Maker of Expensive Japanese Toaster Gets Into Smartphone Business (theverge.com) 29
Balmuda, a Japanese design company known for its stylish appliances, has announced plans to make a smartphone. From a report: There aren't many details on the device itself yet, but it'll be a 5G handset that's expected to be released in November. SoftBank will sell it as a carrier model, while Balmuda will also offer an unlocked version. In its announcement, Balmuda notes that since the smartphone business is getting increasingly commoditized, the company wants to provide an experience that only it can.
However, the actual manufacturing is out of Balmuda's wheelhouse, so it's partnering with Kyocera on the phone. Balmuda has a fairly limited product line for the home including air purifiers, humidifiers, lights, speakers, rice cookers, and so on. Its best known product is a toaster called "Balmuda The Toaster," which sells for 25,850 yen (about $235, though it's available in the US for $329 through the MoMa Design Store) and uses steam to ensure your shokupan, among other things, is perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Bloomberg reported five years ago that it had become a cult hit in Japan with a three-month waiting time to buy one.
However, the actual manufacturing is out of Balmuda's wheelhouse, so it's partnering with Kyocera on the phone. Balmuda has a fairly limited product line for the home including air purifiers, humidifiers, lights, speakers, rice cookers, and so on. Its best known product is a toaster called "Balmuda The Toaster," which sells for 25,850 yen (about $235, though it's available in the US for $329 through the MoMa Design Store) and uses steam to ensure your shokupan, among other things, is perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Bloomberg reported five years ago that it had become a cult hit in Japan with a three-month waiting time to buy one.
How many toasts does the phone hold? (Score:2)
2?
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Next year's model is rumored to include a Ginsu Knife.
And a spiral slicer.
Everyone (Score:2)
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Not the biggest stretch ever... (Score:2)
Nintendo started as a playing card company. But these guys are just setting themselves up for circuitry fire or failed business unit jokes.
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Nintendo started as a playing card company.
And they entered into an emerging gaming market they could corner. Quite the opposite from entering an oversaturated toy market where even the established and biggest players can't turn a profit.
That's a lot for a goddamned toaster... (Score:2)
I'm financially independent. Unless I'm an idiot, I'll be financially secure.
I could spend that much on a toaster, but I'm not gonna. I strongly suspect that nothing will change my opinion about this, but if anyone here owns one and would like to tell me why they bought it, I promise to not make fun of them. I looked at the product online. I guess you could use it as a reflow oven? So, there's that?
I think my toaster was under $30. It can even toast bagels.
Re: That's a lot for a goddamned toaster... (Score:2)
It seems that it's "unique" feature is that you're supposed to dump water into it to allow the steam to interact with the surface, which is something I do when doing certain types of full-size baking already, so it's nothing alien, though I unusual in this context. The 'smart' temperature management should already be in any toaster oven of this tier, so nice, but nothing interesting.
Considering a decent toaster oven is in the range of 150, and more featured ones from major brands can break past 250, 350 for
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Thanks for the insight. Maybe I don't do enough toasting? Also, I have an oven, among other appliances. I'm not sure why steam would make toast better - but I do sometimes make my own bread. In my head, I'm picturing moist toast. That doesn't sound appealing.
Back in the Marines, the chow hall used a toaster that was a conveyor belt device and the toast came out soggy. You'd then spread butter with effectively a basting brush because the butter sat in a steam table. Chow was usually not too bad, but the toas
Re: That's a lot for a goddamned toaster... (Score:2)
I used a toaster oven when I was in a tiny urban apartment-- sacrificing the space to roast a turkey just wasn't worth it, considering that single people don't really have much call for it... Parts of Asia are under similarly tight space limitations, so I can see the allure there. Nowadays, I mostly use it to reheat fries or individual pizza slices.
Regarding the 'moist', I think they're aiming for the crisp exterior that butter can melt into without turning soggy while maintaining a soft fluffy interior...
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I may also just be too practical. I have nice kit for my kitchen, like knives that were obscenely priced. So, maybe I do understand a little - except I use my knives often and never eat toast. Maybe it's a bit like that?
Also, I can fit like 500 Asians in my house. I can have dedicated appliances.
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Yeah, well, I have a lot of coffeemakers too.
All kinds of tech, all supposed to be better than all others.
Could you shpw your ranking of those you own: Price/Brew method/Result?
It would be far more interesting and valuable than the comments so far.
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I agree, that's a lot of bread for a toaster.
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Remember kids, 2/3rds of "pun" is "P U"!
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He didn't have sufficient yen for the Funny mod.
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The average consumer in Japan seems far more willing to spend tens of thousands of yen on gadgets, including high end toasters. As such you find that products for the Japanese market have all kinds of cool and sometimes dubious features that aren't available anywhere else.
For example some vacuum cleaners have dust sensors so you know when you have finished cleaning, even if you can't actually see the dust being collected. Fridges often have things like ionic sterilization built in. Air conditioners have IR
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I'm pretty happy with my current toaster. It's unremarkable in any way, except it has holes that are actually large enough for bagels instead of just saying they're large enough for bagels. It works correctly - every time.
Will it have a setting for frozen waffles? (Score:2)
How to become a millionaire (Score:2)
This seems like the next step in the "how to become a millionaire - begin as a billionaire and start an airline".
Start a smartphone company.
Protecting a market (Score:2)
Given how hot some phones get if you use them long enough, this is obviously a move to prevent other phone makers from encroaching too much further into their territory.
Great! Good competition! Finally!! (Score:2)
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60 years after that epic movie sequence released in 1958, one of the dancers, the vampy one in the movie, performed on stage another classical bharatanatyam piece. 86 years old, so not as fast. But still the level of grace, rhythm and footwork were just amazing! When people have difficulty walking at that age, she can still do classical bharatanatyam !
Clip [youtube.com] posted in 2020, but I think it is Dr Vaijayantimala Bali's 2018 concert
Obligatory Red Dwarf Ref (Score:2)
I'm still waiting for my Talkie Toaster. [fandom.com]
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Now we understand how it happened. They brought back the phone technology into their toaster and then someone thought AI was a good idea.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it: https://youtu.be/LRq_SAuQDec [youtu.be]
Only in Japan (Score:2)
This is likely a "Only Japan" phone. It feels a lot like a return to the clam-shell phone era in a way. Its been some years since I was in Japan, but back in early-2010s Japan was still doing their thing where they had a lot of wacky design choices for their phones and they were all Japan-only. When smartphones hit the market though, it really sank their boat. HTC was around back then and was making phones but I know HTC has mostly dipped out of the market though, they do make the Pixel still. Samsung and A
Imagine if Toto got into the mobile phone business (Score:1)
That would be the shit.