There’s a significant skew in Gizmag.com’s readership towards people who don’t just use an iPhone, but rejoice in its functionality and we suspect those people will just love the Kyono Appstand. They might even buy several and give them away in the next month.
You may know the Kyono name from several different directions due to several successful products it has created over the last half a decade – the BlackCoat, the Slimmy and Jimi wallets being the stand-outs, but there’s a consistent flair and ingenuity and simple elegance of design which is endearing of the brand across its offerings.
The Appstand is yet another example of this ingenuity, and is quite likely to become a top seller in the 2009 Christmas period because it sells for just US$17 and because it provides a frame to showcase the center of iPhone fans’ existence – quite literally.
Instead of just leaving your iPhone sitting on your desk, the Appstand enables you to bring into play several dozen really useful apps, any one of which will make you feel warm and gooey because your phone has become a killer desk accessory.
Slide your iPhone into Appstand and it becomes a simple but aesthetic digital picture frame with a leg that can be repositioned for portrait or landscape modes.
It can hence be used as a digital clock (and there are many skins available to personalize the look), or a mini personal media player so you can watch those wickedly informative TED talks and Gizmag videos. Or you can create some ambiance by putting on a digital fire in the hearth or some other meaningful mood-enhancing display, or maybe turn it into a calculator with stand for all those job specific calcs you need to do so frequently.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s also very useful and access isn’t restricted to the button controls or ports, and the same power tether is still used and it puts your phone somewhere you’ll remember it when the escape siren goes off.
Christmas is one of those special times where a religious festival has been turned into so-much-more by marketing genii so they can make money for their clients and stimulate the economy by cleverly trick you into buying lots of things and giving them people you would otherwise probably not give things to. It’s really very clever and we commend Coca Cola for giving us the Santa suit and the marketers of the world for all the cashectomy-inducing fairy tales we suspend disbelief for at this time of year.
This year, you may be able to partially outwit them because at US$17, the Kyono Appstand hits the sweet spot of low cost and high perceived value and there aren't many gifts that guarantee you will be remembered every day of the year.
