Though Nokia has not been doing very well in Japan, it still plans to release its very exclusive, high-end and extremely expensive mobile phone, VERTU, in Japan. The VERTU, known for its fine precious jewelry-encrusted craftsmanship, plans to release three new lines of exclusive GSM / W-CDMA mobile phones in Japan itself. These include the New Signature Collection, the Ascent Ti and the Ascent Ti Ferrari. The 4.75 carat bejeweled New Signature Collection will be released in December 2008 and will be available in 3 models, Stainless Steel, Yellow Gold and White Gold. They will be priced at 1.6 million yen, 4.5 million yen and 500 million yen respectively.

The stainless steel Ascent Ti is skirted with Titanium and is available in red, brown, black, NARU, five kinds of checks. The price of the product is 67 million yen and the NARU is 80 million yen. The last line of luxury watches from VERTU is called the Ascent Ti Ferrari. This has been created in collaboration with Ferrari and will be available in limited editions, called Rosso and JARRO. Encrusted at the back of the mobile phone is the Ferrari’s logo of a prancing horse. Rosso will be available for 110 million yen and the JARRO will be priced at 94 million yen.

Nokia plans to expand its sales via its directly managed stores in Ginza, Tokyo. Additionally, it also plans to offer email and Web services and the SIM-locked feature for its new range of VERTU mobile phones.

Vertu Signature S

The Nokia E71, which was planned to be one of the handsets for upcoming range of docomo PRO series, is now just a history because Nokia has decided to terminate sales of all Japan-specific handsets through Japanese carriers. Hmm, sorry to hear guys…

Nokia E71

Japanese telecommunications company has revealed its upcoming range of mobile phones and smartphones for winter season. The new line-up of handsets will include 4 series: docomo STYLE series (F-02A, N-02A, N-03A, P-02A, P-03A and SH-02A) – fashionable mobile phones in variety designs, docomo PRIME series (F-01A, F-03A, L-01A, N-01A, P-01A, SH-01A and SH-03A) – phones dedicated to multimedia, docomo SMART series (F-04A, N-04A, P-04A and P-05A) – for business professionals, and docomo PRO series (HT-01A, HT-02A, SH-04A, BlackBerry Bold and Nokia E71) – a range of smartphones.

The series will be launched between dates November 19th 2008 and ending March 2009. We will not describe specifications of each phone but we can say what NTT DoCoMo has improved on its new portfolio. Customers will get now handsets with: i-concier – an automatic provision and update of info according to the user’s individual preferences, i-Widget – an access to up to 8 frequently used Widget Appli applications, i-appli – real-time communication, gaming with multiple users, and Enhanced map services – now compatible with mobile version of Google Maps Street View.

Most of these new handsets will also feature Bluetooth, touch-screen, a mobile web browser with flash support, 7.2 Mbps and 3G high-speeds, and support to download multiple image files. Users will also welcome microSD support as well as infrared capability. For more detailed features of the new series, you may find more info here: docomo STYLE series , docomo PRIME series , docomo SMART series and docomo PRO series.

NTT DOCOMO STYLE series

After Nokia and Siemens, Fujitsu and Sharp has today announced that they plan to jointly develop the SH-Mobile G4 single-chip LSI device. They would also develope a platform to support the HSUPA/HSDPA/W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE (2G) which aims to be completed by the fourth quarter of  2009.

In 2004 NTT DOCOMO and Renesas partnered to develop these platforms and SH-Mobile G4 will be the fourth jointly collaborated product for this venture while Fujitsu and Sharp have been exclusively partnered to develop projectSH-Mobile G4. SH-Mobile G4 will be made on 45-nm process technology for highly integrated functionalites and improved performance for applications handling HD video and 3-D graphics. SH-Mobile G4 will work almost 15 times faster than the conventional 384kbps speeds with supportive HSUPA.

With these new platforms device manufacturers can eliminate the need to develop basic functions independently which will decrease the time and costs assosiated with these developmenets. Renesas plans to provide the platform to the worldwide mobile phone market, in addition to customers in Japan.

NTT DoCoMo HSUPA platform