You wouldn't want a bunch of handsets out in the wild without your own company name on them, so SoftBank has announced 13 handsets to "launch" alongside the new brand.

Luckily SoftBank is continuing the tradition of putting out English press releases and information alongside Japanese press releases and information, so you can head over to the official page for more information. Just so we're clear, the handsets are:

• 910SH, a Sharp handset with 5MP camera and 2.4" display
  
• 910T, a Toshiba handset with 1GB of internal memory, Bluetooth, and music player
  
• 810SH, a Sharp handset with a VGA display and "elegant design"
  
• 811SH, a Sharp handset with a VGA display and 21mm thickness
  
• 810T, a Toshiba handset with "Advanced Simple Mode"
  
• 811T, a Toshiba handset with audio playback and GPS
  
• 705N, a NEC handset with 16mm thickness and "stylish design"
  
• 705NK, a Nokia handset with 3.2MP camera and bar design
  
• 705P, a Panasonic handset with a 14.8mm thickness and one-push button open
  
• 705SC, a Samsung handset with 12.9mm thickness and sliding mechanism
  
• 706SC, a Samsung handset with a 12.3mm thickness
  
• X01HT, a Windows Mobile smartphone known elsewhere in the world as the hTc Z, with HSDPA support
  
• C01SI, a CF connectivity card with HSDPA support.
  

As of October 1st, Vodafone K.K. is officially "SoftBank Mobile Corp."



Hopefully I'll remember to call them that from now on. I'll be updating the topic logo when I get a chance, but for accuracy, no previous references to "Vodafone" will be changed.

Vodafone.jp is now redirecting to SoftBank Mobile's site here:
http://mb.softbank.jp

Vodafone and JR East Japan have announced that you'll be able to use Mobile Suica with Vodafone handsets from December 2nd at 4PM. Mobile Suica uses the "FeliCa" contactless chipset found in many modern Japanese handsets to allow users to ride trains without paper tickets.

Only two Vodafone handsets currently available will support Mobile Suica: the 904SH and 905SH. The name of the service itself will also be changed from "Vodafone live! FeliCa" to "S! FeliCa" when Vodafone's brand name changes to "SoftBank" on October 1st of this year.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30887.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060905_1j.pdf

SoftBank's logo looks pretty nice on the "SoftBank 705SH," a handset being offered in a limited run by Vodafone. In actuality, the phone is already available in Champagne Gold, Royal Black, Silky Pink, Black, White, Pink, and Blue -- but on September 2nd the company will be adding Copper, Green, and Red to the lineup. 10,000 of each color will be available, so if you've been dying for a phone with SoftBank's branding, knock yourself out.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30791.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060830j.pdf

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested 4 merchants including a company president on the 23rd for selling Vodafone handsets with the SIM lock removed, citing trademark infringement and the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. The offending parties illegally modified the "U-SIM" card software of the handsets, thereby removing what is referred to as a "SIM lock." SIM locks are to prevent handsets from operating with the SIM cards of other providers.

Handsets were sold and delivered to customers using standard home delivery services. Vodafone's first quarter earnings report indicates that merchants receive 44,00 yen as an incentive for establishing new contracts for users, bringing the "true handset cost" for Vodafone to in-store cost + 44,00 yen. Vodafone, saying that this sort of activity "undermines [their] business model," estimates that damages range "in the millions" per month from this kind of activity.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30723.html

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department:
http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/

Vodafone announced that they will be expanding their global roaming service area on September 7th. Additions include Angola to the list of countries that support voice calls -- this makes it the 166th country where Vodafone users can make voice calls. Likewise, they will be adding Vodafone Live! and data transfer to Pakistan, Belarus, Kenya, and Réunion (a small island and French territory off the coast of Madagascar), bringing the number of countries where Vodafone Live! can be used to 95. 13 of company's devices, including the 705SH SLIMIA, 705T, 904SH, 904T, and 804SS handsets and VC701SI connect card support global roaming.

Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/24/news074.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060824j.pdf?cc_1441=

Vodafone has announced that they've elected Mr. Tetsuzou Matsumoto to Chief Strategy Officer for the company. Mr. Matsumoto previously served as president of Qualcomm Japan, then as its chairman, and finally becoming a senior VP at Qualcomm's headquarters here in the USA. However, in May of this year, he gave up his role as chairman at Qualcomm Japan to focus his efforts o­n Qualcomm's global strategy.

It looks like Mr. Matsumoto's career is moving quickly; his final day at Qualcomm will be August 31st, and he will assume his role as the Chief Strategy Officer at Vodafone o­n September 1st.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30656.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060822j.pdf

We don't need to explain what Social Networking Services are; Americans need o­nly think of MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Japanese need o­nly think of mixi (who is by the way putting out their IPO).

Word o­n the street (if you want to call the Nihon Keizai Shimbun "the street") is that SoftBank plans o­n introducing a Social Networking Service intended, obviously, for the company's mobile phones. Users can create profile for themselves, write entries, post comments o­n other users' entries, and so o­n, using their mobile phone. Also in the pipe for the service is the ability to allow users to share images captured with their mobile phone.

SoftBank blew off the report, saying that it "isn't anything that we've announced, and it's just a speculation piece that didn't involve any actual newsgathering from us... so we can't comment o­n it."

Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/21/news094.html

Vodafone is getting ready to release the "V604T" in late April, a Toshiba handset with an analog TV tuner. More details are available in the English press release, and Keitai Watch has more images here.

Vodafone is all geared up to release Sharp's "905SH," the first Vodafone handset to support One-Seg broadcasts. Features include a rotating display, Osaifu Keitai functionality, Bluetooth, and FM radio. Impress Watch has some pics in their article here, and the Vodafone's English press release with more details is here (PDF file).

There is news today that Vodafone is currently in negotiations with SoftBank for a potential sale of Vodafone Japan.

Both Vodafone and SoftBank have confirmed the negotiations are indeed taking place, but both say that there haven't been any final decisions made yet.

According to Keitai Watch, the sale price will be over 1 trillion yen, or $8.58 billion US dollars.

Vodafone announced the first handset from the company to have a VGA (480 x 640) display: the Sharp "904SH."

Impress Watch's article on the announcement has plenty of pictures of the handset, and the English press release from Vodafone provides technical detail for those of you interested.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Vodafone has announced the results of a survey they conducted o­n "Feelings related to love and mobile phones."

There are some new services and handsets from Vodafone today. In the Vodafone tradition, they're covering their own items in English, so we'll leave you to the Impress articles for pictures and the official (English) PDF press releases for specifications and more details.

Services:

• "Derumoji" will be introduced in March, and can be used for free. It reads emoticons and keywords from incoming mail, and will automatically display a 3D animation to go along with the theme of the message. (Impress, Press Release)
• Vodafone Address Book allows for contact lists to be backed up o­n Vodafone's network server. It uses SyncML. (Impress, Press Release)
• Vodafone live! CAST uses push technology to automatically distribute contents to users. Up to 3MB of content will be offered per week. The contents utilize the web browser. (Impress, Press Release)

Handsets (Press Release):

• The 804SS is from Samsung, has a thickness of 14.9mm, and a 2.3" QVGA screen. (Impress)
• NEC's 804N is a music phone with 250MB of internal memory. It's also NEC's first phone for Vodafone that supports Global Roaming. (Impress)
• The 904T from Toshiba is the flagship model, with a 3.2MP camera and Wallet Phone support. (Impress)
• Finally, Sharp's V403SH has a 2MP camera. (Impress)

And so Sharp unveiled their 804SH today. Not much to write home about, but I'll just rattle off a few features here:

-Osaifu Keitai support
-Bluetooth, Infrared, motion sensor, 2MP CCD camera
-W-CDMA/GSM
-240 x 320 dot LCD
-miniSD slot
-SD-Audio support

Here is the English press release from Vodafone. Look for this o­ne in January of next year.

More phones from Vodafone this week:

-Sharp's 703SHf
-NEC's 703N
-Nokia's 702NKII
-Sharp's V604SH

The 703SHf is Vodafone's first handset to have support for FeliCa.

Here's the press release about the phones themselves, and this is the press release about the FeliCa support.

You've seen the handsets, now it's time to take a look at the service.

"Vodafone live! NAVI" is the company's service that utilizes a phone's GPS function to offer location information, routes, and where to get a nice bowl of noodles. One good feature of the service is its ability to work overseas -- asking for directions in a foreign country is always difficult, so hopefully this service could spare at least a few people the headache. It's a pretty complete service, offering walking directions, driving directions, and location information.

Vodafone took a few minutes out of their busy schedule yesterday to announce two new handsets. The "903T" and "803T" are both by Toshiba. The 903T, the successor to the popular 902T, supports the provider's "Vodafone Live! Navi" service we'll tell you about later today. The 803T offers a myriad of music player functions. More details about each inside.

Good old Vodafone went and released two new handsets today, the 703SH and 903SH. As their names would indicate, they're both made by Sharp. I'll let you read all about them o­n your own in the English press release (which is a PDF).

It could cost you as much as 4 dollars per minute, but Vodafone has announced that as of August 2nd, they'll be offering international video phone service. From Japan, you will be able to call the UK, Spain, and other countries (supporting both video phone services and the Vodafone Global Standard, perhaps).

Here's the English press release, in PDF format.

With the web, mail, and TV all on your cell-phone, you might be too busy to go anywhere or actually have a life. Vodafone doesn't care though, as long as your cell-phone bill goes up.

(Sorry I haven't been writing recently. I have started a new job and haven't spent that much time at home anymore.)

Over the summer, we covered the "FeliCa" contactless IC system in four different volumes. Here's Part o­ne, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four if you missed them.

Anyway, FeliCa functionality was previously limited to a few select NTT DoCoMo handsets. This will no longer be the case soon enough. Vodafone has announced they too will be releasing some handsets with FeliCa functionality. Below is the English press release:

http://www.vodafone.jp/english/release/2005/050224e.pdf

This past week, Vodafone KK's Shiro Tsuda announced that he will be stepping out of the President's position he assumed o­n December 1st, 2004, and will become the Executive Chairman. In his place comes Bill Morrow, a name that should be familiar to Vodafone UK users.

More information available in the English press release (PDF).

Toshiba has a new phone out for Vodafone, and it frankly, it looks pretty nice. Certainly much nicer than the 700i series I'll be reporting o­n later.

I think it's nice because of its ability to display TV fullscreen -- and in landscape mode, too, so you can take advantage of the 320 x 240 LCD. Hot hot hot. So much for portable TVs.

Read the English press release (PDF). Pics, too. Or the Japanese article; I'd translate it, but hey, Vodafone already has an English press release out.

What happens to your phone when it gets runover by a 4 ton truck?
Well, for starters, it doesn't work anymore...

Speaking of phones, Vodafone announced 7 of the damn things in o­ne day.

Here's the breakdown:
-Sharp's "Vodafone 902SH"
-Sharp's "Vodafone 802SH"
-Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications' "Vodafone 802SE"
-NEC's "Vodafone 802N"
-Nokia's "Vodafone 702NK"
-Motorola's "Vodafone 702MO"
-Motorola's "Vodafone 702sMO"

Since our friends at uber-international Vodafone already have this press release available in English (as is the drill over there), I won't be doing translating anything for this o­ne. But I do have some nice pictures of the phones, so please look at those at least.

It's also important to note that Vodafone will be releasing all of the above phones, besides the 802N, in Germany at the same time they are released in Japan.

Interim president Green is out, and they're bringing in a traitor.
English press release ahead.

Vodafone K.K. and Vodafone Holdings K.K. (who are going to merge soon anyway) announced today their new President and CEO - Dr. J. Brian Clark.

The previous person in this position, Darryl E. Green, was president of J-Phone when Vodafone took over the company in 2002. He resigned for "personal reasons."

English press release here.

Vodafone has an English press release, as always, for your viewing pleasure.
For some reason, though, it doesn't seem to contain images. You can visit the Keitai Watch article and look at the pretty pictures.
Doesn't Virgin Mobile in the USA have a prepaid phone that looks almost exactly like this?

Vodafone announced their FY2003 numbers today, and they were apparently in the hole 100 billion yen.

K-Tai Watch recently went to this "Business Show Tokyo 2004" where Vodafone has a booth, and they've got a bunch of mockups of these concept phones I reported o­n a couple weeks ago. Also, they had some working models of the Summer 2004 phones. Some of these look damn cool!

There's 5 models - two from Sharp (V602SH & V402SH), o­ne from Toshiba (V601T), o­ne from Sanyo (V401SA), and o­ne from Mitsubishi Electric (V401D).
"World's firsts" this time around include an optical zoom, which goes well with the 2MP camera o­n the V602SH. The Mitsubishi model also has a 2MP camera, and the phone can be operated by "finger tracing."
Since vodafone has a pretty detailed press release available in English (PDF which seems to have some copy protection ), I'll just make a couple of notes about each phone and put some pictures with it.

This o­ne's in English:

http://www.vodafone.jp/english/release/2004/040506e.pdf

A bit different from DoCoMo's contactless smart card (Felica) I believe. The vodafone version has been jointly developed with Sharp, and uses a flash memory card plugged into the slot o­n the phone to achieve these capabilities.
Backwards compatibility, anyone? It would be nice if users could simply plug a flash memory card into their phone and have it able to use smart card services, but something tells me there's more to it than that.

These aren't past the drawing board yet...literally.
I'm going to post as much as I can. Not much information has been revealed about these yet, obviously, so...just look at the pictures and say "ooh" and "ahh" for now. There's 7 models altogether. Also, I cannot post pictures of these, as vodafone hasn't made any press releases yet. So I'll just link to the o­nes from Impress Watch.

No, I don't like this as much as the INFOBAR. It still looks pretty nifty though.

So vodafone is releasing a new phone in Japan...
Not o­nly does it have an integrated TV tuner, it has the ability to record up to 12 minutes of TV programming.
Ah, I miss my J-Phone

This o­ne's for our European visitors to this site. I noticed an article today over at ASCII24  where they had a bunch of pictures of the new vodafone "flagship shop" that opened up in Shibuya recently.
I won't go into much detail unless someone requests it, but the 5 story building is much more than just another shop to get/change your phone. You can try out contents, get accessories, etc.
Take a look at the place o­n this page.

Vodafone and Spicy Software hosted a conference to discuss the state of V-Applications in the cell phone market in Japan. Also discusses was the drive to move the Java specification to a more unified model. Three other companies were present to give talks as well, Taito, Alpha Technology Communications, and IAJ.