A Smartphone for preteens from NTT DOCOMO

NTT DOCOMO announced today its development of the Smartphone for Juniors SH-05E, an entry-level model for upper elementary and junior high school students that will go on sale in early February. The smartphone enables parents to control voice calls and usage by setting restrictions on time of day and/or maximum amount of call time, as well as email and online activity. The smartphone is also equipped with an alarm and comes with preinstalled content and apps designed exclusively for preteens.

Smartphone for Juniors can be used safely and securely thanks to features such as the sp-mode filter that blocks access to harmful websites. Both downloading and launching apps can be restricted. Voice calls and emails can be confined to contacts registered in the phonebook. When the alarm is activated with a long push, the smartphone automatically makes a call to a registered contact.

Pre-installed applications include a youth-friendly guide to the safe usage of smartphones, an English-Japanese dictionary, scheduler, allowance journal, e-book downloader, games and an education navigator app called docomo-zemi.

The water-resistant and dustproof smartphone, which fits comfortably into the hand of a preteen, features a 12.1 million-pixel camera and a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU. It comes with standard DOCOMO smartphone features such as Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet functions, infrared data transfer and disaster early-warning Area Mail.

In conjunction with the launch of the Smartphone for Juniors, the company's "dmenu" portal will introduce a dedicated site that provides users with access to content and information tailored to preteens, such as weather and educational content.

As a special introductory offer, a new flat-rate packet service, Xi Pake-hodai for Juniors, will be introduced together with the Smartphone for Juniors at the discounted rate of just 2,980 yen per month. DOCOMO will start accepting preorders for the new model from the end of January.