My wife has been wanting a Neon pretty much ever since I got mine, and every time she’s asked around when at stores they’ve always come up with the same reply: currently sold out, or available only to new subscribers (but the former much more frequently than the latter). As her old phone is in pretty bad shape (no cover on the back), she ended up calling AU to find out about Neon availability, and the response was that the Neon is no longer in production. Huh? Is this official? Was the Neon always planned as a limited-time-only product? Doesn’t seem to make much sense, especially considering how popular it’s been, with stores not being able to keep them in stock (or limiting sales to new subscribers). Definitely makes me feel lucky that I was able to get my hands on one.
Category: Technology
Jean Snow lives and breathes design and pop culture in Tokyo -- sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for the following online/offline publications: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Game|Life, and The Japan Times. He also manages the gallery space at Cafe Pause.
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jean, hi. hajimete. I think this was the same with the marc newson AU phone. only making so many makes sense in the fact that it just seems to whet the appetite for the next one - does it not? I got the talby marc newson phone long after it came out and I tracked it down in an out-of-the-way mall. maybe your wife could try the same. I suggest somewhere quiet and unfashionable.
You just wouldn’t really expect a huge company like KDDI to not take advantage of the popularity of a hot product that could make them a lot of money.
I heard from somebody at au that all Design Project phones are limited editions. They said that the idea behind the DP wasn’t to ‘make money’, rather offer more discerning consumers nicer phones, which is why they chose the likes of Naoto Fukusawa and Marc Newson to design them. It also produces the effect you described - people feeling lucky to have one. I also heard that the au shops are the first to stop stocking them, so definitely look elsewhere. Good luck!
As the others said… Low availability can also be part of good marketing. Your wife and the others probably won’t miss the next even cooler model.
Comparatively, high availability at a low price can make good design uncool. Uniqlo is often on the border-line (when not way past it).
If that’s pretty much their policy with the entire Design Project line, then yeah, it makes sense. It still sucks that they had to limit availability mostly to new subscribers though. I had to beg for mine!
Marxy calls this kind of stuff Hyper-Speed Product Proliferation. His article is worth a read.
hey guys,
just a question, or few. did someone of you know where to get an “neon”? and how much cost that phone? can you use it in europe too?
thanks for answering me
The Neon is no longer available for purchase. When it was, it was only available in Japan, and is not usable outside of the country.