09/24, 5:25pm
NTT DoCoMo shows prototypes made of wood
Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo on Thursday announced it has created two prototype handsets constructed of excess wood from trees felled during thinning operations designed to ensure a healthy forest. The devices were built through collaboration between Sharp, Olympus and More Trees, a reforestation project in Japan. Either prototype handset sports cypress wood and goes by the Touch Wood name. Despite the wood construction, the bodies are resistant to water, insects and mildew thanks to 3D compression molding technology developed by Olympus.
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09/23, 9:40am
More than 30 WM 6.5 phones due before 2010
More than 15 phone manufacturers will release over 30 new smartphones running on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system before the end of 2009, the copmany's GCR Mobile Team Unit senior director Benjamin Tan said recently. Tan was speaking to a group of reports at the time, according to a Wednesday Digitimes report. Among the phone manufacturers slated to introduce models are HTC, Acer, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and HP.
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08/17, 9:50am
iPhone 3GS Tops in Japan
Apple's third iPhone generation has ousted Japan's own phone manufacturers for the top sales spot in the country, according to market data from Gfk Japan. The 32GB iPhone 3GS was the most popular phone in Japan during July and outsold even more advanced touchscreen phones from the local market, such as the runner-up Sharp SH-06. Of the top ten, the 16GB iPhone 3GS was the only other non-Japanese phone to make the list, occupying ninth place ahead of the Sharp SH001 camera phone.
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07/30, 1:55pm
iPhone profitable in Japan
Japan's largest cellphone carriers experienced contrasting performance in the first fiscal quarter, as the leader NTT DoCoMo reported a slide in net profit by 15 percent to Y147.38 billion (~$1.54 billion USD), according to the Wall Street Journal. Softbank, meanwhile, surprised analysts with a 41 percent jump in profit to Y27.38 (~$286 million USD).
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07/20, 2:35pm
Japan Looks to iPhone
The Japanese are turning to Apple's iPhone as a source of ideas for how to rescue their ailing cellphone business, the head of a local think tank said today. Professor Takeshi Natsuno of Keio University told the New York Times that companies like Hitachi, NEC and Sharp have generally been unable to sell phones outside of Japan due to difficult, often highly customized interfaces and that the iPhone is a key example of how to solve the problem. Its emphasis on ease of use over hardware is believed to have made it more palatable worldwide and encouraged third-party app development that isn't usually present in Japan.
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07/01, 11:55am
Toshiba TG01 Next Week
Toshiba today at last said it will hold a launch event for its TG01 smartphone. The July 9th gathering in London is expected by SlashGear to mark the formal start of sales for the Windows Mobile handset in Europe; it's already on sale in Japan as the NTT DoCoMo PRO T-01A and should be available not just in the UK but Germany, Spain and possibly other countries.
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05/25, 1:20pm
TG01 due in Japan, Spain
Wireless providers NTT DoCoMo and Telefónica on Monday announced that the TG01 full touchscreen handset, Toshiba's first, will launch in their respective markets of Japan and Spain. The Japanese version, called PRO T-01A, will arrive sometime in June, while Spain will get the TG01 in July.
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05/21, 9:15am
Panasonic May Use Android
Panasonic late on Wednesday said a real chance exists that it may develop an Android-based phone of its own before the end of its fiscal 2010 year, which ends next March. The company's mobile device director Keisuke Ishii told guests of a press conference for its new phones that Panasonic is "seriously considering" Google's mobile OS. He couldn't provide a timeframe but said the market for open-source smartphones would explode to 100 million phones by 2012, giving the electronics giant a strong reason to do well in that area itself.
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05/20, 3:50pm
Sony TransferJet tech due
Sony is bringing its TransferJet wireless data transmission technology closer to production by announcing recently it is now accepting licensing applications from interested companies. A Wednesday report has Sony taking "adopter" membership from companies that are interested in incorporating TransferJet into their products. TransferJet, which operates on a 4.5GHz radio frequency, lets users transfer data between portable devices at up to 375Mbps when they are about an inch apart. It is faster than wired USB 2.0 and FireWire connections and is supported by Japan, the US, European Union members and South Korea.
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05/19, 3:35pm
Atheros Wi-Fi Hotspot Chip
Atheros today unveiled a new cellphone chipset that could let cellphones host Internet connections as easily as with a typical wireless router. The AR6002 can run its Wi-Fi as a hotspot and can share its connection without the manually configured, ad hoc tethering over Bluetooth or USB normally needed to make the link. It can potentially save battery life for the devices connecting to the phone as it lets them idle or go to sleep where tethering requires both to be constantly alert.
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05/11, 9:50am
NTT DoCoMo spatial tech
Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo on Monday announced it has developed a spatial audio transmission technology for cellphones that lets users set the spatial direction of callers' voices when in a conference call. For example, callers wearing headphones and talking to two other individuals in a conference call can set one's voice to come from the left speaker and the other from the right, almost as if they're sitting around a table. The technology is still in prototype stages but NTT DoCoMo would like to see it used for conference calls, online gaming and tele-education.
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04/28, 4:10pm
ASUS 3G Eee PC in Japan
ASUS, in conjunction with Japanese wireless voice and data network provider NTT DoCoMo, is due to release a 10-inch netbook with built-in 3G access that supports NTT's FOMA data network. NTT DoCoMo subscribers will be able to download data at speeds up to 7.2Mbps without being tied down to a hotspot or wired connection. The Eee PC 1003HAG otherwise sports standard Eee PC fare such as a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and 1.3-megapixel webcam. For local area network connections, there is integrated Wi-Fi as well.
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04/03, 5:50pm
NTT DoCoMo CTIA demos
Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo demonstrated several devices at the CTIA expo, including the F-01A waterproof clamshell, a phone for kids and a handset with a separable screen. The F-01A, produced by Fujitsu, is claimed to enable submersion down to three feet for a duration of 30 minutes. The device offers a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 5.2-megapixel camera, with support for GSM and W-CDMA networks.
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02/27, 12:00pm
DoCoMo Bolds overheating
Japan's biggest wireless provider, NTT DoCoMo, has stopped sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold because some of the phones overheat while being recharged, a Friday report says. Of the 4,000 Bolds sold in Japan, the provider received 30 complaints saying the keyboard area heats up, though there are no reports of fires or fingers being burned. RIM said the issue is only prevalent in the Japan-bound devices, as the handsets sold in the country are unique quad-band 3G handsets with an extra 800MHz HSPA band.
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02/09, 4:15pm
Verizon commits to LiMo
The LiMo Foundation on Monday announced six new wireless providers have committed to release LiMo Platform based handsets in 2009. The Linux OS-based phones will become available from Verizon Wireless, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica and Vodafone sometime in 2009. The open-source Linux operating system in the devices will be based on the latest version of the LiMo Platform.
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01/19, 1:55pm
Fujitsu waterproof phone
Maker of fingerprint sensors, AuthenTec, announced on Sunday that Fujitsu has started shipping the F-01A handset, the world's first with IPX5 and IPX7 waterfproof specifications and a fingerprint scanner. The handset is being offered by Japan's NTT DoCoMo wireless provider, and can remain submerged under up to nearly 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. The phone is also the first to utilize AuthenTec's TouchStone packaging, which includes AuthenTec's TrueNav technology that lets the AES1711 fingerprint scanner double as a touchpad for navigating the phone's controls.
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01/14, 4:45pm
Foma F905i Taiwan launch
Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo and handset maker Fujitsu on Wednesday announced the Foma F905i handset will be offered in Taiwan. Offered for the first time outside of Japan, the handset will support traditional Chinese characters and therefore enable users to access the Taiwanese carrier Far EasTone's i-mode mobile Internet service. The handset has a swiveling 3.2-inch, 480x864 display and features a fingerprint scanner usually found in notebook PCs for security.
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11/19, 10:00am
DoCoMo KTF Android Phone
Japanese cell carrier NTT DoCoMo and Korean carrier KTF are working together on an Android-based phone for 2009, the Nikkei Business Daily said in a report today. The two are allegedly hoping to undercut the prices of smartphones by about 20 percent by using the free mobile operating system on a jointly-developed device. Other features haven't yet been discussed for the handset, which would be either provider's first Android phone.
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09/24, 12:10pm
Cellphone with car key
Automaker Nissan, wireless network provider NTT DoCoMo and electronics maker Sharp on Wednesday announced they have developed a prototype cellphone that doubles as an intelligent ignition key for automobiles. Like the system used in Nissan’s Japanese cars since 2002, the intelligent key uses two-way wireless communications capable of triggering the doors or engine but without requiring a separate device.
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08/15, 9:35am
Japanese iPhone success
The new-found popularity of the iPhone in Japan is as much a failure of local industry as it is an advancement by Apple, a former NTT DoCoMo executive claims. Tsuyoshi Natsuno, who lead the carrier's i-mode division, describes the Japanese cellular industry as having fallen into a "collegial system," where phones are designed explicitly according to specifications outlined by carriers. The phones in fact have no existence outside of their carriers, a situation which Natsuno believes to offer no incentive for driving technology forward.
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08/11, 10:15am
Mac QuickTime Chip Rumor
Apple's widely discussed mystery product transition will involve dedicated movie processing hardware, according to a claimed tip on the subject sent to Silicon Alley Insider. The rumor would have at least some of Apple's products carry a chipset that would accelerate both decoding and encoding video, offloading much of the work from the main system processor. The source doesn't name which products would receive the update, which if true would appear before the end of September.
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08/08, 8:30am
KDDI Hit by iPhone 3G
Japanese wireless carrier KDDI has seen its growth stifled in July primarily by the iPhone 3G launch the same month, according to a report from the company itself. The company's subscriber growth was near flat at just 17,000 new users for the month and saw the first month KDDI has known where the amount of cancellations with phone number portability, or the number of customers switching to rivals, overtook new subscriptions of the same kind. The sudden downturn comes just as the iPhone's official carrier, SoftBank, saw an immediate spike and added 52,000 new users.
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07/14, 10:20am
Japan iPhone Demand Spikes
Japanese interest in the iPhone 3G surged to where more than one in seven Japanese phone customers has been considering an iPhone, according to a survey published today by iSHARE and conducted at the end of June. The researchers note that while a pre-announcement study showed just 8.9 percent of buyers considering an iPhone, that number has since climbed to 14.5 percent, a jump of about 63 percent in just a few weeks. Existing subscribers with official iPhone carrier SoftBank are disproportionately more likely to want the device, with exactly one in five (20 percent) likely to buy while just 10 percent of those with other providers mulling a switch of carriers to get the device.
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07/07, 7:55am
NTT DoCoMo BlackBerry
Japan's dominant cell carrier NTT DoCoMo on Monday said it has started BlackBerry Internet Service, giving the carrier its first implementation of Research in Motion's push e-mail network for home users as well as for small companies that don't require their own servers. The service needs a specific phone, the BlackBerry 8707h, but supports both e-mail and web access on the provider's cellular network.
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06/24, 7:35am
Nokia Buys Symbian
Nokia this morning changed the mobile industry by purchasing the remainder of Symbian that it hasn't previously owned and establishing the Symbian Foundation, an organization meant to unify and promote the Symbian OS for cellphones. The group includes phone makers that already produce Symbian phones such as LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson; it also includes carriers such as AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone as well as semiconductor firms STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. Despite Nokia's purchase, the company is putting Symbian and Series 60 in the hands of the Foundation and will give any current or future member royalty-free rights to use the platform.
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06/20, 10:05am
NTT DoCoMo on iPhone 3G
NTT DoCoMo is defending its inability to secure an iPhone deal, writes Japan's Impress Watch. Speaking at a shareholder meeting, DoCoMo CEO Masao Nakamura has stated that while the iPhone is attractive and has an appealing fanbase, many of its features are already present on the likes of LG's Prada touchscreen phone, or the Sharp SH906i. The first iPhone was also unusually heavy, says Nakamura, although he appreciates that the 3G model weighs only 4.7 ounces.
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06/18, 12:20pm
Japan iPhone 3G Study
Despite the relative success of the iPod in Japan, the iPhone 3G isn't likely to get an immediate footing in the country, according to a new iSHARE study. Of the Japanese adults polled, 91 percent say they have no plans to buy the device when it becomes available on July 11th. Of the remaining nine percent, nearly all (8.9 percent of the total) said they planned to purchase the device. Slightly under half of these are users already signed up for SoftBank, the carrier picked for the initial Japanese launch.
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06/04, 7:10am
SoftBank Gets 3G iPhone
SoftBank today said it has an agreement carry the iPhone, making it the first provider in Japan to offer the device. The company follows in step with past carrier announcements and doesn't reveal launch information, saying only that the Apple phone will be available "later this year." SoftBank's announcement confirms the imminent announcement of a 3G-capable iPhone, as all Japanese networks use 3G technology (WCDMA and faster) exclusively for calling as well as data.
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05/27, 3:15pm
NTT unveils 19 handsets
NTT DoCoMo today announced it will release 19 new handsets in its new FOMA 906i- and 706i-series this summer. The eight flagship 906i phones are highly featured and sport capabilities North American mobile markets are not yet supporting. This includes the DCMX mobile credit card and iD mobile credit payments, as well as 1Seg mobile TV streaming on their Full Wide VGA (typically 800x480) screens.
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05/19, 9:25am
KTF/DoCoMo iPhone?
Two Asian countries may be engaging in an unusual deal in order to secure the iPhone, according to rumors. Japan's NTT DoCoMo and South Korea's KTF are said by Telecoms Korea to be in talks for a joint release, though the reason for combining the pair's efforts is unknown. The two countries do however rely on W-CDMA broadband, as opposed to the HSPA the 3G iPhone is expected to use in regions such as Canada and the US. It may thus make sense for KTF and DoCoMo to cooperate on a shared iPhone format.
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05/01, 3:50pm
LG Prada in Japan
Fashion design firm Prada on Thursday said it would launch its LG Prada phone in Japan, signaling one of the few carrier-based releases for the touchscreen device outside of Europe. The phone will be paired up with dominant carrier NTT DoCoMo and will primarily be sold from Prada's own stores rather than cellular or electronics shops. Few details of the local phone are available, though the handset is likely to include some level of 3G support to handle Japan's networks and should keep the 2-megapixel camera of the original.
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04/30, 12:10pm
BBerry 9000 Final Specs
Final information about the BlackBerry 9000's features and its initial launch partners has been confirmed, BGR says. The full QWERTY phone will boast its expected 3G access with tri-band HSDPA for both the Americas and elsewhere; it will also be the first BlackBerry to go beyond a basic QVGA (320x240) screen and move up to 480x320. Wi-Fi is onboard; GPS mapping is assisted, however, rather than completely independent. A 2-megapixel camera and a microSD slot will also be part of the design.
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03/27, 2:40pm
NTT DoCoMo molecules
NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan's largest mobile phone operators, said on Thursday that it has demonstrated the first molecular delivery system in its efforts to develop a molecular communication system. The system would provide biochemical conditions of living organisms, such as excitement, emotion, stress or disease. The company's ultimate goal is to integrate a bio chip into a cell phone to give it the ability to scan a user's tear, blood or sweat and send the information to a medical center for analysis via traditional methods.
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03/26, 12:50pm
250Mbps cellular broadband
Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has managed downlink speeds of up to 250Mbps in field testing of LTE (Long Term Evolution), a company announcement claims. LTE, often dubbed 4G broadband, is expected to eventually replace the current worldwide 3G standards, HSDPA and HSUPA. LTE should allow individual cellphone users to reach download speeds of up to 20Mbps; this at least two and a half times faster than the fastest 3 and 3.5G deployments, still used in a minority of public networks. Most 3G connections are over five times slower.
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03/05, 10:10am
Piper: Apple drops hints
Yesterday's shareholder meeting for Apple may have produced "nothing material," according to analysts from Piper Jaffray, but it did provide small pieces of information about Apple's products and strategy. It was for example unknown if the company's goal to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008 meant a total since the product's inception, or simply within the calendar year; it is now confirmed that Apple wants to add 10 million to the 3.7 million sold in 2007. Piper is currently projecting sales that exceed Apple estimates, at 12.9 million iPhones during 2008.
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02/25, 2:40pm
EMobile Japan
Planning to disrupt what it believes is a static phone industry, startup carrier EMobile today announced its first service plans for its home country of Japan. Instead of requiring a monthly fee or having customers buy prepaid blocks of time, the new service will operate largely on a metered system. Customers pay roughly 17 cents for every 30 seconds of call time; they can also buy unlimited local calls for slightly more than $9 per month if they are regular users, EMobile adds. In exchange, the carrier asks customers to use 3G Internet access over HSPA up to 7.2Mbps for between $19 and $55 per month depending on the level of access.
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01/24, 1:30pm
Google, DoCoMo link
Leading Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has confirmed a deal with Google, as initially rumored late last month. The primary purpose of the deal is to improve DoCoMo's i-mode Internet service, which is said to have some 48 million subscribers. Google will make it easier for i-mode users to reach its various websites, in particular Google Maps, which will be preloaded on various handsets as on Apple's iPhone. A Google search bar will be added to the i-mode portal this spring; eventually it will be easier to load other material as well, such as Gmail, YouTube and Picasa.
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01/23, 4:15pm
DoCoMo and .Mac, 10.5.2
In brief: Japan's NTT DoCoMo telecommunications company is reportedly adding .Mac mail access, while Apple let slip a potential feature in a future revision of Time Machine. When DoCoMo launches its ConnectMail service next month, it will be adding .Mac email compatibility as well. According to Akihabara News, the service will allegedly act as an IMAP mail account, leaving the copy on the .Mac server proper. DoCoMo's ConnectMail service carries a yearly cost of ¥4800.
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12/27, 4:00pm
Google/DoCoMo deal
Google is making even deeper in-roads into the Japanese cellular market, reports say. Citing anonymous sources, Reuters claims that Google has signed a new deal with NTT DoCoMo, the country's largest wireless carrier, permitting a variety of applications to appear on DoCoMo's i-Mode network. These may include the likes of Gmail, Picasa and Calendar, according to Reuters.
If confirmed, the move may give DoCoMo a temporary edge in its home market. While both DoCoMo and number-two carrier KDDI are a part of Google's Open Handset Alliance, KDDI has not announced any Google features for existing phones. National business paper The Nikkei notes that DoCoMo is trying to forge the closest possible link with Google, to the exclusion of competitors.
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12/18, 9:20am
Japanese iPhone talks
Apple is already in negotiations to release the iPhone in Japan, reports indicate. Sources say that Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently met with Masao Nakamura, the president of Japan's largest wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo. Jobs has also supposedly met with people from Japan's third-largest carrier, Softbank, and executives from both carriers are said to have flown multiple times to Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Notably excluded from reports is Japan's second-rated carrier, KDDI.
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12/11, 1:10pm
Asia in 700MHz auction
Four Asian companies appear to be getting involved with the FCC auction for the 700MHz wireless spectrum, the Wall Street Journal reports. The biggest is Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, which may put forward a bid worth $5 billion or more to expand its business internationally. The company already has a minor presence in the US, but does not sell any of the phones or advanced cellular services it is famous for in Japan. The company's main rival -- KDDI -- is likewise rumored to be interested in greater US access, since it is already testing a cellular service in the northeast.
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