Japan launches heart-shaped phones ahead of Valentines' Day

 

 

With Valentine's Day just two weeks away, will these low-tech phones sell in Japan?

 

A report on tech site The Verge said the Y! Mobile website in Japan is offering heart-shaped phones just in time for the season.

 

But technically speaking, the phones are primitive: no camera, monochrome 0.9-inch, 128 x 36 display, and no SMS function, The Verge said.

 

Even weirder, the heart-shaped Heart 401AB won't even go on sale until March.

 

What sets it apart is that it "twists from a heart into a peanut-shaped 'straight' mode for when you're making a call," The Verge said.

 

The phone will run on Japan's PHS network, which The Verge said is usually used with low-cost voice-only devices.

 

But the phone isn't all that low-tech: a smartphone app can help an owner transfer address book entries to it.

  

It also has touch sensors supposedly for "stylish" operation on the device's body itself.

 

The Verge said Heart 401AB "is the ultimate example of form over function, but it'll be meant to complement a smartphone rather than replace it." — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News