Disney Mobile to Charm Japan With Two New Android Phones
Disney Mobile, which has been blooming in Japan after having failed in the United States, launched two flashy new Android phones in the East Asian country Thursday.
The DM010SH will be released in October, followed by the DM011SH in December, reported TechCrunch. The phones will feature characteristic, Disneyesque content, including home screens showing Disney characters and icons, a Disney-themed calculator, calendar, alarm clock, and other cartoony apps.
The company is very popular in Japan, where it has been doing business as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) – a company that provides the strictly device-related part of a mobile service - since March 2008.
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The brand failed earlier in the United States, where it launched in 2006. The home operations were ended at the end of 2007, after a bad year.
Disney Mobile Japan reportedly teamed up with a local telecom conglomerate, SoftBank, to become the country’s first MVNO offering voice and data services. The company focuses on bringing content, design know-how and brand value into the partnership.
Technically, the DM010SH model is based on Sharp's AQUOS 009SH [JP] and features Android 2.3, a 4-inch LCD with QHD resolution, an 8MP CMOS camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a microSDHC slot, a digital TV tuner, an e-wallet function, infrared communication, etc, according to TechCrunch.
The DM011SH model is based on Sharp's AQUOS 007SH, which blenda some characteristics of a feature phone with a smartphone. Some features include an Android 2.3, waterproof body, 3.4-inch LCD touchscreen, and a 16MP CCD camera with 1,280×720 HD video recording.
In Japan, cell phone usage has become pervasive, with high use especially among school children. As of May 2008, 31.3 percent of elementary school students, and 57.6 percent of middle school students have been reported to have a cell phone, with many of them accessing the internet through them, showed a 2009 government survey. A whole culture was created around mobile devices, which are even used in that East Asian country for writing novels.
