Recent surveys tell that most Japanese choose their phones by appearance. Funny that they seem still packed with features, from mobile TVs to barcode readers.
Japanese phone development seem to be driven by the operators, and they are pushing hard for collaborative design on phones. Nowadays you see phone models named with X's, which means to collaborate with fashion brands and magazines.
A very recent example is Sharp X Tiffany. Among ten new models SoftBank has released was the 823SH Tiffany Model.
The phone is covered with platinum and comes with 537 diamonds on top. There's this Deco-den trend in Japan, which typically covers the surface of the phone with swarovsky crystals, but this is a real thing. It costs 12,980,000 JPY (103,000 EUR), and will be limited to 10 models.
The question is whether people will buy it -- and I bet they will.
News in Japanese: http://journal.mycom.co.jp/news/2008/10/30/047/
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