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BBC: Japanese electronics groups Hitachi, Casio and NEC have announced plans to merge their mobile phone operations to cut costs and become more competitive.

The three companies, which are relatively small players in the mobile phone market, will share both technology and resources.

By next year, NEC will own 71% of the new business, with Casio owning 20% and Hitachi holding a 9% stake. The merger will create Japan’s second largest mobile phone maker.

Analysts say there could be further consolidation in the competitive Japanese mobile phone market.

Record loss Casio and Hitachi created a joint mobile phone venture in 2004. It makes handsets for Japanese mobile carriers KDDI Corp and Softbank Mobile Corp, while NEC makes phones for NTT Docomo and Softbank.

All three companies have suffered badly during the downturn. NEC is in the process of cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide, while Hitachi recently announced that it expects to make a loss of 270bn yen ($3bn; £1.8bn) this year. The firm made a loss of 787.3bn yen last year – a record for a Japanese manufacturer.

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Electronista: Casio, in conjunction with KDDI AU, announced the upcoming release of the EXIFILM-series W63CA flip phone that features one of the most advanced cameras in the industry, with an 8.1-megapixel camera carrying a nine-point autofocus and a wide-angle mode.

The CDMA handset also sports a 3.1-inch, 480×800 OLED screen that rotates in the same fashion as a tablet PC’s screen and can be left facing outside.

The camera also has built-in face detection tech, along with anti-shake, and a YouTube mode that records VGA video at 30fps to a microSD card. The recorded video or captured photos can also be output to a TV via a connection, though the required cable is sold separately.

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Register Hardware: A large HD telly is the norm these days, but Casio has created a tiny screen that, it claims, crams in the highest ever number of pixels per inch.

The 2in, 960 x 540 x RGD “quarter HD” LCD panel is capable of rendering 16.7m colours.

It uses a Casio-developed technology called amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT) that squeezes 546 pixels into every inch of screen. Today’s LCDs have anywhere between 67 and 130 pixels per inch.

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Register Hardware: In these days of megapixel madness, manufacturers don’t last long if they fall behind the benchmark – which currently rests at about eight-megapixels for phones.

So Hitachi and Casio have teamed-up to create an 8Mp phone, according to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) documents.

The phone’s based on a clamshell design and called the W63CA.

It’s branded as a Casio Exilim device on the back and, according to the phone’s description, will be a mobile for “the CDMA method of 3G”.

The phone will offer FeliCa services, which is a contact-less smartcard payment system that’s commonplace in Japan.

Unfortunately, this suggests that the talker may initially be targeted at the Japanese market only.

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Engadget: For those still thinking that flexible displays are far from being widely accessible, think again.

E Ink has just announced that its Vizplex Imaging Film-based displays will be used in handsets by Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications.

For starters, the Hitachi W61H (already available) boasts a 2.7-inch E Ink display that can scroll through 96 different images whenever a call is received or the clamshell is cracked open.

The Casio G’zOne will feature the same technology on its secondary “silhouette display.”

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Tech-On: Casio Computer developed “Blanview LCD,” a transmissive LCD panel that does not need backlighting when used outdoors.

The company increased the transmittance of the panel by about 30% and cut its power consumption for outdoor use by about 50%, compared with its existing model. In addition, it developed a new structure that efficiently takes in outside light into the LCD panel so that the transmissive LCD panel can be used outdoors without backlighting like a reflective LCD panel.

The Blanview LCD panel is aimed mainly at business-oriented and industrial mobile devices such as handy terminals. Thus far, semi-transmissive LCD panels have been the LCD panels for outdoor use.

In semi-transmissive LCD panels, pixels are divided into transmissive and reflective parts. Images are displayed on the transmissive part with backlighting indoors and on the reflective part without backlighting outdoors. However, the low transmittances of semi-transmissive LCD panels reduce the efficiency of backlighting.

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NaviGadget: The market for GPS watches is relatively small with only a few brand names such as Garmin, Suunto, Casio, and then a few less known Asian names.

Today we have Pyxis again, and apparently they have upgraded the software on their GPS wrist watch to support activities other than just golf.

Pyxis now offers features to help you keep track of your workout whether you’re cycling, running, hiking, or just walking.

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