The SO505i, manufactured by Sony Ericsson, will come with a price tag of slightly above 30,000 yen (252 US dollars), a DoCoMo spokesman said, adding that it will be available from Wednesday at DoCoMo outlets across Japan.

The company expects to sell 240,000 units of the new phone per month.

The handset will be equipped with a 262,144 color thin film transister screen, the company said.

DoCoMo's new phone becomes available roughly two weeks after its smaller rival J-Phone Co. Ltd. launched the world's first megapixel camera phone.

J-Phone, the Japanese arm of Britain's Vodafone Group, started selling the new camera phone in Tokyo and surrounding areas from May 22.

SPACE.WIRE