Shocker: Fujitsu Japan's phones for girls are pink

Two new phones marketed to girls were designed by teams from Japanese magazines

The public recently weighed in on the shifting marketing strategy of the building block toy maker LEGO and its new line of girl lego products. While LEGO has an expansive line of products, releasing 545 in 2011 alone, there have been an absence of any stereotypical female themes or designs -- until recently.  

But when the company specifically released its LEGO products for girls, many cried fowl at the idea that new product lines had to specifically say that they were for girls. A similar outcry came when Dr. Pepper released its new drink "Ten" that was marketed as 'not for women.'

These exclusive or inclusive marketing strategies have caused a ruckus in the public opinion on gender, and now a phone company in Japan is marketing two new phones for girls. On thing is for sure, when you through gender labels in the mix, you at least get more publicity.

Fujitsu Japan announced two new phones for girls on Friday. 

As a female I know that my needs in a phone must be so much different from those with the Y chromosome -- let's see what Fujitsu discovered when it created female-focuses phones.

One device, an Android phone, is called 'F-03D Girls’ and has been developed in cooperation with popular teenage fashion magazine Popteen.

The phone comes with a waterproof body, special lights at the bottom and around the camera, mini-bowtie decals, pre-installed photo frames, and pre-installed apps specifically targeted and created for a female user base.

The handset Android 2.3, has a 3.7-inch LCD with 480×800 resolution, an 8MP CMOS camera, a TV tuner, an e-wallet function, and a microSDHC card slot -- just what every girl wants.

The second phone, the 'F-06D Girls’ is a new feature phones designed with a different magazine, the teen fashion mag nicola.

Anyone that bus the 'F-06D Girls' receives an original tote bag, a stylus pen (even though the phone has a 3.3-inch touch display). The camera includes an 8MP camera, nicola designed wallpapers, dozens of photo frames, and a total of 3,010 pre-installed emoji. And this phone, too, is waterproof.

I just want point out how much phones in the U.S. market need to get on this trend of waterproofing phones. But let's face it, not just the ladies are dropping their phones in spas, pools and toilets.

The mobile carrier service NTT Docomo is set to offer these Fujitsu phones by January 20.

Well, it is what I feared, the phones for girls are pink and have 'cute' designs and frilly things to decorate pics and emails -- I guess that is the only thing that seperates the ladies from the men.

I won't deny that they both look like fun little mobile phones, so the question is whether the word 'girl' even need to be connected to the phone? If you design it with women in mind and you do a good job, isn't that enough -- why make it so blatant in the name of the phone. I don't see big phones with army-grade cases and gaming perks called Androids for men. It seems like lazy marketing tied to reasonable options in the marketplace.

Perhaps Japanese markets don't mind the label, but I think it only draws more attention to a lack of creativity when you have to say you "women" or "girls" in the packaging -- we are trying to move past the trite 'pink it and shrink it' mentality as it is.