That wooden cell phone wasn’t the only silly cell phone Sharp introduced today in Japan. It was actually joined by a slightly sillier handset, the so-called “Bisqui Phon”. Yes, it’s shaped like a biscuit for some reason. Sharp seems to like manufacturing these things. → Read More
No comment on the branding, but Sharp will soon [JP] produce a cell phone whose body is made entirely of wood, namely Japanese cypress. According to Sharp, the handset is not a joke product but actually built for long-term usage, meaning buyers won’t have to fear mold and other things. → Read More
If you needed one more piece of evidence that Japan is crazy about everything mobile, here it is: the country’s leading mobile carrier today announced [JP] a system that provides user-specific instructions to home gardeners via cell phones and special “garden sensors”. NEC is a partner in the pilot project, which actually began last Saturday in 30 selected households in Japan. → Read More
One of the “sub trends” of this year’s CEATEC exhibition (that’s currently taking place near Tokyo) is augmented reality, especially among the telecommunications companies. Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo is experimenting with an AR technology (developed by Olympus in 2008) called AR Walker. → Read More
With 55 million customers, the 800-pound gorilla in the world’s most advanced mobile society, Japan, is NTT Docomo. And over the weekend, the company made clear it wants to retain its position in an LTE future: Docomo is ready to invest $3.4 billion in the next three years to build base stations and will start an LTE service in December this year (as the first of Japan’s three major carriers). → Read More
Big shake up in Japan’s cell phone industry (100 million mobile subscribers) today: NTT Docomo, the country’s leading carrier (55 million customers), is planning to make all of its cell phones SIM free as early as April 2011 (the start of the new fiscal year in most Japanese companies). → Read More
Japan has been flooded with new cell phones over the last few days. We’ve shown you KDDI au’s 10 new handsets Monday, SoftBank Mobile’s 13 new models yesterday, and now it’s time for NTT Docomo‘s summer lineup. Japan’s biggest mobile carrier (55 million) unveiled 20 new cell phones [press release in English] yesterday, some of which are just awesome.
Here’s Docomo’s complete line-up for this… → Read More
NTT DoComo, Japan’s largest cell phone carrier (55 million customers), is currently running a pretty bizarre viral promotion campaign in this country (both on- and offline). The company has set up a weird website [JP] that, for some strange reason, shows Darth Vader running around Tokyo and asking who’s his boss (“Who is my boss” is the official tag line of the campaign). → Read More
Just last week, we asked the question if the world needs yet another mobile operating system (Samsung’s Bada). Now it turns out Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, apparently thinks the answer is yes. The telecom behemoth (55 million customers in Japan) today announced [press release in English] the development of a brand new “application platform for mobile phones”, which is planned… → Read More
It’s not that there’s a shortage of mobile projectors, but when DoCoMo (Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier) announces [JP] a model for its 55 million customers, it deserves a mention. DoCoMo specifically suggests using the F01 with Fujitsu’s uber-cool “Separate Keitai”, a cell phone that breaks into two parts (and that’s currently available on the Japanese market only). → Read More
For years, Japan was the innovation leader in the cell phone industry, until South Korea and the US started catching up rapidly. If you look back at what Nippon’s mighty carriers have released in the past few months, you mainly see super-powerful handsets with large OLED screens, 12MP cameras, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, double digital TV tuners, etc.
But the form factor never really changes… → Read More
You know when a given country, in this case the nation of Japan, is over-saturated with cell phones when you get to see something like this: A cell phone that’s supposed to be similar in shape to a chocolate bar, available in two versions: Melty Bitter (brown) and Melty Strawberry (pink). The Sharp SH-04B [JP] is part of NTT Docomo’s winter line-up of new handsets for the Japanese market (unveiled… → Read More
Faster data access with virtually no latency: LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband networks are coming, at least in the world’s most advanced mobile market, the nation of Japan. The country’s biggest cell phone carrier, NTT Docomo, said yesterday at GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong it will go fourth generation as early as December 2010. → Read More
Following KDDI’s announcement three weeks ago, Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT Docomo today unveiled [JP] its winter-line up of cell phones (SoftBank, the No.3, did the same). And here are all the new models announced by Docomo for the Japanese market today.
Update:
Head over to NTT Docomo’s English web site for another overview of their new phones. → Read More
Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, the country’s biggest mobile phone subscriber with over 50 million subscribers, is considering fully entering the American cell phone market – as early as next year. Various Japanese media are reporting that the company plans to offer phones featuring DoCoMo’s proprietary mobile web service “i-mode” in the USA (the picture shows phones from their Japanese summer line-up). → Read More
Japan’s telecommunications giants NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank present new cell phones four times a year: spring, summer, fall and winter. All companies showcased their summer 2009 wares in the last few days, including some simply incredible devices.
The top 10 models across all carriers (chosen by yours truly) after the jump. → Read More
NTT Docomo not only announced eight new cell phones in their SMART and STYLE series today but also presented nine other models that are part of the so-called PRIME (top row in the picture) and PRO (the three devices on the right in the bottom row) series. Here is the complete rundown of the PRIME and PRO models. Some of the specs are unbelievable. → Read More
Following Softbank, Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT Docomo announced its summer cell phone line-up [JP], consisting of a total of 17 new candy bars. Docomo breaks down the handsets into four series: STYLE (top row in the picture), SMART (the two phones on the left in the bottom row), PRO and PRIME. And some of the models just look awesome (sales begin this month). → Read More
Japan’s biggest telco NTT DoCoMo today announced 4 new cell phone series (STYLE, PRIME, SMART and PRO ), which are part of the company’s fall/winter product line-up. Docomo will offer a total of 22 new handsets. As Japanese handset makers have recently vowed to internationalize more agressively, there is a good chance at least some of the new models will become available outside Japan… → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_RtB+J5FQ Japan’s biggest telco NTT showcased a micro projector that is built into a cell phone and is able to project a 25-inch video image. Asked if and and when the device will be commercialized I received the usual answer: “Maybe in a few years, maybe never.” → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_Q1DOJ5FQ At this year’s CEATEC, Little Seiko, the kindergarten girl robot, is the unbeatable fan favorite, but NTT Docomo‘s (Japan’s biggest telecommunications company) detachable handset is surely one of the top 5 products of the exhibition. A lot of attendees queued 35 minutes to try the Fujitsu cell phone out themselves, including me. And let me tell… → Read More
Over one billion cell phones have been sold worldwide in the last year, but in the US or Europe, the mobile Internet is still catching on relatively slowly. There even was a heated debate in the blogosphere just recently whether the mobile web has a future at all. However, this has never been a question in one specific region of the world: In Japan, since 2006 more people have been accessing the… → Read More
NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese wireless carrier, is working on what they call the “cell phone of the future“. So far they have one prototype that looks like a freaky pair of headphones with wires and doo-dads popping out everywhere. Inside it’s packed full of sensors and chips (the ones you can’t eat) that track the electrical current produced by brain when the wearer moves their… → Read More
NTT DoCoMo today announced two new cell phone series (906i and 706i), which will be launched in Japan over the next months. The company will offer a total of 19 handsets coming in 64 different body colors. The 11 models of the 706i series feature extra-slim bodies. The P706iμ, for example, is just 9.8 mm thick (iPhone: 11.6 mm), making it the slimmest handset compatible to One-Seg-TV on the… → Read More
While Japan still awaits the arrival of a 3G iPhone, Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo today announced the Prada phone from LG will be on sale in Japan as early as June 1st. Japanese buyers can choose whether to pay a lump sum which is supposed to be “a little less than $960″ or by installments. In the latter case, a down payment of $360 is expected, which has to be followed… → Read More
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