In addition to the
03, Willcom has unveiled a pair of other handsets for release this summer on its Japanese PHS airwaves. The 03's a hard one to top -- pretty much any smartphone, a morphing keypad, and a WVGA display is going to make things tough on the competition -- but Sharp has a second entry in the trio with the D4. Like the 03, the D4 packs
Windows Mobile and a full QWERTY board, but unlike the 03, the D4 flips up all
Kaiser-style, which should be just perfect for showing off the WSVGA (yes, wide
super VGA) display. On the simpler end of the spectrum, the Willcom 9 is a chunky, blocky flip with a QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel camera, and
NetFront browser that'll be available in black or white. Kind of anticlimactic when you put it up against those other two, but not everyone wants a smartphone. No, not even in Japan.
Update: The D4 runs full-fledged Windows, not Windows Mobile -- makes more sense considering the monster specs. Thanks, everyone!
posted Jul 7th 2008 9:09PM
Why do you even show us this stuff? We can't use it here if we wanted to. We'll never see the products in our lifetimes.
There are actually people outside the US who read Engadget you know, even here in Japan... :)
I agree 100%. Seriously, does the non-Japanese reader want to even glimpse a post about NTT Docomo's latest 15 phones for the Fall season. Some things are not for the gaijin to know!
Some of the newer NTT Docomo phones have unlocked and work, with some caveats, on GSM networks, which, yes, includes America. I think this includes the Panasonic P905i and Sony Ericsson SO905iCS. So it's not totally irrelevant.
More subjectively, Engadget Mobile is a cellphone blog, not necessary a "Cellphone Blog for Americans ONLY! USA! USA! USA!" blog.
And yes, the D4 is a UMPC closer to the Shift than the Tilt, with Vista and Atom and all that. Seriously, Engadget get on your game.
When can we have phones like these in America? I mean please! All we have are phones like HTC Diamond and iPhone. Japan has 5 Mega Pixels camera phones 3 years ago and it just STARTED to get popular here. It is so outdated here.I want WVGA screen phones or whatever you want to call it here.
The Willcom D4 is actually a UMPC (1.33GHz Atom CPU, 40GB HDD, 1GB RAM) running Windows Vista.
Not everyone surf engadget are americans..lol
asians too..loads of 'em =)
ya this is the one running the vista(and will be really sucks)
well.about this i would say
just like not everyone wanna a BMW
even after so many year i got so many phone
i think the only thing we need it's a phone does the job
and that's all.
every year how many phone come out.
and how many night are we spend in Engadget for the new stuff
and would say"OMG this is the one"
and after 3 month people will say again
so the company can always make Tons of Cash by that.
Goodness. WSVGA screen? sheesh
Do you even NEED that much pixel density on a screen that's 3+ inches in size? Stop rubbing it in, Japan!
The D4 has a 5" screen. It is a UMPC, after all.