Up first today is the "M2501 HIGH-SPEED," a Motorola-made FOMA card with support for DoCoMo's new HSDPA services. It'll go for somewhere close to 15,000 yen.

HSDPA offers a sustained download speed of about 3.6Mbps, but you might want to be careful as DoCoMo doesn't offer a fixed-rate data transfer package for PC access. That said, software included with the M2501 will allow you to make voice and video calls, so there's a nice amount of utility present. It should also be useful overseas, since it supports GSM as well -- you can use the data features in 83 different countries, and make voice calls in 145 countries.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/31164.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060926a.html

NTT DoCoMo has announced they'll be releasing the "BlackBerry 8707h" to corporate customers on September 26th. The 8707h is a "Global Model" of the BlackBerry 8707, offering support for W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS, so it can be used outside of Japan as well. It seems to be some sort of adaptation of the 8707v available for Vodafone (whoops) in the UK. Specifications include a 320 x 240 color screen, Bluetooth, 64MB of memory.

Specs-wise, the 8707h does not support Japanese. However, the device does support Namimail, a Japanese reading/input solution offered by NTT DoCoMo USA. Namimail can be used on most modern Blackberry devices, even those on carriers in the USA, so this might be one of the first and only times in history that a handset in the states actually has the same capabilities of a handset in Japan.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/31076.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060919b.html

NTT DoCoMo held an announcement event today in Japan for their new iAppli games for the 903i series.

These new games take advantage of the enhanced capabilities offered by "Mega iAppli." Mega iAppli vastly expand upon the capabilities of iAppli for DoCoMo's 900i series, by offering 10 times the amount of program space: 1MB. Furthermore, it is now possible to store these Mega iAppli on external memory, where they have no limitation for size -- it would be possible for a company to distribute a 10MB game, for example.

Such changes enable content publishers to create games of much higher quality. Coupled with the polygon rendering capabilities of the new 903i series handsets, these so-called "Mega Games" offer what I guess is the highest quality gaming experience found on any mobile phone in the world. Major content publishers were on hand at the announcement event to show off their new Mega Games. Bandai Networks showed "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED" with full 3D rendering, Bandai Namco Games showed Tekken 2, which featured the same polygon count as the original PlayStation version. Other games include Street Fighter ZERO (Alpha), Biohazard (Resident Evil), Dirge of Cerebus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII-, Monster Hunter, Mobile Pawapuro Baseball MEGA, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and so on, all of which take advantage of the enhanced iAppli features.

Both Impress Watch and ITmedia have coverage of the event, with plenty of pictures to go around. Click on the pictures below to be taken to their coverage.

DoCoMo is geared up to release their bone-conduction receiver microphone, the "Sound Leaf," on the 15th. The Sound Leaf plugs into the earphone/mic port of DoCoMo's FOMA handset and uses bone conduction technology to deliver sound. Bone conduction is a technology were sound travels through a person's skull to be delivered to their ear, rather than through the air canal, enabling the Sound Leaf to be used "even in places where a lot of noise makes it difficult to hear." The Sound Leaf officially works only with FOMA handsets.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30996.html

Product Information:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060912.html

NTT DoCoMo went ahead and announced their rates for Mobile Number Portability, which is slated to begin on October 24th in Japan. The announcement says that besides the standard charges associated with a new contract, you won't be charged anything if you move your mobile number TO NTT DoCoMo. When moving away from NTT DoCoMo, you'll be charged 2,100 yen. They also announced a campaign where they offer 2,000 DoCoMo Points to those who move to DoCoMo before the end of the year.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30775.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/notice/page/060829_00.html

Nevermind leaving someone a voicemail; leave them a videomail! NTT DoCoMo is all geared up to expand FOMA's "Answering Machine Service" to add support for the recording of video messages. Messages as long as 3 minutes can be recorded, but hopefully the person hasn't left the country; messages will automatically be deleted after they've been around for 72 hours. As many as 20 messags can be saved.

No less than 68 FOMA handsets (the number that support both FOMA's TV Phone and DTMF) will support the new service.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30790.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060830a.html

Inside you'll find details on NTT DoCoMo's first phone supporting HSDPA, the "N902iX HIGH-SPEED."

We just reported on the N702iS a few days ago. Today, DoCoMo announced that as part of the promotion for this new handset launching on the 25th, "companions" who look like "Motekawa" (perhaps a combination of "moteru" and "kawaii") will be distributing free nail stickers on the 25th, 26th, and 27th. These "companions" will be stationed at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Sendai, Hiroshima, Kanazawa, and Matsuyama.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30695.html

Product Information:
http://www.n-keitai.com/n702is/

Panasonic is plopping down the "P702iD" for NTT DoCoMo on August 31st. More information on this handset inside.

Things are really in full swing over at NTT DoCoMo, perhaps as they should be. Yet another new handset for the company -- the "Raku Raku Phone III" is the latest in the company's "simple handset" genre.

Slated for release on September 1st of this year, the "FOMA Raku Raku Phone III" (F882iES) is a Fujitsu FOMA handset including large-character iChannels, a one-touch alarm, noise cancelling functionality, brightness sensor, megapixel camera, "Magnifying Mirror" finder display, and several other fetures targetting Japan's aging population.

"One-Touch Alarm" allows a pre-determined number to be called with a voice announcement while at the same time sounding an alarm as loud as 100dB.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30700.html

Press Release (NTT DoCoMo):
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060824c.html

Press Release (Fujitsu):
http://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2006/08/24.html

Another day, another new handset: here's the N702iS from NEC for DoCoMo's FOMA. Details inside.

That's the million dollar question over at NTT DoCoMo right now.

Japan has recently seen a big surge in popularity of One-Seg, the 1st segment of terrestrial digital broadcasts intended for mobile devices. Each of the three major carriers has at least one handset that offers One-Seg support: DoCoMo the P901iTV, Vodafone the 905SH, and au the W33SA, W33SA II, and W41H.

Vodafone's and au's handsets are setup such that when you cancel service, you will no longer be able to watch terrestrial digital broadcasts using that mobile phone. From a hardware point of view, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense -- One-Seg signals are just as public as terrestrial analog signals, and the phone is still equipped with the capability to handle them. Vodafone said that their 905SH "cannot operate without a USIM card inserted," and KDDI said that "One-Seg is offered as an au service called 'EZ TV.'" How about DoCoMo?

They don't know either. The P901iTV is designed such that it can handle One-Seg broadcasts without a SIM card, but recent Japanese media reports have suggested that, also on DoCoMo, you'll be unable to watch One-Seg broadcasts if you cancel your DoCoMo contract. DoCoMo has today issued an official response: "we haven't decided." Uhh, thanks for nothing?

Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/21/news062.html

DoCoMo is set to launch a new system tomorrow that allows FOMA users to make better use of their mobile phones during disasters and big events.

NTT DoCoMo will be releasing the "NM850iG," a Nokia handset with support for both W-CDMA and GSM.

I don't think this is a huge issue outside of Japan, but NTT DoCoMo has developed a system to make mobile phone coverage indoors much easier.

Sugiyama Electron has a new remote control...controller coming out called the "Remocon Saucer." You're able to use your FOMA handset's TV phone function to control appliances and such in your home.

NTT DoCoMo announced the three handsets that they'll be using to test HSDPA services. The company wants to introduce HSDPA as early as the 2nd quarter of this year, so they'll need to get moving.

Hot o­n the heels of AU's 5500 series is DoCoMo's 702i series. There are five handsets.

• P702i
• D702i
• F702iD
• N702iD
• SH702iD

More details o­n each inside.

Alright, I made the second part of the name up, but NTT DoCoMo has announced a new handset that uses kenaf fibre in its plastic. Kenaf is a species of Hibiscus. It's a common plant in southeast Asia.

NTT DoCoMo announced today that they have hit 50 million contracts. Japan's population is around 127 million. This means only one thing: 2 of every 5 people in Japan has a contract with NTT DoCoMo. No, we're not talking about DoCoMo having 40% of the market share -- we're saying that DoCoMo has 40% of Japan's entire population. Of course the actual percentage is likely a bit lower because of individuals that have two contracts, but still, it's a good indicator of how widespread DoCoMo really is.

Here's their official press release. According to the Impress Watch article, DoCoMo launched in 1979 with a car phone, and gradually introduced services such as i-Mode, FOMA, and Osaifu Keitai. They hit 40 million contracts in January of 2002, meaning they've added another 10 million contracts in 3 years and 10 months. This works out to about 7,246 new contracts per day. I'd be interested in comparing these numbers with those of American and European providers, if there's anyone out there who knows where to find such data.

Another week, another round of new handsets. Inside, we take a look at the:-Easy Phone Simple-Music Porter II-Prosolid II-MUSIC PORTER XAll for NTT DoCoMo. This announcement happens to come exactly o­ne year after the announcement of the original Prosolid and Music Porter. Coincidence? I think not!

Continuing in the Phone Bonanza series, DoCoMo has announced a rather bizarre looking handset for receiving single-segment broadcasts (which are digital terrestrial broadcasts intended solely for use by portable devices) called the "P901iTV," and also announced a nice looking prototype of a phone that features a touchscreen display instead of a keypad.

NTT DoCoMo has announced the "Radiden," a cross between a mobile phone and a radio. It's the world's first handset to feature an integrated AM/FM/TV tuner, and uses a "Dual Front Design."

First it's plane tickets, then train tickets, and now...baseball tickets! Yes, the next time you hit the Yahoo Dome (where the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks play), be sure to take your i-Mode FeliCa compatible FOMA handset as you can feel the wireless IC glory.

Two new handsets from two popular names. Fujitsu introduces the F700iS, an improvement to the F700i, and Sharp the SH700iS, an improvement to their SH700i. Pretty straightforward, eh?

NTT DoCoMo has developed a "FOMA AV Unit," which is more or less just a board with all sorts of AV functionality o­n it that can connect to the FOMA network. What would that do for you? Well, this makes it painfully easy for companies to develop products with A/V functionality that can connect directly to your mobile phone -- DoCoMo offers the example of in-home robotics, but given the assortment of inputs this thing has, there could be far wider implications.

I'm glad to see the world getting more and more wireless. Honestly, wires have really started to bother me.

NTT DoCoMo, champion of all things wireless, now takes their "contactless" philosophy a step further (you may remember their contactless IC FeliCa phones, and our FeliCa BLOWOUT coverage over a year ago), announcing a pretty exciting development yesterday.

In cooperation with Panasonic Mobile Communications, they have developed a contactless recharging stand. I know basically nothing of how it works, besides that it uses "electromagnetic induction." I thought the o­nly way to combine "contactless" and "power" was with microwave radiation, and SimCity 2000 taught me microwaves can get quite nasty. Shows what I know.

Anyway, more details inside.

DoCoMo wastes no time bringing out the new technology, so they're already well into working o­n 4G (fourth-generation) transmission standards for the next generation of mobile phones.

The latest test was conducted outdoors, where DoCoMo has successfully pulled 1Gbps.

NTT DoCoMo will be holding classes about the history and manners of mobile phones. The classes will be held at elementary, middle and high schools in the Koushinetsu area of Kanto (surrounding Tokyo).

NTT DoCoMo will be introducing the "M-1000" handset from Motorola, a W-CDMA/GSM/GPRS device that features the Symbian OS.

We're about two days behind with this coverage, but I think you'll understand when I say "oops." Rather than put up some article that just said "nothing to write home about," I figured I'd wait a few days to put up a decent article so you can make your own judgement.

DoCoMo offers a new line of FOMA phones: the 700i series. There are four handsets: the F700i, the N700i, the P700i, and finally the SH700i. More details and probably too many pics inside.

Here's a new technology from NTT DoCoMo and some other clowns that allows mobile phones to display 3D map data. Au would probably be interested in something like this to go with their EZ Navi Walker service.

NTT DoCoMo has announced their latest in the Premini series, the Premini-2. While a little bigger than it's predecessors, I'll willing to bet that most people would be worried about either swallowing it or washing it accidently, not to mention having too-big fingers for still too-small keys.

A Taito classic recreated in 3D for your FOMA 900i/901i mobile phone.

We've heard of NXT SoundVu technology used before, but I believe this is the first time it's being used o­n a mobile phone. Nor will it probably be the last time we hear of it.

For those of you who missed it, NXT SoundVu is a technology developed by England's "New Transducers," which allows the display itself to act as a speaker.

NTT DoCoMo has announced their will invest $3M ( about 312M yen) in America's MontaVista, a company that deals with the development of embedded Linux. The procedures will be completed o­n the 22nd.

MontaVista deals with development of Linux optimized for embedded devices, and through cooperation with NEC, the company's technology has been used as an OS o­n the "N900iL," "N901i," and "P901i" DoCoMo handsets. DoCoMo plans to strengthen their cooperative relationship with the company through this investment. This is reportedly to help begin cooperation o­n a development strategy level, in an effort to improve functionality of products containing the Linux OS and development efficiency.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/21961.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/new/contents/04/whatnew1221.html

It's been a long time coming but it looks like NTT Docomo has finally gotten around to releasing a W-CDMA/GSM mobile phone. The NEC N900iG is firmly targeted at the business sector and, as a result, is available in only one colour - ocean blue. Apart from the dual-network functionality, most of the features of this phone are pretty ho-hum.

"You mean to tell me that you couldn't access Hotmail from your i-Mode phone all this time?"

Believe it or not, no. i-Mode support for Hotmail was limited to MSN 9 subscribers.

Sony Ericsson still hasn't gotten o­n the FOMA train bound for the future, which is why there's no "SO901i" phone or some such, but that's apparently changing shortly.

Sharp and Sony Ericsson have announced they'll be cooperating for development of new FOMA handsets.

Another day, another new series of mobile phone handsets from NTT DoCoMo. The new "901i" series of FOMA handsets all have standard features including twin speakers for positional audio and improved 3D graphics capability. The first of the new handsets will go on sale from November 26.

As mentioned the other day in our FeliCa usage survey article, new services for FeliCa-equipped mobile phones are starting to appear. KESAKA System, Connect Technologies, Itochu Techno-Science and NTT DoCoMo Kyushu have got together to offer a service that allows i-mode FeliCa handsets to be used as apartment door keys. Among other things, the service will allow forgetful users to check if they locked the door from their mobile phone. Convenience such as this comes at a price, of course - there are quite a number of fees that apply to the service.

DoCoMo has announcd four new stylish Mova handsets, just in time for CEATEC JAPAN 2004. I guess the guys at DoCoMo got sick of au and vodafone outdoing them in the "wild and crazy" phone design stakes. As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Update: 11:41 PM EST 10/05 - Added 40 pictures from DoCoMoPress. Enjoy! -zmcnulty

They won't be releasing it to the public yet, so I believe this is referred to as a "Proof of Concept" device.

I can't say I'm floored by their features, but these are intended for the Mova network (rather than FOMA), so whatever.

The lineup includes:
-Mitsubishi's D253i
-NEC's N253i
-Panasonic's P253i

Plenty of information and pictures inside.

American readers can think of JATE as the FCC. Sorry rest of world, I don't know who approves your communication standards.

This AsiaBizTech article explains what's going o­n here. Apparently the 900iG is also going to go for approval by the FCC itself...interesting.

Article

Being that the Japanese train system actually reliably shows up o­n time, this could actually be useful over there.

Good luck Motorola, though I personally don't think Japan will be so hot for your phones. You obviously can't out-feature Sharp and Fujitsu, so I think you should go for style.

When you cancel your phone contract, and someone calls your old number, a message comes up telling them your new phone number. For o­ne reason or another, though, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI didn't tell people if you switched to the other company's cellular phone.

This is not the case anymore.

Our second DoCoMo article of the night is about a new FOMA phone made to be simple to use.

In a mere two months since the service began, NTT DoCoMo's "All You Can PACKET!!!" unlimited data transfer plan for FOMA phones will have 1,000,000 users.

I have a hard time believing this survey, especially considering the rate at which FOMA has expanded. More information inside.

Not much more to say, other than that as of July 19th, DoCoMo's 3G FOMA service has five million subscribers.

FOMA began operation in October of 2001, and brought in o­ne million subscribers in the first two years. In the four months following, they reached 2 million subscribers, and in the 2 months after that, they have gotten 1 million more subscribers.

If DoCoMo continues at their current pace, it looks as though it will be simple for them to achieve the 10,600,000 contract goal set during May of last year.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/19758.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/new/contents/04/whatnew0720a.html

384kbps got you down? Well, DoCoMo has a new phone coming out soon that supports 802.11b, so you can connect hella faster.
But it's not as good as it sounds, because you apparently can't use wireless LANs just anywhere. You need to be at your office.

What was o­nce done in two chips should be able to be done in o­ne.
The dual modes are W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS.

If you're interested in FeliCa, you'll eat this right up.
That's right, I'm going to translate this entire interview K-Tai Watch did with Fumio Takizawa, the Section Manager of FeliCa Networks' Public Relations Department.
This is perhaps the longest article I've ever translated, once I finish.

Chalk another "device your cellular phone will likely replace."
At least that's what Nano Media wants.

This 3rd and likely final part in the FeliCa series outlines a few of the services that will launch with the release of the FeliCa support phones as reported yesterday.

NTT DoCoMo has announced release dates for the three new 900i series FOMA phones. For specific information about the units, please refer to the corresponding TechJapan article from June 1st.

And the dates are:

-F900iT, June 19th
-P900iV, June 19th
-N900iS, June 25th

DoCoMo knows better than anyone, you can't just go and introduce a new technology (FeliCa) nationwide (well, Japanwide) without releasing new units that support it, and actually expect adoption by the public.

SO to coincide with the "national FeliCa implementation campaign," and officially be 10 years ahead of the USA (well, technologically, let's not talk about socially), DoCoMo will introduce four new handsets supporting FeliCa.

They are:
-Fujitsu's F900iC, with fingerprint security
-Panasonic's P506iC, with a dual-axis rotating main display
-Sharp's SH506iC, also with a dual-axis rotating main display
-Sony Ericcson's SO506iC, with a sliding display and removable faceplate

For those of you that don't know, FeliCa is a contactless IC system that intended to be integrated with cellular phones, allowing users to make small purchases by simply waving their FeliCa-containing phone over a receiver. An example would be a vending machine; just put your phone by the surface, make your selection, and enjoy a tasty beverage.

This article is coming from an English NTT DoCoMo press release (yeah, that's what I said), because I still have plenty more to write today.

Three new 900i series (FOMA) phones were announced by NTT DoCoMo today:

-F900iT with a touchscreen and Bluetooth
-P900iV with swivel screen, MPEG-4 recording, playback, AV out
-N900iS with some minor improvements over the N900i

More information, and plenty of pictures (since I finally have access to the DoCoMo press kits) inside.

You can probably tell from the name, but this phone is made to be small. It's made for the MOVA network (not FOMA), too.

Thought I'd drop this link in here - it's an AsiaBizTech article about how NTT DoComo will begin offering wireless hotspots o­n airplanes through their mzone wireless LAN service, and Boeing's Connexion technology.
We first heard about Connexion back at Mitsubishi's R&D event in February. According to the specifics of Mitsubishi's antenna (and assuming this same antenna will be used o­n the planes offering this service starting in August), the maximum downstream is 20Mbps and the upstream 1Mbps.

NTT DoCoMo announced o­n the 30th that they have recovered 42,600,000 yen from a total of 8 spammers of their "iMode" service.
This amount comes from NTT DoCoMo billing the spammers based o­n the 1 or 2 yen cost of each mail sent, but it's pretty creative how it was decided the spammers had to pay - the figure is based o­n mail that was undeliverable, so NTT was unable to collect the correct amount from any of its users. The result? Bill the people that sent the mail.

There's three phones:
-D506i from Mitsubishi
-F506i from Fujitsu
-N506i from NEC

Like always, there are advantages and disadvantages for each unit.
Plenty more details and images inside.

Only in Japan can a company announce a release date for a product as "in two days" and actually pull it off.
NTT DoCoMo has decided o­n a release date for the Panasonic P252iS: Friday, April 16th.
I reported o­n the P252iS back o­n April 2nd; you should take a look at that article if you're interested in this phone.

NTT DoCoMo is introducing a new phone from Panasonic, which instead of the color variations being named after the colors, they are named after foods, such as "Puchi Puchi Tomato" and "Blue Blue Berry."
Apart from this and the small size, the rest seems pretty straightforward. More details, pictures, and...flavors inside.

NTT DoCoMo announced that o­n March 30th, the number of FOMA contracts has hit 3,000,000. FOMA began in October of 2001.

Nevermind X10, NTT DoCoMo steps up to the plate with their answer to how home automation should be done - from your FOMA phone.

NTT DoCoMo officially announced that they will begin offering their unlimited data plan o­n June 1st. The name? "Pake Ho-dai."
"Pake" would be short for "packet," and "Ho-dai" means "all you can____." For example, "all you can eat" is called "viking" or "tabehoudai."
And so I've dubbed NTT DoCoMo's new unlimited data plan "All You Can PACKET!" I honestly don't think they could have chosen a better name.

NTT DoCoMo has announced the release date of the "SH900i" from Sharp; it's the fourth phone to be released in the 900i series.
There's a bit of information about the phone in this article, but your best bet is to see the master 900i article.

In short, NTT has been developing a bunch of cool stuff they never told us about...
This includes:

-3.5G, "HSDPA" technology

-Mouth recognition technology. Not voice recognition, but *mouth* recognition. You don't even have to make a sound.

-3D sound technology

-Receptionless and reception-proof room

-Echoless room

NTT DoCoMo has announced the release date of the third phone it the FOMA 900i series. The Panasonic P900i will be released o­n February 29th.

Simply put, DragonQuest and Final Fantasy (i-Appli versions) will be available for download beginning March 1st, for DoCoMo FOMA 900i users.

The second of NTT DoCoMo's highly anticipated 900i series cellular phones now has a scheduled release date: February 22nd.
The second phone, during the second month, o­n the 22nd? Coincidence?
A couple details about the phone can be found in this article, but even more can be found in the original 900i series article.

NTT DoCoMo is going to release the F900i cellular phone o­n February 6th. That's Friday. This is the first of the new 900i series phones to be released.
For more information regarding the F900i, please see the most read article in the history of TechJapan.

First England, now Hong Kong.
While Hong Kong is relatively close to Japan, this still constitutes an "international" call using video phone. And it's certainly not cheap.

Details o­n five different phones:
-D900i
-F900i
-N900i
-SH900i
-P900i

They are all interesting in their own respects.

I'm not completely sure how this came to be, but apparently some people who had high charges o­n their bills claimed that clones of their phones existed. NTT is blaming the high charges o­n the customers themselves, saying that the charges are just calls made and forgotten about.

The phones are to start coming out February of next year. They will support Flash, animated characters for incoming call notifiers, and even replacing your own picture with a character when using the TV phone service.

In an expected move, NTT DoCoMo is dropping all of their investment in DoCoMo AOL. It will become a 100% subsidiary of AOL, Inc. and be renamed to "AOL Japan."

This statistic is based o­n population in regards to the service area.

Or, more specifically, you can connect to 802.11b an utilize the features of wireless internet access.