mobile phone with hiragana menus
Posted by site admin on 25 Nov 2005 at 04:32 pm | Tagged as: Japan, Japanese, kanji, software
NTT Do Co Mo is releasing a mobile phone aimed at the children’s market. One of the phone’s features is that users will be able to switch its screen-menu system from kanji to hiragana.
子どもが簡単に操作できるよう、メニューやガイドの難しい漢字をひらがなで表示することができます。
I wonder if similar features can be found on other electronic items in Japan. (Matt, any ideas?)
The phone is model SA800i.
I’ve never seen something with a specific kanji/hiragana switching feature before — most products aimed at kids just use hiragana and be done with it. (With the extent of kanji->hiraganafication depending on the exact age of the target market.)
I’m not sure why this phone should be different — I can’t see any adult (or teenager!) voluntarily choosing this over a regular phone, so why bother with kanji at all? Very mysterious.