It’s cute. An anthropomorphous robot phone that waves at you when a reminder goes off; answers your calls, takes messages (and reads them out loud, if you choose) and ships with a built-in pico projector with which it can project photos, is Sharp’s latest genius idea for a smartphone. One that also takes the concept of Android to the extreme. The very extreme.
https://youtu.be/HQtIlxe_ZkY?t=9
Watch the concept video…
Sharp calls it the RoBoHoN as they unveiled the device at the recent CEATEC consumer electronics show in Tokyo.
Really, why settle for an “unimaginative” rectangular iPhone, Android Phone or any other regular smartphone out there when you can have a walking, talking 7.5 inch Bob the Builder comic figure for a phone?
Oh me? No thank you. The thing is unwieldy and it’s a toy.
Sorry Sharp.
I’ll admit, the phone is adorable, what with the doleful eyes, the anime voice when it reads out your messages, and the janky movements when it waves at you to pose for a picture or when it breaks into a dance if you ask it nicely.
Placing the phone against your ear to answer calls is like having the contraption whisper into your ear – makes you feel like you’ve got a real buddy. Sharp is touting this phone as the phone you can talk to; a maverick idea that goes against the current touchscreen culture. But I don’t think users are ready for that paradigm shift just yet.
It’s difficult to imagine when it will be fashionable to walk around with a toy in your front pocket, but who knows, maybe if Apple turned their sight to it, people might see it differently.
Apple has been known to make seemingly uncool consumer tech look like tech goals. They recently did so with the stylus and Microsoft Surface.
Sharp has not released a price for the phone which will be launched in Japan mid-2016.
Sharp has racked up close to $13 billion in losses in the last four years, and it is now trying to find a way back to profitability and relevance in a consumer-electronics industry where its brand has been eclipsed by Apple, Samsung and Sony, Bloomberg reports.
This is an attention-grabbing attempt for sure. Everyone now remembers Sharp still makes phones – even if they had to face ridicule to get it – but I fear Sharp will be incurring more losses with this product.
