Trend 1: ECO & Outdoor Health
The biggest trend for Japan’s next generation of mobile phones is definately eco-friendliness. Besides the recent regulation of standardized rechargers for each charrier and other ECO projects like the ‘Green Road Project‘ from au, handset makers do all effort to produce low power consuming devices that are designed for outdoor use and sport activities.

With the introduction of the waterproofed solar phones, the SOLAR HYBRID 936SH for Softbank and the SOLAR PHONE SH002 for au KDDI, Sharp takes the first step to wireless charging. Both phones claim to deliver one minute of talk time for every 10 minutes of solar charge time. Up to 80% of the battery is said to be chargable only by solar sensors. I guess not only all iPhone users, but travellers and business men wished that feature would have been implemented in their battery consuming devices as well.

Trend 2: Study and Read
Toshiba, who just announced they would quite the cell phone business in Japan due to high competition, released ‘biblio’, a special phone optimized to read ebooks and mangas from au’s bookstore in astionishing quality. Not only the 3.5 inch LCD display with the world highest mobile phone resolution of 960 x 480 (Japanese media refers to as Full WVGA++) is a highlight, it’s also the first Japanese phone with a slide out full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode and a big internal memory of 7gb. Additional up to 8gb can be adjusted via SD card. WLAN functionality and 19 pre-installed dictionaries make biblio a perfect study device.

 
Trend 3:  X-media
Another highlight is the Mobile Hi-Vision CAM WOOO by Hitachi. Japan’s first mobile phone with HD-camera (5 megapixel; 720p @ 30fps) claims to to be the perfect bridge between TV, mobile phone and PC. Movie content can be watched and transfered directly (HDMI-on board) from the phone to any supported device. There’s no reason to buy a camorder in temporary Japan any more!

Trend4: Connecting Family

Another innovative product is the mobile email enabled 7inch digital photo frame produced by Huawei for Softbank. The so called Photo Vision HW001 is available with a flat-rate monthly fee of about $5 (incl. device) and has its own telephone number. Pictures from mobile phones can be send via mail directly to the frame, which displays the latest photo or slidshows of family members. Grandparents will never have to wait for pictures of their beloved ones from now on!

And again Japan sets mobile lifestyle trends: ECO, HEALTH, STUDY, CROSSMEDIA and CONNECTIVITY.

As a pioneer Japan implements the first generation of solar powered mobile phones. Waterproofed devices together with mobile fitness services like au’s ‘Run & Walk‘ enforce people to be body and health conscious. In an aging society it’s very important to keep on track, work out, study and stay connected with family and friends. Mobile phones around the world improved a lot due to the spread of 3G and smartphones, but in Japan mobile lifestyle is the highest in the world and touches all that important fields of aging societies. The new generation of phones in Japan proved again that not only the quality of the devices is the crucial factor, but rich content and services provided by the mobile carriers. Even in recession these latest phones, which started selling from today, will spread very quickly and enhance the mobile lifstyle once again.

Now the first phone of their new premium mobile brand ‘iida’ is hitting the shelves. ‘iida’: stands for “innovation, imagination, design and art” and at least 3 innovative models are expected to come.

The first release is the ‘G9’ slider by Sony Ericsson. The minimalistic designed phone has all the latest phone features and is one of the view phones from AU that can be used worldwide in over 150 countries. The phone is available for 1845yen (19$) per month with payment by installment for two years, or at once 48.000yen (495%) for a basic 2year contract. The battery charger is sold separately for ecologic reasons, like on most of Japanese phones nowadays. The charger itself is held in a green ECO design with attached leaves.

The additionally available ‘Pico projector’ transforms the G9 into a mobile presenter. This mobile projector also fits to several other au models and can be bought for 50.000 (500$). As a special promotion everybody who buys the new G9, will receive an online access code to a mobile site where they can get a 60% discount for the projector. The mobile projector will then only cost 19.000yen (196$).

The next phone which will come out is going to be the ‘Misora’ clamshell phone, which was produced in stylish collaboration with Yayoi Kusama. Her typical ‘polka dots’ and a special keitai-strap, which makes the phone look like a small designer handbag, are the characteristics of this new lifestyle concept.

This summer in June AU will also introduce the solar-powered concept model bt SHARP, which was on display AS A CONCEPT PHONE during CEATEC 2008. AU claims that 80% of the battery can be charged by the solar cells on the phone. The next generation’s mobile trend is therefore obvious: ECO CHARGING and ECO LIFESTYLE.

All of these new devices are on display at the Designing Studio in Harajuku!