FujitsuToshibaMobileCommunications
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Fujitsu buys out Toshiba's stake in mobile joint venture, division now called Fujitsu Mobile Communications
April 2, 2012: a great day to officially wash your hands of an unprofitable business. On the heels of Philips stuffing its TV biz into a joint venture, Fujitsu announced it has bought out Toshiba's stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications (just like we knew it would). Fujitsu already had a controlling 80.1 percent interest in the company, so this doesn't exactly mark a seismic change in management. Still, with that final 19.9 percent it's now a fully owned subsidiary of the Fujitsu Group, and has been rechristened Fujitsu Mobile Communications. We've got the PR below, but unless you want to know how much capital the division has (¥450 million, to be exact), we think we've got you covered on the facts.
Fujitsu-Toshiba unveils waterproof Arrows Z ISW11F handset with 13 megapixel CMOS sensor
Toshiba may be bowing out of its mobile joint venture with Fujitsu, but not without bestowing this Gingerbread-munching flamingo upon the Japanese market. The Wimax-enabled Arrows Z ISW11F, unveiled today by Japan's KDDI au, is juiced by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, sports a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 LCD and, most notably, rocks a 13 megapixel CMOS sensor. It also features a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and supports 1080p video, along with your standard suite of 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. Oh, and to top it all off, it's waterproof, too. No word yet on pricing, but KDDI plans to bring this bubblegum to the Japanese market sometime in November. Doggie paddle past the break for more information in the translated presser.
Toshiba is dropping out of Fujitsu / Toshiba phones while Hitachi considers exiting the TV biz
Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications has only been in existence as Japan's number two mobile company (behind Sharp) for a short time, but it appears even a decent earnings report wasn't enough for Toshiba to stay in the business. While the joint venture prepares to release the au IS12T WP7 handset running Mango Fujitsu, Fujitsu is preparing to buy out Toshiba's 19.9 percent stake and take sole ownership in 2012. Toshiba may not be the only Japanese tech giant taking a step back, as Hitachi is considering following Pioneer and exiting the TV biz stage left. As price competition squeezes out all but the largest manufacturers and even Sony feels the pinch, Hitachi is considering outsourcing the brand to overseas manufacturers. Neither announcement should put brakes on hardware we've been anticipating, but that REGZA phone or Wooo television you just dropped a few yen on could become a vintage item very soon. [Thanks, Colin]
Fujitsu Toshiba announces au IS12T, the world's first Mango phone (hands-on!)
Well, we can't say we didn't see this one coming. Fujitsu Toshiba mobile communications -- now there's a mouthful -- just unveiled the IS12T: Japan's first Windows Phone 7 device, and according to Microsoft prez Yasuyuki Higuchi, the world's first Mango handset. The sexy and IPX5 waterproof (!) 3.7-inch WVGA slate is powered by Qualcomm's MSM8655 CPU of undisclosed clock speed (which we've seen running at 1GHz in the Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt), and goes on sale in "September or beyond" on KDDI's au network. The pink gizmo packs a 13.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and has a plentiful 32GB of flash storage for housing whatever content you'd fancy toting around. The usual Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR) and WiFi (802.11b/g/n) suspects are also onboard. Interest piqued? Peruse the gallery our Engadget Japanese brethren have handily tossed our way. Update: In addition to pink, it'll reportedly also come in a yellowish / greenish hue, as well as jet black. %Gallery-129233% %Gallery-129227%
