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KDDI Releases a New Color INFORBAR, the au design project, in ANNIN (White) Color
No. 2004-033
KDDI Corporation
Okinawa Cellular Telephone Co.
2004/02/26
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KDDI and Okinawa Cellular Phone are please to announce that ANNIN (white) will be added to the line-up of INFOBAR handsets and will be available for sale from the beginning of April. INFOBAR, well received by many users, currently comes in three colors. The new ANNIN colored handset is wholly in white, and suggests a new life style to users.
INFOBAR employs a casing made of magnesium alloy that is 11 mm thick and weighs 87 grams. The handset is square, for ultimate simplicity, and comes with large square tile-shaped keys. With the addition of the ANNIN colored model, the world of INFOBAR expands further.
The INFOBAR line-up now includes:
NISHIKIGOI, a Japanese pond fish, featureing a vigorous red background, with colorful tile keys, ICHIMATSU featuring a black and white kimono pattern, and BUILDING, featuring silver tiles gleaming against the dark blue of the night sky.
ANNIN, featuring a fresh and creamy white Annin Tofu (almond jelly)-like covering.
INFOBAR incorporates a stylish design and is equipped with camera and flash, enabling users to capture both video movies and photographs. INFOBAR features EZ Applications (BREW™) and EZ navigations, and also supports EZ Chaku-uta™ and Chaku Movies. These high performance functions are all contained in a very compact body.
KDDI's "au" design development project announces new concept mobile phone models, and takes new and free approaches to produce mobile phones with attractive features and ideas, and involves collaborations between designers both inside and outside Japan. In the first phase of the commercialization of the project development, KDDI released INFOBAR, a bar shaped handset created from a collaboration with a product designer, Naoto Fukasawa, and in the second phase, the W11K, a CDMA 1X WIN handset.
 | The au Design Project |
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KDDI's "au" design development project was launched in 2001. Every year, the project team announces new concept mobile phone models, the result of collaboration between designers both inside and outside Japan. These models incorporate highly original shapes created from a designer's point of view, and features that lend themselves to new experiences for users. INFOBAR is a product based on a concept model announced in 2001.
| Naoto Fukasawa, Product Designer |
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Naoto Fukasawa was born in Yamanashi prefecture in 1956, and graduated from the Product Design division of the Three-Dimensional Design Course, Department of Design, Tama Art University in 1980. After working with Seiko Epson Corp. as a designer, he joined IDEO in the United States in 1989. He lived in the US for eight years, and returned to Japan in 1996 where he was appointed as a representative of IDEO Japan. In November 2002, he established the Naoto Fukasawa Design.
Fukasawa has handled a wide range of product design across a broad variety of genre, and participates in a workshop of corporate designers. He transforms the subconscious action of man into design. He was awarded the German if Gold Award for his recent CD player design for MUJI, and in the past he has won more than 40 design awards in Japan, Europe and the United States. In 2001, he exhibited his 'Personal Skies' to 'Workspheres' series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2002, he mounted his "Designs that Follow Actions" and "Fundamental Shapes of Design" exhibitions. In 2003, he was awarded the Mainichi Design Award.
His recent works include a massage chair for inter.office, ISHICORO and INFOBAR for au/KDDI. On September 3, 2003, he announced the "±0" brand for home electronics and accessories, developed with Takara Co., Ltd. and Diamond Corporation. Fukusawa is currently a lecturer at the Department of Product Design at Tama Art University, Director of Tokyo AAD Studio, a member of Tokyo AAD Studio, and member of the Nippon Design Committee).
A special site dedicated to the au design project, including INFOBAR, has been launched inside the official KDDI website.
Specification data
Specifications |
Product name |
INFOBAR |
Manufacturer |
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. |
Size |
Approximately 42 (W) x 138 (H) x 11 (D) |
Weight (with batteries) |
Approximately 87 grams |
Continuous talk time |
Approximately 150 minutes |
Continuous standby time |
Approximately 200 hours |
Battery charge time |
Approximately 110 minutes |
Color variations |
ANNIN (white) |
Dots density of images |
(horizontal) 132 x (vertical) 176 dots |
Camera resolution |
310,000 pixel CCD camera |
Data folder capacity |
Approximately 3MB (or 500 files) |
BREW™ data folder capacity |
Approximately 1.2MB |
Email outbox capacity |
Approximately 100KB (or 200 imessages) |
Email inbox capacity |
Approximately 250KB (or 500 messages) |
Data entry interface |
ATOK for au V2 [1] |
Polyphony ringtones |
40 chords or less |
Date of launch |
Early April 2004 |
Retail price |
Price |
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List of Functionalities Enabled |
EZ Movie |
O (S size) |
MovieMail |
O (S/M Sizes [2]) |
EZ Appli |
O (BREW™) [3]) |
Chaku Uta |
O |
Chaku Movie |
O |
EZ Naviwalk |
X |
EZ Navi |
O |
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| [1] |
ATOK is a trademark of Justsystem Corporation |
| [2] |
Only receiving and replaying movie mails |
| [3] |
BREW™ and other trademarks related to Brew™ are registered trademarks of QUALCOMM Incorporated. |
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