Japan’s mobile landscape is currently in the midst of an Android revolution, and today KDDI au (the country’s second biggest carrier) announced another 5 smartphones with that OS on board for the local market. The most interesting model in the new line-up is the so-called INFOBAR C01 [JP], a candy bar coming with a heavily customized UI (based on Android 2.3).
KDDI au introduced a similar model back in May last year, the INFOBAR A01 (both handsets are part of KDDI’s designer sub-brand iida). → Read More
It will probably take a few more months until Japan’s five major cell phone makers really start shipping smartphones to the US and other regions, but in their home market, all signs point to an Android future.
Japan’s second biggest carrier KDDI au, for example, unveiled [JP] a total of six new Android phones for its winter line-up today, and Fujitsu-Toshiba Mobile’s ARROWS Z ISW11F is probably the most interesting model. → Read More
Last month, Fujitsu in Japan unveiled the IS12T, announced as the world’s first cell phone running on Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango. And the country’s second biggest mobile carrier (and exclusive provider of the handset) KDDI au, didn’t lose much time: the IS12T became available today over here (here‘s Fujitsu’s official press release in English from today).
As we reported previously, the Mango handset comes with a 3.7-inch LCD with 800×480 resolution, a 13.2MP CMOS camera, a water- and shock-proof body, 32GB internal memory, a microUSB port, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (no tethering), DLNA support, GSM/CDMA, etc. → 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
There’s just one Android phone currently available in Japan, one of the biggest mobile markets in the world. But the HTC Magic, which Japan’s biggest telco, NTT Docomo, started distributing last summer, will soon be joined by the Sharp IS01 [JP] – which is not really a “smartphone”, but rather being marketed as an MID or “smartbook” instead. → Read More
Wikipedia has a pretty useful list of countries by number of mobile phones in use, which shows that Japan (with around 100 million users) is the No. 7 in the world. The market is largely controlled by mobile carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank Mobile but seemed big enough to offer enough room for a number of smaller competitors, too.
Yesterday, however, a company called Willcom (one of said smaller players) announced it had to file for bankruptcy. The reason: With just $54 million in capital, Willcom managed to amass a whopping $2.2 billion in liabilities. It’s the biggest bankruptcy ever in Japan’s hyper-competitive mobile industry. → Read More
Japan is the nation of robots. Everybody knows that. It’s also the nation of cell phones. So why not mix robots and cell phones? That’s what the country’s second biggest mobile phone provider KDDI au thought and today presents the iida Polaris, a robotic cell phone [link in English], for the first time (click here for my iida concept photo report from April). → Read More
Japan’s No. 2 cell phone carrier KDDI au is stepping up its efforts to promote its iida sub brand of designer cell phones (here‘s my photo report of some iida concept phones from back in April). Not only did it present its robotic cell phone Polaris today, it now gives us another two (more conventional) phones.
And these you can actually buy soon (if you live in Japan). → 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
Japanese telecommunications giants SoftBank and Docomo unveiled their summer 2009 line-ups last week and were followed by the country’s No. 2 carrier, KDDI au, today. While SoftBank is to roll out 15 new cell phones this summer and Docomo even presented 17 models, KDDI au showed only 8 new candy bars [JP] in the morning. But some of these are amazing. → Read More
Japan’s second biggest mobile phone carrier KDDI au today unveiled the first model of its summer line-up for the Japanese market (have a look at their spring models here). In cooperation with Sharp, KDDI au will offer a cell phone that will be waterproof and, more interestingly, powered by solar energy [JP]. → Read More
I had the opportunity to test Sony Ericsson’s newest mobile phone, the G9, in Tokyo today. The device is the first KDDI au is selling in Japan under the so-called iida brand. It’s not officially on sale yet, but I could lay my hands on finished versions for a few minutes in a KDDI showroom. The G9 will be available in Japan next week. → Read More
KDDI, Japan’s second biggest mobile phone carrier, currently showcases a number of cell phone design prototypes (and a working one) in their five-floor Design Studio [JP] in central Tokyo (where I went today). The cell phones (and peripheral devices) are part of the so-called iida brand [JP], which is supposed to be focused on the development of unusual handsets only. → Read More
James Bond is a huge brand name in Japan. In cooperation with regional telcom Okinawa Cellular [JP], KDDI au (the nation’s No. 2 telecommunications company) will start selling a special edition of its W63S (CDMA 1X WIN) cell phone tomorrow. → Read More
Hitachi Wooo 63H (featuring a 3.1-inch OLED display) → Read More
This commercial for Sony Ericsson’s W63S is currently airing on Japanese TV stations. It’s kind of original but it really creeps me out. The person in the video is Oguri Shun, a famous Japanese actor. → Read More
W62H from Hitachi (equipped with a 2.8 inch OLED display featuring 480×240 resolution) → Read More
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