A bit of an old news by now, but Sony recently released Xperia feat. HATSUNE MIKU (nicknamed "Mikuperia"), a special variant of Xperia A smartphone featuring voice synthesiser program mascot (and virtual idol) Hatsune Miku.
The phone's outward appearance has a black and teal green colour theme, together with one of Miku's twin tail on the back side. The artwork is done by iXima, whose image is used for the PlayStation Vita Project Diva f skin and also a base image for the upcoming Dollfie Dream doll.
Software-wise, The Xperia feat. HATSUNE MIKU runs a customised Android 4.2 OS specifically for the phone. This is true even with the start-up animation.
Custom tailored Miku-themed applications such as the music player (Voicaloid-sung songs included), downloader, and weather forecast can be found. It even has an app called "Find Creative News", where you can keep updated with new Vocaloid-related works on Pixiv and NicoNico video! Widgets such as battery and alarm are also custom made for the phone.
In case you want other characters other than Miku, custom palettes and wallpapers for other Vocaloid character such as Kaito and Megurine Luka are also available.
There are also many Miku wallpapers drawn by various artists, songs, voice tones etc for you to customise further on phone.
To promote the phone, advertisment banners can be seen in Tokyo. This one from twitter is seen in JR Shibuya station.
The quantity is limited to 39000 units. Originally it was only available via pre-order, but one can still buy it from docomo's network web store as of today. That said, a phone network contract with docomo will be required as part of the payment for the phone.
There are increasingly more products featuring collaborations with Miku recently. After the Miku glasses and Miku Domino Pizza, we now have an official Miku smartphone. There are a lot to offer, which is pretty ideal for big fans with lots of customisation to offer. While it's supposed to be limited to Japan only, those who are willing to get over with the contract part and possibly the proxy can actually go for it.
EDIT: My friend Yui got one recently as well. You can check his review here!
Website:
http://dx39.net/sp/
WTF - why can't they do this for us in the US. I would love to see a Gundam or EVA theme phone for sale here. But alas, they won't take a chance on that here :_(
ReplyDeleteI remember there was also a Gundam phone for Sofbank, but as expected it was for Japan only. I sometimes think they may worry it's still niche outside Japanese market? I do hope they will open it up more in the future.
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