SoftBank
SoftBank

SoftBank

Radio Waves Declared Safe

Japan’s mobile phone operators, NTT DoCoMo, Inc., KDDI Corporation and SoftBank Mobile Corporation have confirmed that radio frequency energy from mobile phone base stations does not cause damage to human cells in vitro studies. Since November 2002, the companies have been collaborating to examine the effects of radio waves. As part of the collaboration, large-scale experiments have been conducted on the cellular and genetic level using radio waves up to 10 times stronger than the limit set forth in radio frequency radiation protection guidelines for base stations. In an interim report on April 26, 2005, the companies announced they had found no effects on cell proliferation, gene expression profile, or DNA single-strand breaks. Now they have found there are no genetic alterations or protein functions that could be associated with cell transformation or programmed cell death (apoptosis).

KDDI Unveils 10 New 3G Cellphones for Spring 2007

KDDI Unveils 10 New 3G Cellphones for Spring 2007 by Mobikyo KK

KDDI announced their spring 2007 handset line-up this week with ten new 3G models focused on form and function. The latest addition to their Au Design Project, the Media Skin concept by Tokujin Yoshioka, was introduced along with this announcement that it will go on display with earlier offerings – the Infobar, Talby and Neon – at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The other models on deck are coming from Toshiba (W51T and W52T), Casio (W51CA), Sanyo (W51SA), Kyocera (W51K), Hitachi (W51H), Sony Ericsson (W51S), the second-ever model from Sharp (W51SH) – a popular design originally introduced by Vodafone in spring 2006 (and also recently available from DoCoMo) – plus a first-time offer by top-tier maker Panasonic (W51P).

The W52T, a candybar slider with a wide VGA 480×800 resolution 3-inch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera and 1GB of on-board memory [.jpg image] stood out as quite impressive during our quick test drive. An immediate and interesting observation is that eight of the ten handsets are 1 Seg digital-TV enabled, which should clearly signal (pardon the pun) that KDDI is bullish on broadcast TV content and services. Otherwise, most have the FeliCa mobile wallet function and the usual goodies such as GPS, PC Site Viewer, Hello Messenger and – of course – all units are running on BREW and come with the EZ suite of mobile content (books, games, auctions etc.) and are LISMO music ready.

The carriers and handset makers are pumping full blast with mobile number portability pushing everyone to improve and deliver better product offering. DoCoMo also announced ten new phones this week while SoftBank is expected to introduce their line-up soon as well. March is traditionally the busiest handset replacement month of the year in Japan, as the new academic and fiscal year begins April 1st; we’ll be looking forward to the official TCA subscriber results.

KDDI Unveils 10 New 3G Cellphones for Spring 2007 by Mobikyo KK

Has Apple Started a Mobile Computing Revolution?

Has Apple Started a Mobile Computing Revolution?By now everyone who can read knows that the big news in wireless this week was the announcement for “Steve’s Amazing New Device”. We’ve had several queries for comment over the last couple of days and reluctantly have decided to offer a few thoughts on his so-called ‘future of mobile handsets’. One might be forgiven for asking “what does this development have to do with Japan” but it was actually the LA Times who started it. Also related, the early rumors swirling in May last year – which were quickly denied – that we would see SoftBank Mobile roll-out Apple Computer Inc.’s new gear here in 2006. If Jobs & Co. actually plan to hit their 10 million sales target, or just 1% of the global share, then a 3G enabled unit for advanced markets like Japan has to be part of their 2007 roadmap.

So, what do we think. After the rough ride WWJ gave RIM got for their market entry Blackberry device, you shouldn’t expect any glowing Mac fan boy type ravings from us. However, there certainly is one definite and positive aspect to this whole discussion.. Awareness. Before getting into specific pro’s and cons of the device itself – as described at launch – for just a moment lets consider the obvious impact on the general marketplace. The very nature of this high-profile move into mobile computing will, as they say, simply have to raise all boats. As more people are exposed to the possibilities of consuming content and services in the wireless arena, better product offerings will no doubt follow. That being said, HTC’s smartphone (video here), running Windows mobile with a full qwerty sliding keyboard and touch screen entry (pointer included), has been available from both DoCoMo and SoftBank in Japan since mid-2006. So it’s somewhat difficult to understand the ‘revolutionary design’ aspect as things already seem well underway.

There are several issues (beyond the no 3rd party apps) at first blush; for starters a touch screen as the ‘only’ input feature – can you say finger grease – seems to ignore the common reality of text messaging. It should be quite interesting to see how they have designed the UI for those big dumb fingers to type e-mail. Battery power will be another major challenge with that nice big screen, especially since it will be running a cpu hungry mobile version of OSX. As most readers should recall the locked-down battery saga with the early iPods, clearly their rev. 1 model of this handset might well be disappointing in that area after 12 months of routine daily usage as well.

It’s an easy prediction that it will be one of the Top Stories in 2007 and we are looking forward to
follow the product and it’s market evolution. The company has taken a very public step into this new space and considering the past success of their mobile music product offerings it should help to breath some fresh air into the telecom industry.

Nokia's N73 Finally Available in Japan

SoftBank Mobile announced that it has started deliveries of their so-called 705NK, Nokia’s N73 which has been customized for the Japan market, and will be on sale from January 13. The handset features include; quad-band GSM / W-CDMA chipset for global roaming, PC Suite capability for reading Word, Excel, Power-Point documents, a QVGA LCD sreen with3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and music player functions combined with FM radio. It will be available in three colors – deep plum, light sand, and newly added color, metallic red.

SoftBank Announces Flat-Rate Voice

Happy New Year greetings from Masayoshi Son and friends at the former Vodafone Japan – now SoftBank Mobile – came in the form of this press release [.pdf in Japanese] announcing they will offer a limited flat-rate voice package starting mid-January. The 980jpy per month deal allows unlimited voice calling and mobile mail, effective between SoftBank 3G customers, from 1 a.m and 9 p.m. Son also apparently promised if competitors decide to follow his lead, offering a lower rate, within 24 hours he will undercut their prices.

Time Machine Navi GPS Application

Osaka-based Dorga Ltd.has announced their Time Machine Navi application which displays historic scenery according to the position and the direction of an enabled cellphone screen. The sample site, Ruins of Heijo Palace in Nara, was unveiled in the final report of the ‘Intellectual Cluster Creation Business’ that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology creation has been funding since 2002.