How Did Kyocera Develop Thinnest 1seg Slide Phone?

The "SA001" mobile phone, which Kyocera Corp developed as one of the "winter 2009 models" for KDDI Corp's au mobile phone service, features a thickness of 11.9mm at its thinnest part (about 14.7mm at the thickest part).

The company claims that it is the world's slimmest slide handset supporting 1seg digital TV reception (See related article). We had an interview with Kyocera on the aim of the development of the SA001 and the techniques used for the development.

Sticking to slimness

"We developed the SA001 by sticking to its slimness," Kyocera said.

The N-04A, which NEC Corp developed as one of the "winter 2008 models" for NTT Docomo Inc's mobile phone service, is a slide handset that supports 1seg digital TV reception and has a thickness of 12.9mm at its thinnest part (about 14.6mm at the thickest part). So, the SA001 is 1mm slimmer than the N-04A at the thinnest part.

Kyocera developed the SA001 under the brand name of SA (Sanyo Electric) from the planning stage for the first time since it acquired the mobile phone business of Sanyo in October 2007. Kyocera released two handsets (W63SA and W64SA) under the SA brand as "summer 2008 models," but they were planned and developed by the former mobile phone division of Sanyo, Kyocera said.

This time, Kyocera aimed to capitalize on the strengths of both of the companies for developing handsets under the SA brand from scratch. And Kyocera considers its strength lies in the fact that the company has long been making slim handsets.

For example, it developed the K002 clamshell handset, whose thickness is 10.9mm at its thinnest part (about 13.5mm at the thickest part), as one of the "summer 2009 models" for KDDI's au mobile phone service.

On the other hand, Sanyo's strength lies in its experience and know-how to develop slide handsets, Kyocera said. Sanyo developed many slide phones such the W61SA and W54SA.

To meet requests from SA users

When developing the SA001, there was an argument about whether it should be released under the brand name of "K (Kyocera)" or "SA," Kyocera said. And the SA brand was selected because of the following two reasons.

First, users tend to associate the SA brand with slide handsets. Second, the company received many requests from the SA users to launch successors.

Kyocera plans to continue to provide its mobile phones under those two brands, defining the K brand handsets as easy-to-use models and the SA brand handsets as highly-functional slide phones. In fact, the company developed the SA001 slim slide handset under the SA brand and the K003 easy-to-use handset under the K brand as winter 2009 models.

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