July 3 - 1:35pm EDT   The iPhone is currently the best-selling smartphone in Japan, at least at retail, according to a recent survey. Gathered by research firm BCN, data from 2,300 stores shows the 8GB iPhone 3G as the most popular smartphone, followed by its 16GB sibling. Ranking third in the survey is the NTT DoCoMo Aquos SH-04A, designed by Sharp; RIM's BlackBerry Bold ranks sixth, and a full four slots in the list are occupied by devices from HTC. [full story]

June 25 - 3:40pm EDT   Japanese shoppers are already in line to buy the iPhone 3G S, which goes on sale with Softbank at 7AM local time on Friday, equivalent to 6PM Eastern on Thursday. Lines are smaller than those for the iPhone 3G launch, according to IDG, at present closer to 100 people at Softbank's flagship Omotesando store. When reservations opened for the 3G S last week, approximately 200 people arrived at the Omotesando location. Online preorders have not been allowed with Japanese iPhones. [full story]

June 18 - 4:00pm EDT   Japanese carrier Softbank today opened up reservations for the iPhone 3GS, allowing people to pre-order the device. As neither Apple nor Softbank have allowed online pre-orders in the country, lineups formed outside of Softbank retail stores, with as many as 200 people showing up at the flagship outlet by 1AM. Though crowds at the outlet disappeared towards the afternoon, they are said to have grown again in the evening. [full story]

May 21 - 9:15am EDT   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. [full story]

May 19 - 11:10am EDT   Japanese carrier SoftBank has recently announced it will soon add the 934SH and 936SH handsets to its range, both manufactured by Sharp and meeting IPX5 and IPX7 waterproof specifications. The former also goes by Mirumo because it features a unique external LCD display developed by Sharp with a 456x240 resolution. Not quite e-paper, the display simply turns off the backlight and is said to use up 500 times less power than a conventional OLED display. [full story]

May 19 - 9:55am EDT   SoftBank has recently showed off this high-end camera phone, the Sharp 933SH AQUOS Shot. It not only sports a 10-megapixel camera but has an extremely high ISO sensitivity range, at up to 12,800, for capturing images in low-light environments without blur. The camera functions are accessed via a 3.3-inch, 854x480 rotating LCD touchscreen that is mounted on a two-axis hinge. Continuous autofocusing is also built in, and touching a subject on the screen will result in it always staying in focus, even if it moves. [full story]

April 9 - 3:45pm EDT   Qualcomm today revealed that it's developing an add-on that could give several smartphones, including the iPhone, a tuner for FLO TV digital broadcasts. The communications firm's FLO TV head Bill Stone remarks to SAI that iPhone OS 3.0's support for third-party hardware has set Qualcomm to developing an external receiver that could give both the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as other smartphones, access to the over-the-air TV service. When it would ship isn't yet certain, as is whether it would use the Dock Connector or else attach wirelessly. [full story]

February 9 - 4:15pm EST   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. [full story]

December 9 - 11:50am EST   The Open Handset Alliance today said it has added 14 new members to its group in a move that will bolster support for Google's new Android operating system. The new roster includes phone manufacturers such as ASUS, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba as well as prominent chipmakers like ARM and Atheros as well as carriers Softbank and Vodafone. GPS device maker Garmin is also included in the list. [full story]

November 6 - 3:55pm EST   Sharp executives believe the SoftBank 930SH handset, which Sharp helped to develop, features the highest quality camera of any handset. Its integrated 8-megapixel camera sports a 1/2.5-inch CCD sensor usually found in actual digital cameras rather than the CMOS sensor in most other handsets. Another spec not usually found in camera phones includes the maximum ISO setting of 2500, making it suitable for taking legible photos in low-light environments. A mechanical shutter is used, and can be left open longer to help with capturing images in darker situations, while a neutral density filter helps in reducing glare when shooting outdoors on sunny days. In addition, there ... [full story]

October 30 - 2:40pm EDT   Breaking relatively new ground for Japanese cellphone makers, Sharp on Thursday launched the FULLTOUCH 931SH for Softbank. The AQUOS-branded phone is one of the few full-touchscreen cellphones from the country but is also record-setting through a new, landmark display: the 3.8-inch touch LCD carries a 1024x480 resolution that rivals smaller notebooks and provides an extremely sharp view for browsing and videos, including live TV from its 1Seg tuner. The phone supports two-finger input for zooming into website views and even uses touch to focus its built-in 5.2-megapixel camera. [full story]

October 30 - 7:45am EDT   Japanese cell carrier Softbank on Thursday catered to local tastes with the introduction of an official 1Seg TV tuner add-on for the iPhone 3G. Through a custom App Store download, the adapter gives access to the country's over-the-air digital TV broadcast network over a local Wi-Fi link, allowing residents to watch live shows from the iPhone while leaving the tuner in a bag or pocket. The tuner carries its own battery and can either power the tuner for three hours of TV or serve as a USB battery pack for the iPhone. [full story]

August 8 - 8:30am EDT   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. [full story]

August 5 - 9:40am EDT   Japanese carrier Softbank is introducing a revised version of its iPhone plans, an announcement reveals. The new options mean iPhone customers can pay as little as ¥2,990 ($28) per month. The price cuts reflect a new data rate system at the company, which scales in terms of regular fees. People are still able to use an unlimited amount of data, but are now being charged based on usage up to a certain maximum. Plans begin at a low of ¥1,695 ($16), and as data usage increases, increase to a maximum of ¥5,985 ($56). [full story]

July 14 - 10:20am EDT   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 ... [full story]