Vodafone K.K., formerly J-Phone Co. Ltd announced the development of five new cellphones due to release this summer.

The V602SH by Sharp, V601T by Toshiba, V401D  by Mitsubishi Electric, V401SA by Sanyo and V402SH by Sharp are scheduled to go on  sale after late June in phases.  The V602SH, V601T, V401D, v401SA and V402SH are available only in the Japanese market for use on Vodafone K.K.'s PDC network.

V602SH

The V602SH is the world's first mobile handset to feature an optical 2x zoom, with a 
max of 40x digital zoom function, combined with a 2.02 mega pixel auto focus CCD 
camera.  The V602SH weighs approximately 132g, 50x98.5x24.9mm when folded.  The 
handset can capture or play high-quality video at a rate of 15 frames per second 
with a maximum QVGA size of 320 by 240.  There is capability to connect the device 
to a TV for viewing photos and video on a larger screen.  It has a continuous talk 
time of 130 minutes and 400 hours of standby time when it's folded.  There is also 
support for an external SD memory card to store all the high quality pictures that 
you will be taking. Other features include being the first Chaku-uta ringsongs(64 
ringtone voices) available on 2G network in Japan and Keitai Karaoke V-kara for 
karaoke by connecting to a TV.  It's also worth noting that the V602SH is the 
industry's first to have a T4G graphics accelerator chip and Mascot Capsule Ver. 4 
3D polygon engine for 256K appli Ver.2 compatibility in order to offer realistic 
and fast game applis.

The V602SH offers a swivel style for taking pictures while the handset is closed.  
The 'swivel style' design allows the LCD screen to be reversed 180 degrees.  This 
new design is an effort by Vodafone K.K. to offer its own original handset style 
concepts to the market.

The V602SH is expected to go on sale after late June 2004.