DoCoMo to release a camera-embedded cell phone

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By Kuriko Miyake

(IDG) -- Japan's giant mobile-telecommunication carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to launch its first cell phone embedded with a digital still camera in June, NTT DoCoMo said this week.

"At first, we didn't think it was necessary for the current (second-generation) service because we were launching the 3G (third-generation) Foma service, which can exchange still and video images," said Makoto Kiryu at NTT DoCoMo's marketing department. "But the demand for sending images from the conventional 2G users grew so large."

As Foma subscription numbers are not going up as fast as the company expected, and camera-equipped mobile phones are booming in the market, NTT DoCoMo finally decided to release the SH251i, whose prototype was unveiled at Business Show 2002 on Tuesday.

The SH251i, manufactured by Sharp Corp., will carry a 3.1M pixel-class CCD (charge-coupled device) camera and an illuminating light at the back of the cell phone.

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The Tokyo company has not disclosed further details of this I-shot phone before the official announcement next week. However, this SH251i is likely to be NTT DoCoMo's first mobile phone that allows users to send and receive attached data files via e-mail.

The camera-equipped cell phone boom was originally started by the third-largest operator, J-Phone Co. Ltd., in 2000. Since then, it has attracted more than 4 million users. J-Phone also upgraded the service by allowing for sending video images this year. Currently, the company provides eight handsets embedded with a digital still camera and three with a video camera.

All J-Phone cell phones are equipped with a function that allows users to send or receive attached files via e-mail.

KDDI Corp., which operates the second-largest Au mobile-telecommunication operator, first released an external compact digital still camera for cell phones in November 2000, and a digital still camera-equipped cell phone in April this year.

Au cell phones are also equipped with the same file-attachment function as J-Phone, making it possible to send and receive attached files between Au and J-Phone users via e-mail, despite the fact that file-format compatibility varies in every handset model.

However, NTT DoCoMo' 32 million wireless Internet I-mode users have not previously been provided with such a function on any of their cell phones. With a conventional I-mode phone, when users want to exchange data, they first will receive an e-mail message saying image data is available from an identified sender with a URL (Uniform Resource Locator); they then access that Web site and download the data, a process that costs more than receiving it directly.