WILLCOM today announced the launch of its new Sharp Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es] Windows Mobile 6 Classic Japanese edition device which features a propriety smartphone implementation of WILLCOM's PHS radio network. The Sharp Advanced/W-ZERO3 features a 3" wide VGA at 480×800 pixel as well as a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 2nd dialing keyboard. The slim body with a width 50 mm weights 157 g only. Furthermore, the device is powered by a Marvell PXA270 CPU at 520 MHz. and supports Japanese PHS (with WILLCOM's W-SIM card), W-LAN b/g and IrDA 1.2/IrMC TM1.1/IrSS. Bluetooth isn't supported. Inbuilt are 256 MB of ROM and 128 MB SDRAM which can be extended with microSD:
The Sharp Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es] will be available from mid July, exclusively
from WILLCOM. A price wasn't given today.
What exactly is the idea behind Windows Mobile Classic? I thought it would be for PDA's without cellular connectivity?
Posted by Arne Hess on 07.06.07 - 21:25:59
This way of implementation is pretty common for Willcom devices. The idea behind it is the fact,that Willcom uses a PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) network which is a 2G standard, available in Japan (and some other Asian countries) only. Therefore, it's officially not supported by Windows Mobile and therefore, Sharp cannot/isn't using Professional but Classic to add the PHS specific radio parts, dialer, etc. As a manufacture, you are always free to use Classic instead of Professional to add your own radio layer, dialer application, etc. to the Classic device. However, it doesn't makes any sense anymore, since Microsoft launched Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition which was the first Windows Mobile version which natively supported GSM and later CDMA.
So basically Sharp is doing what we hat in the early Pocket PC days where 3rd party added dialers to the OS to enable the OS to work with PCMCIA GSM cards.
Posted by MTM on 08.06.07 - 01:02:59
Thanks for the explanation.
Posted by Just Wondering on 11.06.07 - 18:16:39
Really?!? A new phone w/ an old operating system and no Bluetooth? Why would anyone release a phone w/o bluetooth?
What's Sharp going to sell next, TV's w/o remote controls?
Sincerely, Just Wondering
Posted by Just Wondering on 11.06.07 - 18:19:42
Just Wondering wrote:
Really?!? A new phone w/ an old operating system and no Bluetooth? Why would anyone release a phone w/o bluetooth?
What's Sharp going to sell next, TV's w/o remote controls?
Sincerely, Just Wondering
Just correcting a comment. I read that too quickly, and just saw the word "Sharp". It's not made by Sharp, so nevermind the TV comment. Although, it's still a good analogy.
WILLCOM today announced the launch of its new Sharp Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es] Windows Mobile 6 Classic Japanese edition device which features a propriety smartphone implementation of WILLCOM's PHS radio network. The Sharp Advanced/W-ZERO3 features a 3" wide VGA at 480×800 pixel as well as a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 2nd dialing keyboard. The slim body with a width 50 mm weights 157 g only. Furthermore, the device is powered by a Marvell PXA270 CPU at 520 MHz. and supports Japanese PHS (with WILLCOM's W-SIM card), W-LAN b/g and IrDA 1.2/IrMC TM1.1/IrSS. Bluetooth isn't supported. Inbuilt are 256 MB of ROM and 128 MB SDRAM which can be extended with microSD:
