After acquiring an ownership stake in American telecommunication company, Sprint, in July 2013, SoftBank finally started getting more serious about developing a partnership with Sprint.
 
SoftBank recently announced that they have developed a smartphone platform jointly with Sprint to reduce procurement costs and bring the device's price down. They are also now able to make their own unique devices and these co-developed devices will be sold in Japan and the U.S.
 
As a first step, SoftBank is going to release a 5-inch Android 4.4.2 frame-less smartphone AQUOS CRYSTAL on August 29. It is manufactured by Sharp, and Sharp must be so happy to get an opportunity to show off their skills in the U.S.!
 
AQUOS CRYSTAL features a 5.0 inch S-CG Silicon (1280x720 dots) display, 1.2GHz Quad core MSM8926 CPU, 1.5GB memory, 8GB storage, 2,040mAh built-in battery, 8MP main-camera, and 1.2MP sub-camera. It supports Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 and a max.128GB microSDXC card as external media.



In the U.S., AQUOS CRYSTAL will be released by Sprint as well as their sub-brand, Virgin Mobile, and Boost Mobile.
 
Harman's sound effect engine CRYSTAL SOUND is installed to produce a high-quality sound, and a wireless speaker system "Harman Kardon ONYX STUDIO" comes with the smartphone as a standard accessory. It is a power-saving smartphone, which allows you to use it for more than 3 days.
 
SoftBank plans to capitalize on the exclusive model for the company to appeal to clients. Rivals NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp., the operator of "au" mobile communications services, may launch competing products, according to industry sources.

 

(source & picture : akihabaranews.com)