toshiba
toshiba

toshiba

Vodafone K.K.'s New KOTO Handset Fuses Japanese and Modern Designs

Vodafone K.K. announced today that after late May it will offer the new KOTO -V303T- model by Toshiba with a look that fuses elements of traditional Japanese and modern designs. The KOTO is a design model that combines traditional Japanese and modern elements based on the concept of universal beauty in the present. In addition to incorporating elements of the koto form, the dial keys have been delicately constructed like koto strings.

Vodafone's New Shibuya Megastore

Vodafone's New Shibuya MegastoreOn April 1, Vodafone Japan opened its 5-floor, 890-square-meter flagship megastore in Shibuya and we were there to cover the event and take a peak at some of the goodies on hand. Japan Wireless Watchers will know that Shibuya makes or breaks fashions for Japan’s youth market, and i-mode is commonly said to have been popularized in Shibuya. For Vodafone, the new store is part of a public relations blitz to complete the rebranding of J-Phone amongst Japan’s vital teens and tweens market ahead of a big 3G terminal push later in the year. We were a bit disappointed that Vodafone didn’t have anything really new on offer in terms of new services or handsets to coincide with the big opening, but as a rebranding tool the store — located centrally on one of Shibuya’s main drags — is probably worth a thousand billboards. Full Program Run-time 6:04

Vodafone Unveils First TV/ Radio Mobile Phone

Vodafone strikes back! Those of you who have read this week’s Viewpoint will know that Toshiba is running silent and deep on its digital TV tuner mobile phones…but meantime they’ve come up with Japan’s first TV/ Radio phone for…Vodafone! Wow! The V401T beats NEC’s groundbreaking V601N, Japan’s first TV mobile phone, in several important areas. First; the 2.2 inch screen is upgraded to QVGA; second, the V401T is also capable of 12 minutes of program recording time; and third of course, there is the radio…They’ve actually gone and done it. Cool!!!… And now the caveats…

Mobile TV Solution Coming?

On top of launching full-scale digital-satellite-to-mobile-terminal broadcasting services on July 1, Mobile Broadcasting Corp. (MBCO) and its main technology backer Toshiba Corp. are making a strong, and they believe attractive, push to generate digital broadcasting revenue streams for Japan’s wireless carriers in April 2006 when DoCoMo, KDDI, and perhaps Vodafone K.K. will unleash mobiles with digital TV tuners on them. Talking to Shigekazu Hori, vice president and general manger of Toshiba Corp.’s Network Services & Contents Control Center last week, the planets could finally be aligning for a tailor-made revenue model that will finally convince Japan’s carriers to equip mobile phones with television. And, of course, as mentioned by DoCoMo’s Keiji Tachikawa last week, the fact that MPEG-4 standards have been settled and H.264 is coming doesn’t hurt either.

SEVEN Announces Support for BREW Based Handsets in Japan on KDDI

SEVEN Networks, Inc. announced today that the company’s mobile email software is now shipping on BREW-based handsets in the Japanese market. SEVEN’s software provides secure, real-time access to Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, IMAP4 and POP3 email, calendar, personal contacts, corporate directories, network drives and desktop documents. Japan’s second largest mobile operator, KDDI Corp., is the first to launch SEVEN-enabled email services on BREW-based handsets.

First Bluetooth & BREW 3G Phone

KDDI and Okinawa Cellular Telephone are pleased to announce an addition to their new high-speed 3G mobile handset lineup. The new A5504T by Toshiba, available from mid-April, is the first handset to merge BluetoothTM with BREWTM applications, and comes with a mega pixel camera, web-authoring software, multi-media output functionality, EZNavi Walk compatiblity, and data transmission speeds of up to 144kbps.