HMD Reveals Rebranding Efforts at MWC 2024; Barbie Flip Phone to Debut Later This Year

HMD Global, the company known for its Nokia-branded phones, has announced its rebranding plans at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 event in Barcelona on Sunday (February 25). The Finnish mobile manufacturer has revealed that it will release a Barbie-branded flip phone later this year in partnership with Mattel. The company has also released an image suggesting a pink colour scheme for the upcoming retro feature phone. Further, HMD is eyeing to bring back another iconic Nokia phone design this year.

HMD, which stands for Human Mobile Devices, confirmed its rebranding efforts during MWC 2024 signaling a new direction for the company. The company that has exclusively sold phones under the Nokia brand name for the past seven years revealed its plans to launch smartphones bearing its own HMD name. It would follow a multi-brand strategy by making HMD original devices and continuing to sell Nokia phones. HMD says that it will make phones that are “affordable, beautiful, desirable, and repairable.”

The smartphone manufacturer confirmed plans to introduce a Barbie-branded flip phone in the summer this year in partnership with toy maker Mattel. The HMD has not revealed the design of the upcoming retro feature phone but gave us a glimpse at the pink finish. The company has also confirmed that it will bring back an “iconic Nokia phone” this summer. An HMD-branded smartphone will also see light in the same timeline.

HMD
Photo Credit: HMD

 

HMD also aims to boost repairability and reduce the number of steps needed to fix a broken screen of the smartphone. Last year, the company launched the Nokia G22 in partnership with repair specialists iFixit. The handset includes replaceable parts and toolkits so that customers can fix their phones themselves.

Further, the brand expects half of the smartphone devices sold globally in 2024 to be repairable. Furthermore, HMD is launching a first version toolkit for developers and businesses with open design files and information on software integration.


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For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2024 hub.


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Barbie Director Greta Gerwig Reportedly Fought to Keep ‘I’m Just Ken’ Dance Sequence in the Film

Barbie director Greta Gerwig has revealed that the iconic ‘I’m Just Ken’ dance sequence from the film was almost removed from the script. Speaking to Succession creator Jesse Armstrong at the BFI London Film Festival, the filmmaker claimed that the studio executives at Warner Bros. questioned her at a ‘big meeting’ whether the standout scene was necessary. However, she stood her ground and cited the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain’s ballet scene as a reference point for Barbie’s ‘dream ballet,’ where all the Kens would be dressed in black and dance across a wide-open, pink and blue-hued space, as they work out their identity issues.

“It just said in the script, ‘And then it becomes a dream ballet and they work it out through dance’,” Gerwig said in the interview (via Variety). “There was a big meeting that was like, ‘Do you need this?’ And I was like, ‘Everything in me needs this.’ They were like, ‘What do you even mean? What is a dream ballet?’” The scene in question does come across as odd in screenplay format, as it just transitions from a musical fight sequence at the Barbie Land beach into a vast emptiness, with Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu beaching off. It appears as though WB was worried whether the quirky change in environment would sit well with a mainstream audience. Also, Barbie was never intended as a musical — in fact, the ‘I’m Just Ken’ track initially didn’t have a solid place until Gerwig heard and ‘loved‘ the small version composer Mark Ronson wrote.

The song is now a certified hit, with over 78.5 million streams on Spotify and 10 million views on YouTube, at the time of writing. Gosling, who previously recorded songs for his 2016 film La La Land, was the vocalist for his part in Barbie as well and placed at No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August. “I was like if people could follow that in Singin’ in the Rain, I think we’ll be fine. I think people will know what this is. So that was the big reference point,” Gerwig explained, adding that she was equally stressed about the sequence totally failing. After all, this wasn’t the only time filming was interrupted, as a Time Magazine story revealed that Mattel president and COO Richard Dickson flew over to the location to ‘argue’ with director Gerwig and lead Margot Robbie over an undisclosed scene that felt ‘off-brand’ to him. The duo changed his mind by performing the scene before him, and it stayed.

Barbie is now the biggest film of 2023, having grossed $1.43 billion (about Rs. 11,901 crore) at the global box office, sitting right above The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer. It perched Gerwig as the first-ever woman director to join the billion-dollar club, and follows the stereotypical Barbie doll (Robbie) living her perfect life in the pink-hued Barbie Land until she starts turning sentient and is forced to face an existential crisis. Wanting to reverse those conflicting thoughts, she sets off on a journey to the real world with Ken (Gosling), where she learns about patriarchy, the troubled lives of women and how barbie dolls have perpetuated stereotypes and led young girls to have a skewed perception of themselves. The film is slated to release on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, and DVD formats on October 17.

Barbie is now available to watch digitally, and is still showing in select theatres across the world.


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Mattel Launches NFT Marketplace on Flow, Hot Wheels NFT Garage Drop Announced

Mattel, the global toy company, has officially launched its digital collectibles marketplace a year after its first Hot Wheels non-fungible token (NFT) minting on the Ethereum network. In January 2022, Mattel’s Barbie released a ready-to-wear NFT collection in collaboration with Balmain, a luxury fashion brand. The current marketplace is built on the Flow blockchain and does not require users to own cryptocurrency to make purchases. This platform also enables owners of Hot Wheels Garage NFTs on the WAX blockchain to eventually transfer their tokens to Flow.

“In launching our own marketplace, we’re able to translate iconic Mattel IP into digital art, engaging directly with our customers,” said Ron Friedman, Vice President at Mattel Future Lab. “This is the latest evolution of our digital endeavors, and we look forward to sharing more drops soon inspired by some of the world’s favorite Mattel brands.”

The launch comes as NFT technology has faced uncertainty amid months of slumping sales and a crash in the cryptocurrency market triggered by the collapse of major exchange FTX. But Friedman said the brand remains focused on delivering a digital collectible that stands apart from market volatility and offers fans some form of real-world utility.

According to the company, the NFT marketplace is designed for “mainstream consumers,” and users don’t have to own crypto to make purchases.

Also, there are plans to integrate a “peer-to-peer trading platform that will allow collectors to trade their digital collectibles between them.” However, this integration will take place sometime in early 2023.

The marketplace is built on top of Flow, the blockchain that powers the NBA Top Shot platform.

Mattel focuses on producing goods such as games, dolls, and action figures. The company also owns the intellectual property (IP) rights to brands such as Hot Wheels, UNO, Fisher-Price, Barbie, and Matchbox.

Mattel plans to create NFTs for all these brands and has so far released collections for its Barbie and Hot Wheels franchises. The latter comprises artwork that features 60 cars from top brands such as Aston Martin, McLaren, and many others.

The NFTs will be grouped into packs, each consisting of seven hot wheels that go for $25 (roughly Rs. 2,000) per pack. And each pack will feature NFTs of varying rarities. The rarest can be redeemed for physical die-cast replicas.


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