NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor, NEC and Panasonic announced plans on Tuesday to establish a joint venture in which the firms hope to work together to create LTE and LTE Advanced products. The fabless JV will specifically focus on the development of “feature-rich, small-size, low-power-consumption semiconductor products equipped with modem functionality” for LTE and LTE Advanced networks. Products developed by the companies will be sold globally. NTT DoCoMo will invest $5.8 mil...

NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank have created the “Japan Mobile NFC Consortium,” which will help the three carriers coordinate and adopt an international NFC standard. Currently, all three operators offer an NFC service dubbed Osaifu-Keitai (wallet phone) which uses a contactless-IC smartcard that’s called FeliCa. Unfortunately, the technology doesn’t work overseas where other carriers use Type A or Type B NFC standards, which means Osaifu-Ketai won’t function properly for NTT DoCoM...

Apple is prepping new sixth-generation iPhone and third-generation iPad models with embedded 4G LTE connectivity that will launch next year according to a recent report. Japanese news organization Nikkei Business on Wednesday stated that an iPad 3 with LTE is currently slated to launch on NTT DoCoMo some time during the summer next year, and an LTE-enabled iPhone 5 will launch later in the fall. Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to have met with NTT DoCoMo president Kiyoyuki Tsujimura and VP Takashi Yamada earl...

Samsung and Google will take the wraps off of the Galaxy Nexus at 10:00 p.m. EST during a press conference in Hong Kong, and NTT DoCoMo already revealed on Twitter that it will be one of the first carriers to offer the Android Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phone in November. BGR exclusively confirmed the Galaxy Nexus will be equipped with a 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD display, a TI OMAP 4460 dual-core Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, support for NFC and a 5-megap...

Sony announced on Wednesday that its next-generation portable gaming console, the PlayStation Vita, will launch in Japan on December 17th. Sony also said it has teamed up with Japan-based wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo to provide 3G connectivity on the device. 20 hours of 3G service is priced at $13 while 100 hours will set customers back $65. The system will launch in tandem with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Square Enix promised to port Final Fantasy X as well. Sony expects to begin taking pre-orders for th...

NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu, NEC and Panasonic are discussing a joint venture with Samsung that could be created as early as next year, Reuters reported recently. The companies will develop new smartphone baseband chips in an attempt to compete directly with Qualcomm, which currently has an 80% grip on the baseband chip industry. NTT DoCoMo will be the majority owner in the Japan-based joint venture and the total investment is expected to be about $390 million. The joint venture will help each firm cut down procureme...

Sharp just entered the 3D smartphone market, joining both LG and HTC, with the introduction of its Android 2.3 powered Aquos SH-12C. The smartphone made its debut in Japan and comes equipped with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor, a 4.2-inch qHD glasses-free 3D display, an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 3D video, and 512MB of RAM. The Sharp Aquos SH-12C will land on Japan’s NTT DoCoMo network on May 20th, although pricing details were not disclosed. Hit the jump for another image of the phone...

Long the champion for Rural wireless carriers, the Rural Cellular Association has again championed the cause of unlocking handsets by pointing to the recent “We’re going SIM-Free” announcement by NTT DoCoMo. The Rural Cellular association took its case to the FCC in a letter that praises NTT DoCoMo’s pro-consumer decision to unlock its handsets and urges the FCC to encourage US-based wireless carriers to take similar steps. The RCA has been pushing this initiative for over two years to...

Several Japanese newspapers are reporting that Fujitsu is working on an Android smartphone. This first Android offering from the Japanese electronics giant is expected to land next year with NTT DoCoMo and will be the first smartphone in Fujitsu’s handset lineup. Details on the device are sparse but with the future merger of Fujitsu’s mobile division with Toshiba’s mobile business unit, we can conjure up images of an Android handset that takes the high-end features of the Toshiba TG01 and mi...

In an interview with the Nikkei Business Daily, NTT DoCoMo’s president Ryuji Yamada revealed that Japans’s largest wireless carrier may go SIM-Free in 2011. The move would allow customers to easily switch to and from NTT DoCoMo by merely swapping out a SIM. With its quality network, and soon-to-be unlocked handsets, NTT DoCoMo is hoping to snag customers from rival Softbank which has a slight competitive advantage over its larger rival by being the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Japan. The N...

Remember the white BlackBerry Bold that launched on AT&T last month after we scooped it in August? Looks like our Japanese brethren will be able to sport one on their hip, too. Starting December 3rd, NTT DoCoMo will make the blanco version of the BlackBerry Bold available to the Japanese public. Consider us big thinkers but we’re pretty sure this will do incredibly well over in Japan. (more…)

It’s always a lot of fun for us — and hopefully for you, the readers — any time we can run wild with pictures, news, and even reviews of an unannounced handset. Today, however, RIM spoiled our fun and formally announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Things like carriers, release dates and pricing have been withheld for the time being, but RIM has made a statement saying that we should all expect to see the BlackBerry 9700 go on sale “around the world beginning in November.” Spec wise...

Windows Mobile fans take note — 30 new handsets powered by your mobile OS of choice will supposedly be debuting before you again sing a drunken version of Auld Lang Syne. Benjamin Tan, senior director of the GCR Mobile Team Unit at Microsoft China, let loose the rumor that an avalanche of new Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Acer, Toshiba, HP and more will be released in the waning months of 2009. Carriers who have jumped on board this Window Mobile bonanza include AT&a...

On Monday, April 20, Panasonic and NEC are expected to unveil nine devices that run on the Linux-powered LiMo operating system. While not much is known about the soon-to-be-announced devices at this time, proponents of open source operating systems will apparently have plenty of cause for celebration in 2009. Current members of the LiMo Foundation include Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, LG and Samsung, though the latter two have yet to unveil a single LiMo device to date. Still, the foundation does have an all-star...