SoftBank Corporation in Japan has launched a weird marketing campaign that features a giant husky plush toy to be the world’s biggest cell phone strap. The cellphone strap stuffed animal is 30 cm. tall and a limited 30,000 of these will be for sale.
SoftBank often times has weird commercials for the mobile phones that they sell. The commercial that they have for the iPhone features a family with a white husky dog as the father.
The cellphone strap campaign will no longer be around by the end of August. In the commercial above Japanese celebrity Aya Ueto is holding up a phone with the dog hanging from the strap and she strains her muscles. After complaining about how heavy the strap is, she proves that she can lift her brother a lot easier.
Vodafone is planning to release a set of APIs that will give developers the opportunity to build applications with capabilities to directly charge consumers for micro-payments and has the ability to detect location. Developers will be able to reach Vodafone’s 289 million customers through the selling of games and other applications.
Vodafone will allow developers to use direct billing capabilities for customers to pay for application services wirelessly through pre- and post-paid accounts.
Another fortunate opportunity for developers through Vodafone is access to the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) SDK. The JIL is a partnership between Softbank Corporation, Vodafone, and China Mobile Limited. This will allow developers to create widgets for a total customer base of up to one billion consumers. JIL will be launching a formal website and the SDK this summer.
