Despite being able to choose between an enormous number of super-advanced cell phones for years now, the Japanese have come to embrace the iPhone. The number of iPhones in circulation is estimated to have topped the 1 million mark quite some time ago, which triggered SoftBank BB (a sister company of Japan-exclusive iPhone provider SoftBank Mobile) to start offering something very Japanese and unique today: handmade iPhone cases [JP] priced at $1,000 each.
The so-called JAPAN TEXTURE [JP] series consists of a total of five cases with different designs. Created under the supervision of a historian, SoftBank says each case is covered with special lacquer and gold dust. It takes three to four weeks to make one, which kind of explains the price.
The main idea of these cases is to show how Japanese warlords from the Sengoku period would probably use their iPhones if they lived today. Each case comes with a specially designed pouch, a booklet explaining the historical background of the design and a storage box.
If you own an iPhone, have $1,000 to spare and a strong penchant for Japanese history, this might be the right thing for you (but SoftBank isn’t planning to sell the cases outside Nippon).
Hat tip and top picture credit: Nobuyuki Hayashi.
thats sleek
Looks very nice! If I have one!
$1,000 is steep, yes, but when you think of these being completely hand-painted, incredibly detailed, and sprinkled with gold dust… the price does add up somehow.
I would never pay this much, and I think the “..how Japanese warlords would use their phones in this day & age” thing is way on the cheesy end of the spectrum, but some of those are quite impressive. Very sexy.
$1000 is kinda bargain since they used real Urushi lacquer and sprinkled picture, even hand-painted by artisans of a venerable company which established In the 17th century.
The problem is, as a fellow Japanese, IMHO the design is “so ugly” and “too much”.
Their past models were much better.
I will reverse engineer it in China for 17 cents. True, the cheap lacquer I intend on using may expose users to certain types of brain cancer, but so is the phone, no one would know what cause it.
the price is incredible… but anyway i adore these hand-painted cases!
The designs look gorgeous and stunning. I wouldn’t mind paying more if the cost was within my budget (like 100 dollars?), but no way am I going to pay for a case which costs more than my phone! Actually, the case i got from http://www.uxsight.com/category/86534/iphone-cases.html is only $5 and it works okey.
Would you pay $1000 for an iPhone case?
I prefer to use that money to eat Sushi than buy that 1k IPhone case!