It's that time of year again -- the time when Japan's carriers announce a seemingly never-ending torrent of phone after incredible phone. We've already hinted at some of these monsters, but we wanted to take a deeper dive and really find out what's being offered this time around. Follow us right this way, won't you?

NTT DoCoMo's fall / winter 2008 lineup
KDDI au's fall / winter 2008 lineup
Softbank Mobile's winter 2008 collection

NTT DoCoMo really outdid itself with its newest batch of phones, releasing 22 (well, 21 if you exclude the canceled Nokia) models grouped into four categories: Style, Prime, Smart, and Pro. The differences between phones in the Style, Prime, and Smart lineups seem to be pretty arbitrary; as you might guess, the Style sets are naturally designed to be just a little more fashion-forward than the rest, but otherwise, there's nothing about the spec sheets that really sets them apart. The Pro group is the most interesting of the bunch -- not because it's the typical sci-fi tech we've come to expect from NTT DoCoMo's phones, but because it's composed of a bunch of phones we already know from other parts of the world (okay, plus one admittedly sci-fi Sharp).

The writing was on the wall following Nokia's official withdrawal from Japan, and sure enough, NTT DoCoMo has now officially nixed plans to bring the E71 to market early next year. In a product lineup flush with wide VGA displays, giant cameras, and happiness generators, we suspect the QVGA QWERTY set won't be sorely missed by most over there -- and hey, that just means more E71s for the rest of us. Anyone need a second or a third?

It's not like Nokia was dominating sales in Japan anyway -- far from it. So it's not too big a loss to walk away from its near 1 percent market share when it's sitting atop a (dwindling) 40% 39% share globally. According to Nokia vice president Timo Ihamuotila, "We have judged that we cannot continue to invest in product development just for Japan amid the current tough economic conditions." Nokia will continue to sell its luxury Vertu branded phones though, presumably on that MVNO Nokia is rumored to be rolling out this spring.

So Nokia has a 40-odd percent stake in the world's handset market. You know where that insanely high number isn't coming from? Japan, where the Finnish giant holds less than a 1-percent share of phone sales as it competes against domestic models from Sharp, NEC, Fujitsu, and others who've traditionally ruled over FOMA with an iron fist. We think that we can probably chalk that up to the simple fact that Nokia doesn't produce many (okay, any) wide VGA flip phones with one-seg TV tuners, but they're thinking bigger -- way bigger -- to the tune of a self-branded MVNO that'd operate on NTT DoCoMo's expansive network. A Japanese paper is reporting that the virtual network will launch next spring, initially with high-end models designed to establish name recognition in a market where it currently has none; Vertu is just starting to set up shop over there, so we're assuming they don't mean ridiculously high-end, but high-end in the sense that the spec sheets won't get laughed right out of town.

[Via Unwired View, thanks Robin of Loxley]

Hot on the heels of RIM's BlackBerry Bold finally hitting AT&T sales channels comes word that Japan's NTT DoCoMo has also joined in to offer the handset. As the Asian carriers dump their cornucopia of fall 2008 mobiles onto the world, this particular one is serving up 22, all divided into the STYLE, PRIME, SMART and PRO series. Naturally, the latter category piques our interest the most, as it hosts the Bold, Nokia E71, HTC Touch Pro (HT-01A), HTC Touch Diamond (HT-02A) and Sharp's decidedly handsome SH-04A. Feel free to have a look at the entire family (and their respective launch dates) just below in the read link.

Sure, the US has fancy-pants capacitive touchscreen phones out the wazoo, but Japan's superphones still dominate when boiled down to a base, spec-for-spec comparison. Take this new Sharp SH-01A clamshell for example, just revealed by the FCC. It sports a 28mm wide-angle lens with 8 megapixel CCD sensor and, according to rumor, Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound for your microSD stored media. Remember, FCC testing doesn't mean it'll be sold between the left and right coasts -- this flip is likely just being certified for US roaming whenever it's finally announced for NTT DoCoMo in Japan.

Eager to live in the fantastical future it has prophesied, NTT DoCoMo went to CEATEC and demoed an upcoming addition to its Pocket U service: MH2H (Mobile Home to Home), which gives you the ability use your cellphone to stream content from your computer at home to a friend's TV. The phone connects to your friend's WiFi network and sends his or her DLNA-compliant receiver the IP address of your also-DLNA-compliant server, then tells said server to accept the connection and start streaming any videos, songs, or photos you feel like sharing. When you leave, the connection ends and every one goes back to partying on their own isolated media islands like it's 2006.

[Image courtesy of Tech-On!]

In a land of colorful, pivoting flips with TV tuners, VGA displays, and contactless payment systems, an uptight business beast like the Bold doesn't really seem like a natural fit -- but maybe that's exactly why it's needed. NTT DoCoMo and RIM have announced that the HSDPA-capable BlackBerry Bold will be heading to Japan in "early 2009," and from the spec sheet DoCoMo has provided, it looks like they're not planning on changing anything from the Bolds that have launched elsewhere around the world. Of course, this isn't the first time a BlackBerry has made an appearance in those parts, but still, doesn't it all feel just a little out of place?

In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife. Now, in another Japanese world's first (according to Nissan), you can use your mobile phone to open and start your car thanks to a new twist-up of Nissan Motors, NTT DoCoMo, and Sharp. The Sharp prototype cellphone pictured above integrates with Nissan's Intelligent Key system already fitted in various Nissan vehicles. Look for the device to be demonstrated on September 30th with the opening of the CEATEC Japan show. Hiiiiya!

[Thanks, Stop Spamming]

Vertu has announced that it'll be bringing its brutally excessive hardware to Japan this December, when the very first Vertu boutique in the country opens in Tokyo's Ginza district. The first phone to be offered there will presumably be the Signature S Design offered on NTT DoCoMo or Softbank, thanks to its 3G radio and an OLED display that might (emphasis on "might") stop the meagerly-spec'd handset from getting laughed out of a country where WVGA displays and one-seg tuners are the norm. Of course, Vertu has never pretended to be on top of the tech game -- with those guys, it's all about the precious metals and gems you can cram in there -- and it sounds like they'll be offering gold and platinum variants (among others) that range between ¥890,000 and ¥5,000,000 (about $8,400 to $47,400). If you're nowhere near Ginza, don't worry; other Vertu shops are expected across Japan next year.

[Via Unwired View]

Japanese MVNOs aren't exactly novel concepts, but Japan Communications has an angle for its new virtual network that most don't: an interconnect agreement. The deal with provider NTT DoCoMo differentiates it with so-called wholesale MVNOs in that these guys will actually own some of their own infrastructure to hook into the network, which in turn gives them the freedom to offer whatever hardware they choose without NTT's explicit permission to do so. They're really playing up that angle, too, coming out of the gate swinging with a ZTE-sourced broadband dongle -- not exactly the stuff of handset dreams, but they're looking to offer a who's-who of smartphone wares in the future, culminating with a possibly Android offering down the road. Theoretically, that could end up making Japan Communications the first Japanese carrier with an Android set in its midst, but with NTT DoCoMo a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance, the odds are pretty slim.

[Via IntoMobile, image via ITpro]

Go 'head with your bad self, NTT DoCoMo. Party on down 'til six in the morning, because you just posted a quarterly profit increase of 41%. What's to thank for such a remarkable boost? According to a Bloomberg report, the outfit's decision to "reduce handset subsidies to customers" enabled it to bring in more cash despite the fact that sales fell 1.1% in the same quarter. President Ryuji Yamada proclaimed that the "acceptance of the monthly handset payment plan by our users helped bolster profits in the quarter," and he also highlighted a "considerable decline in the cancellation ratio." Still, some analysts are uncertain if the telecom company can maintain the growth, with Deutsche Bank AG's Kenji Nishimura stating that the "increase in profit was merely caused by the change in the accounting." Snap DoCoMo, are you just going to take that?

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of Flickr]

A full 25 months after we first heard that NTT DoCoMo was bringing BlackBerry to Japan, the carrier is just now getting around to announcing the launch of BlackBerry Internet Service. Of note, the provider still expects you folks over there to use that trusty (and rusty) 8707h to keep tabs with your corporate email, but at least you'll have bona fide BIS! Anywho, the service will run users ¥3,045 ($29) per month on top of the standard FOMA charges, and in case you're hungry for more, a BlackBerry Data Transmission Package will see the light in September and enable subscribers to "transmit up to 80,000 packets of data per month for a flat charge of ¥1,680 ($16). For those curious, extra data beyond that will run your bill up at the rate of ¥0.0525 ($.00049) per packet.