14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has announced that starting May it will begin selling three cell phones that offer motion-sensitive gaming. In short, they work in a similar way to the Wii, the main difference being that, while only being cell phones and including less advanced technology, they won't quite compare to the experience that the gaming console provides.
Users will be able to play a game by making use of the phone's camera that will pick up their movement, or simply tilt the phone in different directions.
"Traditionally in trains youngsters would be staring down at their phones playing games but that is going to change dramatically," said Takeshi Natsuno, senior vice president of NTT DoCoMo and managing director of its multimedia services department.
For the time being, these mobile phones don't come very close to the Wii console, but according to the company they will become better as technology continues to improve.
The three handsets are manufactured by Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Sharp and part of NTT DoCoMo's new line of FOMA phones, the 904i-series that were presented earlier today. This is one of the initiatives that are meant to help the operator recover some of the ground lost since the introduction of the cell phone number portability during last year in Japan.
And the future sounds quite interesting for NTT DoCoMo's subscribers. Aside from the new and attractive phones, the operator will also be launching an all-you-can eat music download service with Napster, allowing its users to download as well as listen to as much music as they want, get a second phone line and e-mail address for ?945 per month.