[unioneserry]

The Japan Times By RICK MARTIN

DoCoMo unveiled its new lineup of mobile phones at a press conference in Tokyo this week. The
most notable was the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S III, the headliner of the DoCoMo NEXT series of
high-end smartphones.

The handset's predecessors, the Galaxy and Galaxy II have been perhaps the biggest rival for Apple's
iPhone in the smartphone space.

Samsung initially unveiled the Galaxy S III earlier this month in London, but the Japanese variant is a little
different from the international version. This one will run on a 1.5GHz Snapdragon dual-core processor,
and will feature 2 gigabytes of RAM which is a big surprise. The screen is an expansive 4.8-inch HD display
with 720 × 1280 pixel resolution. Like all of DoCoMo's new smartphone offerings, it will run Android 4.0
(Ice Cream Sandwich). It has an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1.9 megapixel front-facing one.



The Galaxy S III is expected to hit stores in end-June or early-July. Of course DoCoMo, which is still
the only major carrier without Apple's iPhone, hopes its customers will be more than satisfied with the
Galaxy experience in comparison to the many services they could get with an iPhone. For Japan, DoCoMo's
Shabette Concier voice assistance is its answer to Apple's Siri, and the company says the service will be getting
an upgrade this summer as well. In addition, the company also announced flat-rate mobile services for music
and anime content for users who pay a monthly fee of ¥315 and ¥420 respectively for smartphone and tablet
users on Android 2.3 or better.

DoCoMo's President and CEO, Ryuji Yamada, explained at the press conference that "under the current
situation, the introduction of the iPhone could be quite difficult."

So for DoCoMo subscribers hoping for an iPhone 5, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.