October 28 - 2:30pm EDT   At a press conference on Tuesday, Willcom announced the release of a few updated and new handsets as well as new technologies and services. The Willcom 03 slider phone, introduced earlier this year, will be available in a new black color starting November 7th and includes a new feature that translates roughly to "hand-painted chat" that allows users with compatible devices to chat live by drawing or writing on the devices' touchscreen. Another new service, dubbed Willcom meeting, will launch on November 4th and allow as many as seven users to talk at the same time, with invitations to the conference call that can be sent via e-mail. [full story]

July 3 - 4:50pm EDT   At a press conference in Japan today, Willcom unveiled its new Willcom 9 handset, earning the distinction of being the company's first phone that integrates Internet and email applications accessible via dedicated shortcut buttons that jump to Google search and Gmail respectively. The flip-phone features a 2-inch, 320x240-pixel resolution LCD screen with 262K colors, and uses Willcom's proprietary W-SIM card. [full story]

July 2 - 9:25am EDT   Japanese cellphone users are most eager to have the iPhone 3G over any other smartphone in or coming to the market, according to a new study by iShare. The research group says that 57.9 percent of all those responding to a survey said they most wanted the Apple device, which placed well ahead of others despite the study method allowing multiple answers. Second place belonged to the Japan-made Willcom D4 UMPC and phone crossover at 35.8 percent, while the more conventional Willcom 03 was third at 33.1 percent. [full story]

May 26 - 10:35am EDT   Willcom, Sanyo and Microsoft co-developed the Willcom 03 slider phone, also known as the WS020SH. The top panel features virtual navigation keys, similar in execution to those on the Samsung Soul, that appear on a 3-inch touch-sensitive LCD, and add a number pad when needed. Sliding the top panel open reveals a full QWERTY keyboard. One-segment streaming digital TV is displayed on the 480x800 resolution screen thanks to the handset's Flash Lite 3.0 software. [full story]

April 14 - 9:35am EDT   Sharp and Willcom together on Monday put out some of the first concrete details for an ultra-mobile PC based on Intel's Atom architecture. Known alternately as the Willcom D4 or the WS016SH at Sharp, the device is built to be small and light enough at just over one pound in weight but fast enough to run Windows Vista with a 1.33GHz Atom (capable of HyperThreading) and 1GB of memory; a unique tilt-slider design allows it to fit both a QWERTY keyboard and a direction pad alongside a 5-inch touchscreen sharp enough at 1024x600 to display a desktop operating system. [full story]

December 21 - 3:10pm EST   Two Japanese companies have won licenses that should see WiMAX take firmer hold in the world, Reuters reports. Government officials have granted licenses to a group led by KDDI, Japan's second-largest cellular provider, and Willcom, a company controlled by the US-based Carlyle Group. KDDI is partnering with Intel and phone maker Kyocera, and plans to use WiMAX to launch a new broadband service in 2009; Willcom will follow suit with a similar service in the same timeframe. KDDI notes though that its venture will be expensive, costing as much as $1.3 billion by the end of 2013. [full story]