With Japan’s reputation as an amazingly high-tech country, what still baffles many visitors is the ubiquitous presence of the flip phone, or garakei: a phone design that has been sent to the scrapyard in many countries to date, yet is still immensely popular here. Indeed, look around the train on your commute and the only options seem to be a colourful garakei or an iPhone. But what would happen if the two had a lovechild? Martin Hajek, eternal re-inventor of daily (Apple) products, followed this trail of thought and created a concept for the ‘flip-iPhone’, which would come complete with a lanyard (because Japan), and be available in gold, space grey and rose gold. The end product does look a bit like two iPhones stuck together, but it is a fun experiment nonetheless. The perfect way to increase Apple’s market share in Japan, perhaps? We’re kind of sad that it doesn’t exist in real life…
Check out www.martinhajek.com for more re-imaginations of Apple products and other 3D visualisations.
– By Kirsty Bouwers