That was a long sayonara: in November 2008, Nokia decided to pull the plug on their Japan operations, at the same time announcing they will re-enter the market with their luxury sub-brand Vertu. They started offering those phones (and the services that come with them) in September 2009, but now decided to give up on this business in Japan, too. → Read More
Survival horror video game series Resident Evil has sold well over 45 million units since the first title came out back in 1996, on various platforms, for example the PlayStation 1, the Nintendo DS, or the iPhone. But there has never been a mobile social game in the series (“Biohazard” in Japan) – until this week. → Read More
Michael Jackson may have passed away two years ago, but he has always been especially big in Japan. So big, in fact, that he now gets his own social game. Dubbed “Michael’s King Of Pop” [JP], the title is exclusively available on Japanese mobile social gaming platform Mobage.
The goal of the game is to make Michael Jackson the No. 1 entertainer on the planet. Players manage Jacko’s career, but… → Read More
Do you miss the feeling of pressing physical buttons when you touch icons or letters on a smartphone touchscreen? Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI is working on a display that recreates exactly that “clicking sensation” by combining vibration with a pressure sensor. → Read More
The idea of translating spoken language from cell phone to cell phone isn’t exactly new, but the mobile simultaneous translation system NTT Docomo is currently working on looks really impressive. Japan’s biggest mobile carrier says it uses the “best technologies” for voice recognition, machine translation, and voice synthesis out there for its solution. → Read More
We showed you the LOOX F-07C earlier this week, Fujitsu’s Symbian/Windows 7 dual-boot cell phone that Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo plans to market this summer. In case you were wondering how the device looks like in action, our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo have shot a video (in English). → Read More
If you thought Android and clamshell handsets won’t fit, think again: Sharp today introduced [JP] the so-called AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH, a flip phone running on Android 2.3. It’s the first of its kind (at least by a major company), but that’s not all the device has to offer. → Read More
The world’s most advanced mobile nation, Japan, sees more than 100 different cell phones each year. Market research firm Gfk Japan [JP] has analyzed which the best-selling models in the first quarter of this year were and recently published its findings in the form of a top 10 chart. → Read More
Following Docomo yesterday, Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier KDDI au has unveiled [JP] a total of 12 new cell phones today. Their line-up consists of six smartphones (all Android) and six feature phones (well, what the Japanese call feature phones), all of which are listed up below. → Read More
We covered NTT Docomo‘s smartphone line-up for this summer here, but Japan’s leading mobile carrier also revealed 11 new feature phones today. And here are all of them listed up. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has announced its summer line-up of cell phones today, and we have squeezed all their nine new smartphones (plus Fujitsu’s Windows 7/Symbian hybrid) into this article for your reading pleasure (click here for a list of all new feature phones). → Read More
It turns out the leak we blogged last month is true: Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo today officially introduced the Fujitsu LOOX F-07C as part of its summer line-up, and the device actually does dual-boot to Symbian and Windows 7 OS (not Windows Phone). Hardware-wise, the LOOX is pretty interesting, too. → Read More
No doubt the Galaxy S II is a great smartphone, and it’s apparently set to sell really well, too. Samsung says [KOR] that global pre-orders for their flagship handset have reached 3 million as of the end of April (which means they should have received even more by now). → Read More
The NEC Medias is not only “the world’s slimmest smartphone”, it’s also selling really well. The handset, which we have shown you last month, was the best-selling cell phone in Japan between March 14 and March 20, according to market research firm Gfk Japan [JP]. → Read More
Japan’s telecommunications juggernaut SoftBank, the third largest mobile carrier of the country, had to register quite a lot of damage after the big earthquake that hit Japan on March 11. 3,800 of SoftBank’s base stations were knocked out, meaning no customer in the affected areas could make or receive calls via cell phones (the situation was similar with other carriers).
But it turned out that… → Read More
Disney exited the cell phone business in the US back in 2007, but the MVNO Disney operates in Japan seems to be doing well: last month, Disney Mobile Japan started offering a special Android phone, which is currently being advertised on national TV. And yesterday, Disney Mobile even opened [JP, PDF] a physical store in central Tokyo. → Read More
On Monday, we’ve just shown you some leaked pictures, but we can now confirm the world’s thinnest smartphone, NEC Casio Mobile’s MEDIAS N-04C, is real. And provider NTT Docomo, Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, doesn’t want to lose time in bringing it to market: it will hit stores over here as early as March 15. → Read More
NEC is apparently to unveil the “world’s thinnest smartphone” (7.7mm) on Thursday, if a “leak” covered on a Japanese blog today is to be believed. That leak, reported today by Akihabara News, is actually a few days old (see this Japanese blog post, for example). → Read More
Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Displays yesterday announced [JP] that it has developed a new LCD display for smartphones whose quality reaches the “limit of what is discernible to the human eye”. And a look at the spec sheet reveals that big H is indeed prepping quite a display. → Read More
Japan’s three big mobile carriers are offering more than 100 handsets per year, and some of them are quite unique. The latest limited edition is the Sharp SH-09C [JP], a handset developed in cooperation with French luxury crystal glass maker Baccarat and distributed by mobile carrier NTT Docomo. → Read More
Way back in October 2008, we reported about a cell phone that featured a built-in mini projector. The cell phone was showcased by Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, as a prototype. But today, the same carrier announced [JP] that such a spectacular handset will finally go on sale in Japan this Friday. → Read More
Japanese telecommunications company Nakayo is preparing an IP home phone [JP, PDF] that features an integrated 7-inch Android tablet. When receiving a call, users can pick up the handset to speak, push a button on the display (the tablet) to make a hands-free call or take the tablet out, walk around and speak into its mic. → Read More
Remember that Disney-themed Android phone from Japan we blogged two weeks ago? At that time, Disney Japan didn’t release a lot of information, but now they did [JP], and they also showed the 3D device for the first time. → Read More
At their PSP2 launch event today, Sony did not only unveil the new device but also introduced “Playstation Suite”, a new cross-device game platform the company will use to bring Playstation 1 titles to Android phones and tablets (version 2.3 and up). In other words, Sony games will not exclusively be distributed to owners of the Playstation Phone that’s supposed to be officially announced next… → Read More
Things are slowly changing in Japan, land of the super-advanced feature phones (which have always been smartphones in disguise as far as features are concerned). Market research firm Gfk Japan [JP] is reporting that no less than seven of the top 10 handsets sold in the country between January 10 and 16 were smartphones. → Read More
Truth be told, I never heard of FRANCK MULLER before, but the (apparently quite famous) watch brand from Switzerland has designed a special case for the iPhone 4 that can now be pre-ordered in Japan. And as FRANCK MULLER is a luxury brand, each case will set you back a cool $1,270 [JP]. → Read More
Disney may have pulled the plug on their cell phone business in the US in 2007, but in Japan (where the company’s characters have a huge fan base), its MVNO is apparently doing pretty well. And now it comes to light [JP] that next month, Disney enthusiasts living in that country will be able to lay their hands on a special Android phone. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo just started selling the N-03C [JP], a new cell phone that’s both shock- and waterproof. The device meets the drop-test standard “MIL-STD-810G Method 516.6-Shock” established by the U.S. Department of Defense. → Read More
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