TOKYO - Animation attachments for e-mail, complex role-playing video games and Hollywood film clips as screen savers will be some of the features offered in new third-generation cell phones from Japan's top mobile carrier.
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The services from various providers, including Walt Disney Co. and Sony Computer Entertainment, will be available in new handsets planned for next year for NTT DoCoMo's Foma, or 3G, service.
Foma handsets can deliver information at up to 40 times the speed of today's cell phones and also work as a videophone. Some features were demonstrated for reporters at a Tokyo hotel Thursday.
NTT DoCoMo Managing Director Takeshi Natsuno said the new handsets mark the real start of 3G, which has struggled to grow in popularity here. He said he was targeting 5 million 3G users over the next fiscal year that begins in April.
Tokyo-based NTT DoCoMo, which controls about 60 percent of Japan's market, has more than 1.7 million 3G subscribers and is targeting 2 million for this fiscal year through March.
The planned "900i" series of handsets have overcome some of the problems of past 3G models, which have been heavier than current models as well as short on battery life. The new handsets now weigh 4 ounces and offer 300 hours of battery life, or 140 hours of talking.
In one feature, an animated character like Pikachu of Pokemon appears on the monitor instead of your own face. Have Pikachu apologize in your place or hint around that you are bored, Natsuno suggested.
Another service combines video and music to signal incoming calls with a miniature music-video pop up on the tiny cell-phone screen.
The 900i handsets are equipped with Macromedia Flash software to allow users to enjoy fluid animation, the company said. Most of the 3G animation downloads last about 20 seconds, it said. Many DoCoMo (news - web sites) phones are already packed with Java from Sun Microsystems to watch animation and play games.
Such 3G features are upgrades of Internet-linking services offered by Japan's mobile carriers, including e-mail exchanges, restaurant guides, weather reports and ringtone downloads. Such services from NTT DoCoMo called "i-mode" have attracted more than 40 million Japanese so far.
The two rival mobile companies in Japan offer similar services. Third-generation phones have yet to catch on in the rest of the world, although a slightly different version of 3G is relatively widely used in Asian neighbor, South Korea (news - web sites).
The greater capacity of 3G phones to handle information allows people to play more sophisticated games than the whack-a-mole games played on standard cell phones. Among the games promised for 3G here are mobile versions of "Biohazard" and "Final Fantasy."
NTT DoCoMo Chief Keiji Tachikawa said recently he expects the company's 3G subscribers to increase to 25 million in 2006.
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