In Japan, carriers tend to release new models in giant, blockbuster batches -- seasonal "collections" that leave the rest of the world green with envy. KDDI au is no exception, having just announced its predictably spectacular Summer 2008 lineup with entrants from Kyocera, Sony Ericsson, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, Casio, and Korea's Pantech. Here's the rundown:

• Hitachi Wooo W62H. KDDI is emphasizing this one's video and 3D gaming capabilities, both of which are assisted by the presence of a 2-way hinge for flipping out the screen in a landscape orientation. Comes in blue, silver, and black.
• Sharp W62SH. The FM transmitter's kinda cool, and the three-inch WVGA screen should be perfect for watching Spiderman 2, which comes bundled with the phone. Purple, white, and gold are the color choices.
• Sanyo W63SA. Global CDMA roaming and an integrated English-Japanese dictionary makes this one a solid choice for world travelers. Get this one in red, silver, or black.
• Toshiba Sportio. As the name implies, this one's all about burnin' those calories with an integrated calorie counter. The candybar form factor is a refreshing change of pace in the lineup, but too bad about that QVGA display! Five colors to choose from here: orange, black, white, green, and red.
• Casio G'zOne W62CA. Like its counterparts on Verizon, the W62CA is designed to take a beating without falling apart. It's impact resistant and waterproof, features a compass, thermometer, and GPS, and naturally, one-seg TV. Get it in green, black, or white.
• Sanyo W64SA. This fashionable flip has some crazy light effects to go along with its crazy selection of colors, but other than that, it seems pretty pedestrian. If you can call a 2.8-inch WVGA display "pedestrian." It's available in pink, white, yellow, and black.
• Sony Ericsson Full Change re. The WQVGA display is one metric ton of weak sauce, but as the "Full Change" name suggests, five individual pieces can be removed from the front, back, and top of the phone to create a totally customized handset. Shell choices include white, pink, green, orange, and silver.
• Toshiba W62T. Seriously, what's up with all this WQVGA garbage? The W62T appears destined for the midrange, though the 3.2 megapixel camera ain't bad. Colors for this one are gold, pink, and black.
• Kyocera W64K. Possibly leading up the bottom end of the collection, the W64K rocks a WQVGA display and a weak 2 megapixel cam. We see "basic capabilities" mentioned a couple times in the translated description for it, so that says pretty much all we need to know. Pink and gold are the only color options here.
• Kyocera W62K. Whoa, and we thought the W64K was low end! 1.3 megapixel cam, QVGA (yeah, that's right, QVGA, not WQVGA) display. 'Nuff said. Beige, blue, and black are the choices here.
• Kyocera W63K. The W63K candybar is just 10.8mm thick, but we're still not sure that we can forgive it for a meager 1.3 megapixel camera. Kyocera's seriously dragging here, in case you haven't noticed the trend. Black, burgundy, and beige.
• Pantech W62PT. The only phone in the lineup sourced from a non-Japanese manufacturer, the Pantech's nothing to get too excited about with a QVGA display, but the presence of quick dial buttons directly below the screen indicates that this one's designed for folks that are looking for a simple, easy-to-use phone that's just enough to make voice calls -- and ironically, it's still better than a good percentage of the phones you'll find elsewhere in the world. It'll come in silver, gold, and pink.

Not a bad showing, especially considering that KDDI au stands out as Japan's major CDMA carrier in a country dominated by FOMA. Get 'em while they're hot, folks -- you know it's just a few months before the next collection debuts!

Yes, friends, the time has come once again for Japan's carriers to upheave their still-fresh lineups and replace them with even fresher ones. Here we take a look at KDDI au's just-announced Spring '08 collection, including a model with an e-ink display and another with a 3 inch OLED. Wowza! Note that not all of these handsets are new -- some are carryovers from the carrier's Winter '07 collection, so we won't be covering those here. Read on.

Shield your eyes if it pains you to see the incredible kit customers of Japanese carrier KDDI au are entitled to, because we've got another doozy in the mix here. The rather wildly colored W61SH is yet another phone bearing Sharp's AQUOS branding to call out the emphasis on display goodness, featuring a 2.8 inch display with a 2000:1 contrast ratio -- perfect for all that one-seg mobile TV you'll be enjoying. Grab it in black, white, or our favorite, hot pink.

[Via Mobilewhack]

It's that time of year again -- that magical time when Japanese carriers pull out all the stops and deliver a mind-numbing swath of new models at once. KDDI au's rocking seven all-new models for its fall / winter '07 collection, perhaps most notably the Infobar 2 candybar that bubbled out of its ongoing concept design program. All told, we have entries from six manufacturers here spanning the candybar, slider, and clamshell (naturally) form factors, so it pretty much goes without saying that KDDI customers should have no trouble finding the phone of their dreams in this motherlode. Forge on for a closer look at each of the new models.

KDDI is back to show LG, Apple, and Samsung that a keypad totin' candybar can still bring the sex-ay. Meet the Infobar 2 for KDDI's CDMA-based au network, first peeped as a concept back in November as a possible followup to the wildly popular (in Japan anyway) first generation Infobar launched in 2003. Measuring 47 × 138 × 15.5-mm / 104-grams, it packs a 2.6-inch 240 x 400 pixel OLED display, stereo speakers, microSD expansion, EZ FeliCA support, 2-megapixel camera, and built-in 1Seg mobile TV tuner. It'll squeeze in about 290 minutes of talk time or 350 hours of standy when these hit Japan in November. Call us spoiled, but we still can't help but to think that it would look better without those dedicated keys.

[Via Impress]

And you thought a phone with two alphabets was over the top. Here we have a somewhat mysterious concept device crafted by KDDI which features no fewer than three screens to keep your eyes (and hands) quite occupied. Reportedly, the screens would morph depending on what command your fingertips direct, but we've no idea how you'd keep all three displays from getting scratched up beyond recognition. Check out a few more glimpses after the jump.

[Via GearFuse]

We'd be shocked at the rate KDDI churns out new models, but let's be honest -- its domestic competitors manage to stay pretty much in lockstep, and they're all bested by the Keepin' It Real Fake machine that is mainland China. As we might expect from a massive launch on a Japanese carrier, the so-called "Collection 2007 Summer" (that's the "Summer 2007 Collection" for those not accustomed to reading phrases backwards) holds a handful of gems, including some VGA displays and 5 megapixel cams. Let's hop to it, shall we?

So that hot little batch of phones KDDI threw down for its CDMA-based au network in Japan this week? Yeah, seems we might have gotten a little too wrapped up in that nifty lookin' Media Skin device, seeing how we glossed right over this little gem: the W51H clamshell from Hitachi offers up a staggering 800 x 480 display in its snow white (or red or black) shell. We'd imagine this is the very same 2.9-inch screen being demoed by Hitach just last month, trading some extreme eye strain for a nearly desktop-class web browsing experience without sacrificing battery juice. Other features of the W51H are fairly typical Japanese fare, including a 2 megapixel cam, fingerprint recognition, GPS, and 30MB of onboard memory. As usual, expect this to hit American store shelves right about the time pigs take to the skies.

[Via SCI FI Tech]

Yeah, that's right, NTT DoCoMo -- you're not the only carrier in town that can flex its product lineup muscle every now and again. KDDI au becomes the second Japanese carrier this week to add ten phones, a quantity most American carriers barely reach in a year's time. But we digress; leading up the pack is the "Media Skin," a clean-looking candybar with a covered keypad that began life as a KDDI design project. Meanwhile, the Aquos-branded W51SH from (you guessed it) Sharp should square up nicely with similar Sony Bravia-branded offerings for NTT, and, well... the list pretty much goes on ad nauseam. Those with a particularly strong stomach for viewing tech they can't have where they live can surf on over to KDDI's "Collection 2007 Spring" site for the full list -- meanwhile, we'll be crying ourselves to sleep.

[Via Akihabara News]

Whew, time flies when you're having fun, eh, Hitachi? Less than four months after showing your W43H clamshell for Japan's patron saint of CDMA, KDDI au, you're rolling out its successor -- the aptly-named W43H II. Like the original, the sequel features a 1seg tuner for digital TV reception with recording, 2.6-inch QVGA display, and a 2 megapixel cam. Other hot specs include LISMO music downloading, FeliCa, and a choice of two colors: "glass black" and "ice pink." Look for the W43H II to hit the streets of Japan this week.

[Via Impress Watch]

What's the point in putting together a keypad that offers no tactile feedback whatsoever if it ain't a touchscreen? Lucky customers on KDDI's Japanese au network appear poised to find out, thanks to the rumored W51PT from Pantech. The machine-translated details leave us with more questions than answers, but we guess the clamshell offers a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 2.1 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, a one-seg tuner, and support for LISMO (wireless music downloads) in a 132 gram, 11.9 millimeter thick package. Your choice of white or gold, but do us a favor and try the weird keypad before you buy, mkay?

Despite an unusually heavy flow of scoops recently, Sony Ericsson may yet (involuntarily) have at least one more rumor / surprise up its sleeves before the year's out. Remember that hot lil' W42S announced for KDDI's au network earlier this year? You know, the one with the trick knurled metal navigation knob on its bottom? Well, MobilMania noticed that the phone has popped up recently on T-Mobile's Czech site, bearing the "W880" label. No phone bearing a W880 designation has been officially announced by Sony Ericsson, meaning T-Mobile appears to have let the cat out of the bag just a little early (thanks, folks!). For the record, KDDI au is a CDMA network, meaning that the W880 would've had to undergo a metamorphosis into a GSM piece; but hey, as long as it's quad-band, we're just fine with that.

[Via GSMArena, thanks Maximus]

A lot of phones, pictures of phones, and mockups of phones grace our desks in an average week; some leave more of an impression on us than others. Looking at pictures of this W44S from Sony Ericsson left us forever marked with deep feelings of fear, awe, respect, and a genuine hope that we might one day see such immaculate pieces of equipment in our own lands. We're not sure we can put our finger on what did it for us. Was it the glossy exterior, available in your choice of black, silver, or green? The gorgeous, Bravia-branded display? The beefy dual hinge? The digital radio and TV tuners? Seeing how we'll likely never have an opportunity to run our hands across this beauty's softly-sculpted lines, we may never know for sure -- but customer's of Japan's KDDI au can find out when the W44S drops next month.

[Via Akihabara News]

Those crazy cats over at Japan's KDDI are back at it with another four concept handsets as part of their "au Design Project," a collaboration with various designers that's been carrying on for some time now to draw attention to their network. Coined the Infobar 2, Kaos, Cypres, and Vols (pictured), the phones aren't technically destined for production, but let's be honest: this stuff doesn't seem much more far out than garden variety Japanese mobile hardware.

[Via and for the umpteenth time...]

Say you're on the board of a global corporation based in Japan. Sure, you're just another suit from 9 to 5, but on the weekends it's a different story -- you do some deep-sea diving, downhill skiing... heck, maybe the occasional BASE jump. Where are you supposed to find a phone tough enough to keep ticking (while you're wrestling crocodiles, that is) without getting you fired in the boardroom with some wacky, "extreme" color scheme? Believe it or not, Casio's got your number. The G'zOne E03CA takes a cue from the W42CA's book, offering a QVGA internal and 100 x 100 display, microSD slot, EV-DO radio, and 2-megapixel cam in a beefy, water resistant package. That's where the similarity ends, though: unlike the wild W42CA, the laid-back E03CA looks more fit for the inside of a suit coat pocket than a snowboarding jacket. Businessfolk with a tendency to destroy phones can look for the latest G'zOne to drop this December on KDDI's au network in Japan.

[Via I4U News]