Disney Mobile opens a retail front in Japan for their Android devices

Does anyone else remember the ridiculous Disney Mobile phones from 2006? They were the ones that advertised all the child-friendly locator and parental control features. Since they retired from the mobile industry in 2007, they are staging a comeback of sorts in Japan.

As we reported back in January, Japan is getting an Android 2.2 device that is anything but a child's toy. The Disney D100 comes with a 3.8-inch no-glasses 3D display, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a 9.6 megapixel camera. And now Disney has launched a snazzy retail store in Tokyo to promote their Disney-centric devices.

Combined with national TV ads, Disney's new Japanese retail store stands to bring them more serious attention from consumers. And we think they'll succeed...in Japan. Their failure in the U.S. was to market their phones as child-friendly, and we all know that "child-friendly" doesn't actually appeal to children. Given that their D100 is a much more serious device, we expect Disney to marginally improve their credibility in the mobile industry.

But will this comeback earn them an encore in the European and U.S. markets? We doubt it. Japanese consumers are more open to such novelty devices, and the rapid evolution from other OEMs would make a Disney-themed device too narrowly focused to be considered a first-choice.

source: MobileCrunch