Mobility Watch

With the advent sleek and stylish and super fashionable mobile phones, the mobile phone feature of being able to withstand tough and rough situations seems to have been lost. After all, sleekness and stylishness seems to be equated to slim and thin that is then also equated to being fragile.

However tough and rough seems not to have been forgotten totally for just recently, Qwest Communications International Inc. has added yet another mobile phone in their line up. This one, they are calling the toughest mobile phone and it comes with the name Sanyo SCP-7050.

“This latest phone from Qwest is perfect for people who work in rugged industries and equally great for people who like to play hard. So, whether you’re an avid rock climber or a construction foreman, this is the phone for you,� says Frank Simanson, the VP of products by the company.

And just how tough this can be? The company is claiming that their Sanyo SCP-7050 just passed the specifications of the Standard 810F of the US military. Now that’s tough.

[Via TechGadgets]
[Image from Crave]

If you love the outback, or the outdoors and you just love roughing up your life a bit, then you might surely be very much like the Sanyo 7050 mobile phone that also doubles as a walkie talkie. It may not be that slim and trendy like the usual set of phones you find in the market nowadays but these are really going to be very functional once you are deep set in the jungle.

For $130, you get the mobile phone-slash-walkie talkie. It has been known as the “ultra rugged� phone and device because it has been built with the military standards in mind. Just think of that. It would surely be alive even if you have accidentally dropped it with your bag when you reached your campsite. You see, this one comes with a shock absorption feature and it sure has been built so much so that it can still function well despite being exposed to vibrations, shock, and dust.

[Via Canada.com]
[Image from Let’s Go Digital]

While the Feds have been watching for problems with lithium ion cell phone batteries, we have not seen the kind of large-scale recalls of cell phone batteries that we’ve had with notebook computers.

Until now.

The biggest mobile phone provider in Japan, NTT DoMoCo, is recalling 1.3 million lithium ion battery packs because they could generate excessive heat and rupture.  The batteries are made by Sanyo Electric and are used in Mitsubishi D902i model phones (pictured here). 

These phones, we’re told, are sold only in Japan.  While there have been 18 reports of problems, there’s no indication anyone was hurt.  It appears some of the batteries involved may have been damaged or dropped before they began to overheat.

Meanwhile, nearly 10 million notebook computer batteries made by Sony have been recalled so far, worldwide.

cell phone batteries, lithium ion, NTT DoMoCo, Sanyo Electric, Sony

[via Mercury News]   

Though it hasn’t yet reached Sprint’s website the new Sanyo M1 is plastered all over Sanyo.com and it’s expected to be out and available from Sprint tomorrow.

If you wanted sleek, and RAZR-like, forget the M1 and check out Katana - you know, the one they claim was “inspired” by a Japanese sword.

The M1 goes the other way - substantial instead of sleek.  Start with 1GB of internal memory - no card required.  External music controls make it easy to get at all that music you’ve stored in it.  Full Sprint Music Store and Power Vision capabilities.  And make that a 2 megapixel camera, with flash, please.

$199.99 with 2 year agreement and “instant savings”.  $349.99 with no strings.

Sprint, Sanyo, M1, cell phone

[via Sanyo, Engadget Mobile]

Back in February, Nokia announced a joint venture with Sanyo to produce CDMA handsets in North America and Japan.  Now Nokia is backing out, deciding it would rather not go head-to-head with Motorola, Samsung and LG in this category.

(CDMA is the wireless phone system used by roughly 25 to 30 percent of mobile subscribers worldwide, including Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the U.S., and is also popular in Japan.  GSM is the “big dog” technology used by about 70 percent of subscribers worldwide, including Cingular and T-Mobile in the U.S..  Less popular technologies such as iDen used by Nextel make up the rest.) 

That doesn’t mean Nokia’s brand won’t be showing up on CDMA handsets.  The Korean handset maker Pantech has manufactured handsets under the Nokia brand before, and that’s a probable option going forward.  But it probably means one fewer manufacturer creating high-end cutting edge CDMA handsets, and that’s a blow to CDMA carriers generally.

This all goes back to a nasty spat between Qualcomm and Nokia over CDMA licensing fees.  (Not a problem for Nokia’s GSM handsets - Nokia helped develop GSM technology in the first place.)

Nokia’s stated goal has been to increase its worldwide handset market share to 40 percent, from about 35 percent currently.  That’ll be tougher to accomplish now.  But Nokia has other fish to fry, after its just-announced merger with Siemens.  And it’s a blow to Sanyo, which hasn’t had much good news in this business lately.     

[via Reuters]