Sanyo Camera Phone Receives Wireless Award

Sanyo's SCP-5300, America's first wireless phone with a built-in digital camera, has been selected as an Innovations 2003 Design and Engineering Showcase honoree in the Wireless Communications category. The prestigious yearly showcase honors the year's most innovative products sold in the U.S.

The innovative Sanyo SCP-5300 camera phone, now available exclusively at Sprint Stores nationwide, uniquely offers convenient portrait flash and up to 16x zoom capability. A 2.1-inch TFT 65, 535-color main LCD display offers optimal image and game viewing, while a separate 1-inch STN 65, 535-color LCD display lets users quickly identify an incoming call through Photo-Caller ID, the caller's phone number or through one of six color selections. Using the advanced PCS Vision(SM) services from Sprint, wireless customers can instantly shoot, view and share photos nationwide. Pictures can be taken with the phone in the open position, or -- if the user wants to get into the picture -- can be taken while the phone is closed. For fun, in-person picture sharing, up to 47 images can be stored in the phone's internal "Picture Wallet" and instantaneously viewed on the device's large color display.

A panel of 30 prominent industry experts judged entries in the Innovations 2003 Design & Engineering Awards Program. For the eighth year, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) endorsed and acted as advisors to the Design & Engineering Showcase.

Product evaluations are based on weighted criteria: value to user, aesthetics and contributions to the quality of life, as well as the product's innovative qualities.

The SCP-5300 will be on display for thousands of visitors to see at the Innovations 2003 Showcase at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 9-12. The Showcase, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), will be located at the Innovations 2003 booth #55083, at the Las Vegas Hilton.

"Being first to market with a truly innovative product is an exciting challenge," said Atsushi Kodera, group vice president, general manager of Sanyo Fisher Company's Communications/Information Technology Division. "In March of 2001, Sanyo was the first to offer America a phone with a color LCD display. As a major manufacturer of both wireless phones and digital cameras, Sanyo is now especially pleased to be the first company to bring to America a phone with a built-in digital camera. Phones with integrated cameras are a huge success in Japan, and we anticipate this trend will carry over to the United States."

According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2002 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study(SM), Sanyo ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with wireless mobile phones. The first-ever J.D. Power and Associates study of this product category measured customer satisfaction in 27 of the largest U.S. markets with the top seven wireless mobile handset providers based on responses from 5,259 households.

At the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show, Sanyo's ultra-slim SCP-6000 wireless phone (America's thinnest at .39 inches) received a prestigious Innovations 2002 "Best of Innovations" Award in the Wireless Communications category.

Also at the 2002 CES, the feature-packed Sanyo SCP-5150 wireless phone (a successor to the model SCP-5000, America's first color screen phone) was an Innovations 2002 Design and Engineering Showcase honoree.