A closer look at Willcom's W-SIM
posted Oct 21st 2005 8:30PM
We mentioned Sharp's W-ZERO3 for Japanese mobile provider Willcom the other day, and briefly mentioned W-SIM. Though the W-ZERO3 may not exactly be something to sneeze at, you'll probably need a whole box of tissues for W-SIM. Take a PCMCIA card for cellular data transfer — hardware, antenna, and all — shrink it down to the size of a SIM card, and there's the W-SIM. It is a complete cellular package (modularized PHS, technically), and Willcom says it's the smallest in the world at 25.6 x 42.0 x 4mm (1 x 1.65 x 0.15-inch). The 600KB of memory will allow for roughly 700 phone book entries. Such a small and all-inclusive package makes integrating cellular communications into all sorts of products a breeze. As a result, drastically reduced development costs enable companies with no cellphone know-how make mobile magic happen; sitting in on the "W-SIM Forum" are 50 other companies, and plenty of big names: Casio, Kyocera, Sanyo, Toshiba, Tomy, IBM Japan, Bandai, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and even Apple. Ruh roh.
zoinks.
so basicaly you could put this in anything with a keypad mic and speaker and it could be a phone or woudl it be missing soemthing?
battery/power-supply? j/k
Yes, that seems to be the idea. We'll see how the RF goes.
You know I really think that me might very soon see an apple pocketpc/phone, they have been hiring handwriting software devs and now they are part of the W-SIM Forum, looks like somethings going to be happening there ...
I give up!!! What's the catch???
Why isn't this tech spreading like wild fire.
Seems like its just what the doctor ordered, for gadgets that is.
why whY wHY WHY
Does it explode in your face.
Does it heat-up and disintegrate if used for more than 10 minutes.
Does it rape battery life.
Does it involve automutilation to pay for.
People smarter than I, Tell Me Y.
So... please some Ultra UberGeek explain this for me. Is this form factor the entire phone inc dispaly an input drivers (excluding LCD, pwr, bat mgt and RF amp)? How much interface equip do you have to hang off the SIM to get a phone?
yeh, probably the allready existin iTunes phones are just a way of getting another company to do all the market research for them, ready for when Apple make their own phone
holy balls!
This, my friends, is the future.
Or at least I damned well hope so.
Well... it's not spreading very far because:
1. It's proprietary. Even with that many companies on the bandwagon, it won't work out internationally because...
2. It's PHS. Not that many countried have it(in commercial operation, I can cound those on one hand unless a new one opened up in the past year), but with Apple and their iTunes phone, they may be preparing to possibly start their own wireless company (and be the first PHS carrier in the USA, as well as being some stiff competition, which the American wireless industry desperately needs) or give iPods direct download capability.
3. PHS has sucky range last I heard, about 300m or so per antenna. That's a lot of antennas(base stations) for Apple to go on as a nationwide carrier, so they may just do a few PHS hotspots in strategic places (Apple Stores, selected cities, any place that sells iPods) instead, especially because nationwide service will litter America with towers that are considered socially unacceptable by some (saw towers within meters of each other in Japan, that's how they get nationwide PHS), and barely tolerable by others.
4. It resides on the 1900MHz band, which is licensed. Apple will have to buy spectrum to make this work in the States.
Siemens and other have been selling small GSM modules for integration for several years. The conceptual difference with W-SIM is that it's intended to be _complementing_ a device with mobile communication rather than having it integrated. As other have pointed out it's squarely for the PHS network, so it's useless almost anywhere outside Japan.
I'm also certain Apple will not establish PHS in the States. It would be extremely expensive (quickly making Apple a very non-existing company).
Rather expect also cdma2000 and EDGE/UMTS in similar plug-in devices. Similar, but maybe a bit larger, modules exist.
I'm also certain Apple will not establish PHS in the States. It would be extremely expensive (quickly making Apple a very non-existing company).
Rather expect also cdma2000 and EDGE/UMTS in similar plug-in devices. Similar, but maybe a bit larger, modules exist.
So umm, if this is the size of a simcard, where does your simcard go in ? =)
to #13- it IS the SIM card as well as the communication package.
to #11 and 12 (double poster)- Ok, I was just makinga point to someone earlier who asked about the disadvantages of such a product. And, if they can get a large part of the world hooked on the iPod even though it is lacking in features, I'm sure they can get people hooked on PHS if they do so, by sheer convienience alone (in Japan a PHS can be a home phone by plugging a mini-base station into your home phone line. I've always wanted to do such a thing, but I'm afraid of its legality (or lack thereof) in the US because of the 1900 band's licensed status. Oh, and mentioning the iPod is not a flame, I am just pointing out how easily Apple beat out the competition even though the competition could do more. Apple could pull off such a thing pretty well, or maybe Microsoft (looks like they're involved) would build such a PHS network and force everyone to plug in a WSIM to verify the disc. Such a system would have to be free, but Microsoft has the money to do such a thing (I mean, they had the Xbox360, why not this) and they're not afraid to use it. And, the only modules for such other services so far are in the form of CF/PC card. A bit large for most people. Yes, I personally favor PHS (I currently live in China, a PHS network is already up and running, and it is LOADS cheaper than GSM/CDMA, which is why I favor it so much, and because the American carriers are getting too confident. There needs to be someone like Apple to mix things up, because no one else will.
Isn't it about time we were able to sign up multiple SIM cards on the one telco account? I want mobile data in all my devices, and without the hassle of turning one of the devices into an access point.
Isn't it about time we were able to sign up multiple SIM cards on the one telco account? I want mobile data in all my devices, and without the hassle of turning one of the devices into an access point.
well whatever it is...apple clearly is still interested in phones and an apple phone coming from any direction would make me pretty damn happy :-D
I've never heard of a SIM that big.
It's certainly not GSM SIM size, is a PHS SIM that big?
In marginal terms, installing a new GSM or PHS network requires almost the same amount of resources. PHS is only cheaper if you already have the wireline network to carry the data, place to install the antenas and also the core network for data, if that's not the case GSM has a lot of advantages that make phs a poor choise... bigger cell coverage, worldwide roaming (PHS has only in China, Japan, Thai and 5 more countries), Data evolution and vehicular speeds (PHS stop working if you travel faster than 40 Km/h)... and others more
Hm. So it's a cell card with the ability to be pro-locked to a provider. Cute.
I live in NYC, so I think I'll stick to my Wi-Fi-enabled PDA with Skype, the extra-large battery, and bluetooth permanently disabled. I mean, it's not like there's any place I can't get a WiFi signal here.