Hasta La Gadget!

“LINE” is an instant messaging application hugely popular in Japan and elsewhere in Asia for smartphones, tablets and PCs. As of April 30 2013, the number of LINE users exceeded 150 million. It’s a messaging application with a lot of unique cute stamps and new stamp collaborations with big companies. Through these collaborations, more characters get added often on LINE, further increasing its popularity.

Takara Tomy produces goods related to LINE’s major characters such as Cony (rabbit), Brown (bear) and Moon (human). We saw a lot of LINE goods at the International Tokyo Toy Show 2013 last week in Tokyo Big Site.

This new one that we haven’t seen before is called “LINE Town – My Touch”. It looks like a smartphone and kids can use it to write messages, send stamps, etc.

According to Takara Tomy staff who explained to us about the toy, the recognition rate of LINE by elementary school students is more than 30% and many of them have been longing to use LINE. Parents would be concerned if it was a toy that connects to the internet, however, “LINE Town – My Touch” is not internet compliant. It has NFC function built-in and kids can send messages to each other while they are hanging out together. After they return home separately, they are not able to exchange messages.

There is a function that kids can use to enjoy “LINE Town – My Touch” by themselves. If he sends a stamp on the messaging window, the character will send him a reply that matches the stamp he just sent. For example, if it is a smiley Moon’s stamp, he will hear “You always smile.” from Moon.

Price: 6,825 yen
Colors: Green, Pink, Blue
Release date: August 2013

There are a ton of messaging apps out there, and of them is called Line. Some of you guys are probably familiar with the app, with one of its signature features being the ability to send “stickers”, purchase new stickers […]

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Popular smart phone messaging app LINE created by Naver Japan has collaborated with major Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy to create a range of merchandise aimed at children based on a new animated series called LINE Town.

The LINE Town series has begun broadcasting in Japan on TV Tokyo (Thursdays from 6.30-7pm) and is based on characters from LINE’s stickers which are more sophisticated than emoticons, featuring a larger spectrum of personas, humour and darkness.

It is easy to understand the massive popularity of LINE in Japan, just from observing people using the app on crowded subway trains and especially when most young people will ask for my LINE id instead of Facebook when exchanging contacts. According to ZDNet Asia worldwide LINE users now exceed 150 million.

LINE TOWN, the animated series. Image via Lineblog

LINE’s popularity coupled with Japan’s preference for cute and distinct characters is probably what spurred the creation of the animated series and spin off products which includes the MY TOUCH phone, a LINE sticker printing kit, several customised LINE stamp kits and toy figures (pictured bellow).

Images via watch.impress

LINE Town My Touch is designed so that children who are not ‘lucky’ enough to have smartphones can still enjoy the simulated experience of using them. The most unique aspect of My Touch for children is the application of NFC technology to exchange LINE stickers and messages by ‘touching’ the phones together (as pictured bellow).

To further replicate the experience of using a real smartphone, My Touch is equipped with colour LCD screens and sliding touch functions that children use to navigate through the menu of LINE Town mini-games and activities that allows them to unlock more characters and stickers. My Touch is scheduled for released on August 8, 2012 at 6,825 yen (US$70) which is quite steep considering it is a fake phone for children.

This strategy by LINE and Takara Tomy to entice children into the habit of using smart phones to communicate with friends at an early age could produce more smartphone dependant young people and create a strong affiliation between LINE and mobile communication.

Image via coolsmartphone

On the one hand maybe it is good to have more children confident with using the latest in mobile technology so that they are quicker to adapt to changing communication trends in the future. On the other hand should children really be playing and chatting to each other with fake smartphones? Wouldn’t it be better if they just talked to each other instead? Especially if they are only a few feet away.

If you were envious of your iOS and Android toting friends who alternative messaging services like Line, fret not as it seems that the Line messenger app has finally made its way onto Blackberry smartphones. For those curious as to what Line is about, well essentially Line is another messenger service much like BBM, WhatsApp, Viber and etc. One of the main differences of Line is the ability to send “stickers”, which as pictured above are basically larger emoticons, thus allowing your chats to be a bit more colorful and dynamic and humorous, although be prepared to be spammed with these stickers as your friends discover its immense novelty value. As an added bonus, it seems that Line for Blackberry devices will feature BBM integration as well. If you own a Blackberry device and you’d like to get your hands on the app, you can download it via the Blackberry App World where additional details of the app can also be found.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BlackBerry 10 gets a fancy photo editor, easyDial gives your BlackBerry Bold 99xx a touchscreen numpad,