Sunday, September 05, 2004
Wireless Japan 2004
NEC "tag" multimedia concept phone shown at "Wireless-Japan 2004":
Attended "Wireless Japan 2004". Much was expected: for example, it wasn't surprising for anyone that DoCoMo's i-Mode-FeliCa wallet-phones were center stage of the DoCoMo exhibit with lots of partners demoing wallet-phone applications.
There were some surprises: In recent Wireless-Japan shows usually the KDDI/AU-design project prototypes were at the center of attention - this year I could not find any. For example, at Wireless-Japan-2002, KDDI/AU showed "Infobar" prototypes a full 16 months before market introduction. Did KDDI/AU decide to keep future design-project releases secret until they hit the market? Could well be so, given Japan's increasingly ferocious mobile phone competition. Another surprise was Vodafone's absence - Vodafone in recent years used to have the biggest show.
On the other hand this time most handset makers showed impressive concept phones, Matsushita/Panasonic under the heading "Beyond 3G". The image shows NEC's concept design study of a flexible multimedia phone: this phone has two screens which can be bent together, and used jointly as a larger screen.
Find more images on our website: www.eurotechnology.com/wirelessjapan2004/
and our full report (pdf-file) here: www.eurotechnology.com/store/wj2004/
Attended "Wireless Japan 2004". Much was expected: for example, it wasn't surprising for anyone that DoCoMo's i-Mode-FeliCa wallet-phones were center stage of the DoCoMo exhibit with lots of partners demoing wallet-phone applications.
There were some surprises: In recent Wireless-Japan shows usually the KDDI/AU-design project prototypes were at the center of attention - this year I could not find any. For example, at Wireless-Japan-2002, KDDI/AU showed "Infobar" prototypes a full 16 months before market introduction. Did KDDI/AU decide to keep future design-project releases secret until they hit the market? Could well be so, given Japan's increasingly ferocious mobile phone competition. Another surprise was Vodafone's absence - Vodafone in recent years used to have the biggest show.
On the other hand this time most handset makers showed impressive concept phones, Matsushita/Panasonic under the heading "Beyond 3G". The image shows NEC's concept design study of a flexible multimedia phone: this phone has two screens which can be bent together, and used jointly as a larger screen.
Find more images on our website: www.eurotechnology.com/wirelessjapan2004/
and our full report (pdf-file) here: www.eurotechnology.com/store/wj2004/
