Japanese operator DOCOMO releases their mobile phones like the fashion world releases clothes, meaning a whole bunch at a time, twice per year. Recently the company unveiled their Spring 2011 lineup, and while we’re not going to go through all 28 devices announced, mainly because none of us are going to be able to buy or use these phones, the video below is a must watch. It goes through some of the key models announced, including a Sharp phone that has a 3D display, that LG camera phone we covered yesterday, a feature phone with a projector built in, and best of all there’s a cameo appearance by Darth Vadar. How can you not be interested?
Trying to understand that Japanese mobile market, and attempting to export how it works to another country, is close to impossible. Over there the operators dictate each and every little thing that can and can not be done with their devices, plus they’re heavily subsidized due to the fact that they’re using bleeding edge technology and are made in limited batches since they’ll never be exported. Services that Japanese enjoy that we’ve yet to see in other countries are free over the air television, mobile payments via a proprietary form of NFC invented by Sony, and other things that I’m sure we’re not going to have for at least another decade.
Who is more advanced? Is it us, with our smartphones that can install the thousands of applications out there, or the Japanese, who have the most locked down devices on the planet, but they can do things that we can only dream of? It’s a hard question to answer, but this writer already knows his answer and would get on the next plane to Japan if he only knew how to read and speak the language.
[Via: Daily Mobile]