This has been a pretty interesting story so far.
I've been watching as this one develops and so far it's pretty neat. I
think a lot of people on this list will be pretty involved with this
offering.
At first I almost thought that this was an ISP making a play to become a
4th (or 5th depending on how you count) player in Japan, but on closer
inspection it doesn't look to be quite the case.
eMobile is trying to make a play for purely mobile broadband. They are not
offering any traditional cellphones or standard voice service. The EM-ONE
does not have voice call or video phone capabilities built in. It is just
a PDA with a cellular data modem built in.
In that sense, eMobile is more like data resellers like BMobile, apparently
hitching a ride on NTT Docomo's HSDPA network.
I got to hands-on with one of these yesterday, and it looks pretty good.
Similar to the Willcom W-Zero3. Perhaps a little flimsy on construction,
but mercifully light.
A few questions/points of concern.
1. Non standard display. While the 800x480 display is neat, will 3rd
party apps have difficulty working on a non standard display?
2. Will lack of cellphone features mean no support for Microsoft Push
Mail?
3. Will the device have a suspend mode like WM5 Phone edition? Without
it, apps like Skype will chew through the 4 hour battery life. With an all
you can eat data plan you really want an always on net connection for live
apps.
On the plus side, web browsing is good. One-seg TV is a nifty (if not
necessary) add on, the ability to use the PDA as a modem is great.
They still had some problems with their network, so I haven't seen wireless
performance. I wouldn't be surprised to see their start date pushed back a
bit. If not, though it will start off an interesting summer.
-Steve
Gavin Brock
<gavin@brock-fami
ly.org> To
keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Sent by: cc
keitai-l-bounce@a
ppelsiini.net Subject
(keitai-l) Emobile
02/21/2007 20:24
Please respond to
keitai-l@appelsii
ni.net
Been quiet around here. Did you all fall asleep - or did I get kicked
of the list?
Anyway, anyone have any views on the new Emobile first offerings?
Emobile to launch world's 1st fixed-rate broadband wireless
services
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/399532
Quote:
> The new handset can download data at a rate up to 3.6 megabits per
> second. The monthly fixed-rate basic charge is 5,980 yen, while a
> two-year contract comes to 39,800 yen, which includes the price of
> the handset.
Looks like only handset to start with is yet another Sharp Windows
Mobile device - and some data cards.
Anyone know if they are gonna do any other hand sets? (With bluetooth
modems?) The web site is still a bit sparse:
http://www.emobile.jp/en/
Cheers,
Gavin
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Received on Thu Feb 22 02:22:05 2007