Japan is a huge market for electronic dictionaries, even though a good number of cell phones in this country come with decent dictionaries pre-installed. While most Japanese e-dictionaries are designed like micro-notebooks, market leader Sharp today announced [JP] a model of a different kind. For reasons unknown, their PW-AC10 looks much like a Blackberry (or a knock-off).

Well, one reason is that Sharp wanted to own the bragging rights for the “industry’s most compact dictionary with a color screen”, which the company now claims for itself. Weighing just 97g, the device is sized at 118.6×68.6×18.8mm. It comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen (320×240 resolution), a QWERTY keyboard, and a total of twelve dictionaries (English-Japanese, French-Japanese, German-Japanese etc.).

Sharp plans to roll out the PW-AC10 in Japan on August 8 (in white, green and red) for $150, but don’t expect the device to hit other markets anytime soon.