NTT DoCoMo Unveils Java, WAP Wireless Terminals

TOKYO (02/03/2000) - NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo) this week unveiled protypes at Net&Com 21 exhibition of new handsets, including phones that support the Java programming language, and others featuring wireless application protocol (WAP).

Net&Com21 is taking place from Wednesday through Friday at the Makuhari Messe just outside of Tokyo.

Attracting the most attention at the carrier's stand today were the Java cell phones. The phones are the first results of a research and development agreement signed by NTT DoCoMo and Sun Microsystems Inc. in March 1999 [See "Sun, NTT DoCoMo Team on Java, Jini," March 13, 1999]. The deal has seen the two companies working on bring Sun's Java and Jini technologies to cellular handsets equipped for the carrier's i-Mode interactive data service.

On display were also versions of current i-Mode phones that support Java, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.. With support for Java, the telephones will be able to offer users more powerful features and a common platform on which developers can write software for the phones.

In the prototypes, the range of Java based software was limited, however. A menu of five items revealed four games and a fifth stock ticker which was capable of scrolling stock prices and price graphs across the screen.

NTT DoCoMo also used the exhibition to reveal prototypes of its first handsets to feature WAP support. WAP, a specification for sending Internet-based content to mobile phones, is a competing technology to the company's own i-Mode system.

NTT DoCoMo is a WAP Forum member and the two systems are expected to move closer together in future versions.

The handsets, manufactured by Matsushita Electric, are designed as terminals for a new horse-racing information service to be offered by the Japan Racing Association (JRA) and include a WAP 1.1 compliant browser from Phone.com Inc. A spokesman for NTT DoCoMo at the exhibition said the handsets are expected to go on sale in March or April.

The company also launched a new wireless terminal that, at first glance, looks like a pager. The P-doco is in fact a wireless PHS (personal handyphone system) terminal without a display, keypad, microphone or speaker. It weighs just 43 grams and is designed to be worn or carried by children and the elderly.

By detecting which base stations the terminal is in range of, the terminal's location can be worked out to within a few tens of meters. Subscribers to the new P-doco service, typically parents or family members, can call a central number and, after entering a code to ensure security, receive a fax by return showing the location of the terminal.

As the cell phone market begins to reach saturation, NTT DoCoMo hopes the new service can drive expansion as the units are provided to the young and elderly and even bought for pets, should they run away from home, or cars and bicycles, should they get stolen.

Also on display was a new digital still camera, the camesse petit, which is designed to be used with the company's cell phones. Aimed at the teenage market, the camera can take basic snapshots and then, through a touch-screen display, let the user add graphical borders, text and images to the pictures before sending them via e-mail through the telephone.

The camera has a resolution of 110,000 pixels -- much less than current generation digital still cameras, which boast resolutions between 1 and 4 million pixels -- so it is not meant to compete with mainstream digital cameras. NTT DoCoMo is promoting the device more as a fun accessory to a cell phone. Weighing in at 170 grams, the camesse has just gone on sale with a recommended retail price of 19,800 yen (US$183).

NTT Mobile Communications Network, in Tokyo, is online at http://www.nttdocomo.com/.

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