) and a real nightmare for competitors. Natsuno san, not known for being shy on stage at these sort of events, seemed to speak from the heart when he called the lineup the “best mobile phones in the world!” The critical question for DoCoMo, however, is differentiation from the already all-singing, all-dancing 505 series, and quite a few of our doubts were answered. But questions also remain. We’ll have a video program on the show, the phones and the figures behind the models up soon. Before that, here’s some of the upgraded low down on the fantatabulous 900is. And THEN there are the P900iV and the F900iT.

Vodafone's 256K Java: Pricey Eye Candy

It’s been long argued that Japan’s mobile Internet can be divided into two eras: pre- and post-Java. Despite the 100K (or lower) limit imposed on Java applications by all three operators and a low cost of just a couple of hundred yen per download, the mobile application environment has been crucial in boosting usage, packets and profits, particularly at NTT DoCoMo. Java has been cheap for the public – and a moneymaker for the carriers. But a richer Java experience, introduced by Vodafone Japan, is what a high-end segment of the Japanese crowd is looking for.