Vodafone K.K. Unleashes Sharp V602SH
Here in Tokyo, the tension is killing us – waiting for Vodafone to break out of its bolt hole and unleash its global-spanning battlewagon of 3G W-CDMA phones. While new management here does whatever it’s supposed to be doing to sweeten up Vodafone’s sour performance of late, Little-V still has the muscle, and Sharp always the technology, it seems, to pull something out of the hat; this time its the V602SH, packing a 2.02-megapixel camera (small yawn) plus a real eye opener – an optical zoom! See for yourself in our video program from the Tokyo Business Show in May.
The V602SH, touted as the first keitai with optical zoom, will be out in the greater Tokyo and Koshin areas on July 2.
Mounted on a swivel, the V602SH is touted as being the latest serving from Little V’s design bund, the people who brought out the Koto designer handset. The author and wife were very impressed by the Koto, by the way, which, from a distance, achieves a sort of oriental-occidental retro effect that might have appeared in an 80s remake of the Bond classic “You Only Live Twice.”
Pity about the Koto’s grotty plastic feel, which might, it goes without saying, enhance its appeal in some quarters.
Back to the Sharp and highly focused, thank you very much, end of things, the V602SH is the first 2G handset in Japan, claims today’s press release, that is capable of playing Chaku-uta ring songs. That’s a winner! It also also supports new features and services such as Movie Mask facial motion capture technology and Keitai Karaoke V-kara which enables customers to enjoy karaoke by connecting to a TV. Rock on, Wayne!
The V602SH also features the industry’s first T4G graphics accelerator chip and Mascot Capsule Ver. 4 3D polygon engine for 256K-Appli compatibility in order to offer extremely realistic and speedy game applis.
Contract Area Release Dates:
Kanto-Koshin: 2 July 2004
Chugoku: 3 July 2004
Tohoku-Niigata, Kansai: 9 July 2004
Hokkaido, Tokai, Hokuriku, Shikoku, Kyushu-Okinawa: 10 July 2004
New Content Lineup for V602SH and V601T:
- Keitai Karaoke V-Kara: 4 sites, 3 applis (total of approximately 30,000 songs)
- Chaku-uta: 30 sites (total of approximately 20,000 songs)
- 64 voice ring tones: 30 sites (total of approximately 30,000 songs)
- Movie Mask: 5 sites
- High-speed 3D games: 6 sites
- Voice recognition applis: 1 site, 4 applis