JAPAN: Plastic food makers look to spice up the mobile market with iPhone sample cases

Record ID: 463662

  • Title: JAPAN: Plastic food makers look to spice up the mobile market with iPhone sample cases
  • Date: 29th July 2011
  • Summary: YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (JULY 29, 2011) (REUTERS) SUETAKE SAMPLE PRESIDENT NOBORU KUWADAIRA PAINTING PLASTIC SUSHI VARIOUS OF KUWADAIRA PAINTING SHRIMP SUSHI KUWADAIRA AIR BRUSHING PLASTIC TUNA SUSHI KUWADAIRA PLACING SUSHI ONTO IPHONE CASE MORE OF KUWADAIRA PLACING SUSHI ONTO CASE KUWADAIRA POURING PLASTIC SALMON ROE ONTO CASE PLASTIC SUSHI IPHONE CASES (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SUETAKE SAMPLE PRESIDENT NOBORU KUWADAIRA SAYING: "It was rather difficult to make something that still looks like the object and yet fits into a square. It's also a challenge as one is limited in the height that can be put onto the case. Making the item resemble the food with all these requirements is the hard part." STAFF MAKING PHONE ACCESSORIES WOMAN PUTTING SEAWEED ONTO SOBA NOODLE PHONE ACCESSORY (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SUETAKE SAMPLE PRESIDENT NOBORU KUWADAIRA SAYING: "Our normal restaurant plastic food still sells more percentage-wise but that is slowly shifting toward these sort of iPhone cases and mobile phone accessories. I'd say that it's currently about 70% restaurant samples and 30% mobile phone items." WOMAN ATTACHING PLASTIC EEL TO CASE PLASTIC EEL BEING ATTACHED TO CASE WOMAN PACKING CASES WOMAN PUTTING IN CARDBOARD CUT-OUT OF IPHONE INTO CASE ODAWARA, JAPAN (JULY 29, 2011) (REUTERS) STRAPYA DESIGN TEAM MEMBER AKITSUGU WATANABE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) STRAPYA DESIGN TEAM MEMBER AKITSUGU WATANABE SAYING: "We are currently putting out a new iPhone4 case once a month and we try to design something that fits the season. We plan on continuing to release these sort of seasonal cases until December. After that, as soon as we get concrete details on new smartphones or even the iPhone5 we hope to create something for that as well." YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (JULY 29, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CASES ON DISPLAY
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Business,Industry,Quirky,Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAA8AL1H67E7IZBV7T74YI53LLU
  • Story Text: Few would describe their mobile phone as delicious, but now one Japanese company is looking to spice up people's iPhones with their line of plastic food sample cases.
    The company, Suetake Sample, which normally make plastic models of food to display in restaurant windows was asked to start making the cases last year and originally started on a request-only basis.
    While orders originally only started at a few per month, word of the items spread throughout the internet and on the street leading to a more than 6,000 being sold last year.
    While normally samples are designed to look exactly like the food item it's modelled on, President of Suetake Sample Noboru Kuwadaira said that some redesigning was required to fit the back of a iPhone.
    "It was rather difficult to make something that still looks like the object and yet fits into a square. It's also a challenge as one is limited in the height that can be put onto the case. Making the item resemble the food with all these requirements is the hard part," Kuwadaira told Reuters Television.
    The company makes cases ranging from sushi and deep fried pork to chocolate cake and eggs and bacon.
    The cases are primarily sold through the internet but Kuwadaira said newer items such as phone accessories are slowly increasing the share of profit they provide.
    "Our normal restaurant plastic food still sells more percentage-wise but that is slowly shifting toward these sort of iPhone cases and mobile phone accessories. I'd say that it's currently about 70 percent restaurant samples and 30 percent mobile phone items," he said.
    While Kuwadaira makes the actual cases, the original idea for the covers came from a company called Strapya which also sells the products through their site.
    Strapya design team's Akitsugu Watanabe explained that while the current cases only work for iPhone4 as it has a flat back, the company hopes to expand to other phones as well as the next iPhone when it's released.
    "We are currently putting out a new iPhone4 case once a month and we try to design something that fits the season. We plan on continuing to release these sort of seasonal cases until December. After that, as soon as we get concrete details on new smartphones or even the iPhone5 we hope to create something for that as well," Watanabe said.
    The cases cost 2,000 to 4,000 Yen (Approx. 25-50 U.S. dollars) depending on the item and Strapya has started selling the phone overseas with last year seeing about 300 of the delectable dishes head out the door.
    With each month seeing a new seasonal design, August is slated to have a Shaved Ice cover to help beat Japan's sweltering summers.
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