The HMD Barbie telephone is a co-branded product with Mattel, the toy big behind the franchise.
HMD
HMD, the corporate behind it Nokiatelephones, launched a Barbie-branded telephone on Wednesday that comes with calls, texts and a basic “flip” design – however no web or social media apps.
The HMD Barbie Cellphone is a brilliant pink system that opens and closes and encompasses a placing ‘Barbie’ brand on the again, harkening again to the enduring style doll assortment.
It’s the results of a collaboration with Mattelthe toy big behind the Barbie franchise, which has been producing and promoting Barbie toys and equipment since 1959.
The telephone might be obtainable in Britain from Wednesday, priced at £99 ($130.74). A US launch is deliberate “quickly”, in accordance with HMD, which added that it’ll reveal the precise particulars of the US launch on social media.
Not like right this moment’s internet-connected smartphones, that are the most typical kind issue in terms of cell gadgets, HMD’s Barbie telephone will not be linked to the web.
The corporate is attempting to capitalize on an rising pattern in recent times amongst principally Gen Z shoppers embracing so-called dumbphones, which haven’t got web and solely provide fundamental texting, calling and digital camera options.
The idea of a ‘digital detox’ has develop into extra fashionable in recent times as shoppers have tried to restrict the dangerous results of social media on their every day lives.
“In our fast-paced digital world, it will probably typically seem to be the net buzz by no means stops,” Lars Silberbauer, chief advertising officer of HMD, stated in a press release on Wednesday.
“This telephone encourages you to ditch your smartphone in occasions whenever you simply wish to browse much less and have extra enjoyable, all with the assistance of a real cultural icon, Barbie.”
The Barbie telephone comes outfitted with a 0.3-megapixel digital camera, together with a flashlight for taking “Y2K-style” images, HMD stated. When taking a photograph, customers can add a Barbie digital camera body to stroll round their images.
The system can be offered with a brilliant pink Barbie cowl, in addition to two interchangeable again covers, together with one with coloured swirls and one other with a capturing coronary heart design. It additionally comes with Barbie-themed stickers and a telephone strap with pastel beads.
HMD and Mattel hope to capitalize on the hype surrounding the Barbie franchise final yr following the 2023 ‘Barbie’ film.
The blockbuster, starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell, grossed $1.4 billion on the field workplace, making it the highest-grossing movie of 2023.
For some, there could also be a sense that the telephone’s launch comes a bit too late after the movie’s launch final July.
Regardless of the telephone hitting the market greater than a yr after the movie’s launch, analysis agency CCS Perception predicts promising gross sales for the system. It estimates that HMD will promote 400,000 items of its Barbie telephone in Britain this yr.
“The Barbie Cellphone faucets into the present digital detox pattern with a enjoyable design that might have broad enchantment,” stated Ben Wooden, chief analyst at CCS Perception, in an emailed commentary.
“I think about lots of people might be tempted to purchase it for enjoyable, however the actuality is everyone seems to be so depending on their smartphone that something apart from a single day of detoxing might be a wrestle.”
HMD has held the rights to promote Nokia-branded cell merchandise since 2016, after placing a deal to accumulate Microsoft’s Nokia cell model with electronics trade provider Foxconn Know-how in 2016.
The corporate, then often called HMD World, was rebranded as Human Cellular Units earlier this yr. Nokia earns royalties on HMD’s gross sales of its branded gadgets.
