As part of its summer lineup of new phones, NTT DoCoMo has unveiled Japan’s first Google Android phone: the HT-03A. The phone, which is part of NTT DoCoMo’s “Pro” series, will allow you to access a variety of Google services such as the search engine, Gmail, the Google Street View service, Picasa, and video service YouTube. The touchscreen phone is manufactured by Taiwan manufacturer HTC and will go on sale in June or July.
The HT-03A will compete in the Japanese smartphone market which includes products such as the iPhone. NTT DoCoMo President Ryuji Yamada stated, ‘‘This handset can offer different services from iPhone and we see this as a big step forward in our smart phone series.’’ He continued, ‘‘The release of handsets carrying the Android OS is going to be a big impact among the smart phone models.’’
In Japan competitor Softbank is the only carrier that currently offers the iPhone.
The HT-03A which comes in white or black, features a 3.2 inch touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, and weighs 123 grams. The phone will be able to download applications from the Android Market service using its wireless capabilities which include 802.11 b/g. Other wireless capabilities include Bluetooth, and GPS. Similar to the iPhone the HT-03A will lack high end features found in other Japanese cell phones such as 1-Seg TV broadcasts and the ability to pay for purchases using a cell phone.
