There are few locations you possibly can go to flee from the web today. Even in the actual world the boundaries are blurred. But are you aware a spot free from the affect of social media? It’s pink, it is plastic and it is all about dwelling within the second — it is Barbie Land.
Not a second too quickly, your new Barbie dream telephone is on the market from Wednesday within the UK, and it could not be cuter or extra enjoyable if it tried. The “energy pink” flip telephone takes issues again to fundamentals, with texting and calling as its essential options, whereas offering many Easter eggs and touches that can delight Barbie followers.
We’ve had a six-month look ahead to the revealing of the Barbie Phone. At Europe’s main cellular present MWC again in February, HMD (whose job is telephones) introduced it was teaming up with Mattel (whose job is toys) to make a themed gadget that might delight new and previous Barbie followers alike. As of proper now, the Barbie Phone is on the market for preorder within the UK for £99, and can be heading to the US later this fall, as a consequence of slight variations within the band necessities and working system. When it launches in October, HMD expects it to price $129.
Barbie would by no means go away house with out her telephone and mirror.
Only now, because the telephone goes on sale, can we glimpse the design of the gadget, which comes with a mirror on the entrance of the flip telephone, providing you with one much less factor to hold in your purse whenever you go away the home. The telephone is as pink on the within as it’s on the skin, with a pink detachable battery to be found underneath the hood.
The flip design of the Barbie Phone is simply however one of many nostalgic touches more likely to please older homeowners of the gadget. HMD, which additionally makes Nokia telephones, is bringing again replaceable covers you could swap out to offer the telephone a completely totally different look (considered one of which relies on the bestselling 1992 Barbie). It’s a throwback to the fascia pattern that was in style in the course of the heyday of the Nokia 3210 and 3310, when everybody’s telephone rocked a novel design — and never simply by slapping a case on it.
What’s within the field? Oh, simply all the greatest Barbie-themed equipment.
And the personalization choices do not cease there. The Barbie Phone comes with a beaded strap and a number of telephone charms that may be swapped out and in, in addition to ornamental stickers you possibly can add. All the equipment are impressed by iconic Barbie seems, starting from curler skates to sun shades.
It was necessary to indicate individuals, says Lars Silberbauer, HMD’s CMO, that “a model collaboration isn’t just about slapping a sticker on the entrance or again of the telephone. It’s actually about moving into particulars, get into the storyline and do one thing that’s clearly Barbie, however by no means seen earlier than.”
This is why whenever you begin up the Barbie Phone for the primary time, it is going to inform you, “Hi Barbie!” in addition to presenting you with a missed name from Ken. “Ken can be calling as a result of that is mainly meant to be Barbie’s telephone,” says Silberbauer. The lore runs deep by means of the telephone’s software program, with a custom-designed Barbie digicam filter and a Malibu-themed model of traditional Nokia sport Snake.
Even the unboxing course of has been designed to be a enjoyable expertise. Sustainable packaging is an more and more frequent profit whenever you purchase a brand new telephone, however that normally means it is simply recyclable. HMD wished to take this a step additional, by creating packaging you may really need to maintain and reuse at house — so the Barbie Phone’s field doubles as a jewellery field, the place you possibly can maintain spare equipment or use for different knickknacks. Designing the field “was an enormous challenge by itself,” says Silberbauer. “It did not really feel proper to have small packaging and that you can throw away.”
The Barbie Phone’s packaging doubles as a jewellery field.
As interesting to the attention because the Barbie Phone is likely to be, I can not assist however marvel if HMD has a greater sense than me of precisely who will purchase the gadget. As the world’s dominant function phone-maker, it is lengthy been an advocate of easier telephones for adults, but it surely’s additionally concerned about tapping immediately into the youthful market.
Just final month, the corporate launched the Better Phone challenge — a collaboration with mother and father to create a more healthy, extra age-appropriate telephone for kids and teenagers. As a function telephone with no entry to social media, the Barbie Phone would make an excellent first telephone for kids, however I’m curious whether or not HMD expects it to attraction to individuals throughout generations.
No aspect of the gadget has escaped the pink.
“I’m fortunate to have a spotlight group of two women my very own,” says Silberbauer of his younger daughters. “Bringing a Barbie telephone to life has positively made me a hero of their eyes.” But, he provides, he expects it to be in style amongst many age teams, with adults having fun with the choice to have a enjoyable “detox telephone” along with their essential gadget. To assist with this, the telephone will function digital wellbeing ideas, together with self-care reminders.
While Barbie herself has nothing to show, the Barbie Phone is one other matter fully. If it succeeds, Silberbauer hints that Ken may in some unspecified time in the future get his personal telephone too. “We may need one thing up our sleeves,” he says.
