I love it! I’d get one if we had it where I live.

“If you want a pink phone, get a pink case.”
^ Why should someone have to purchase something ADDITIONAL in order to be 100% satisfied with a purchase? What’s wrong with an item that caters to all their wants at the same time? Samsung identified a customer desire for pink phones, and they did well to deliver. Would you go buy blue paint to change the color of your shoes because you bought white shoes (seeing as shoes only come in white now, for it is up to the customer to customize to their liking) when you really only wanted blue shoes?

This is clearly just an exercise in giving consumers more options. (which they will profit off of, but that is besides the point.)

ALSO, in order to be completely fair to EVERYONE, that would mean no market segmentation and no advertising geared to any specific audience. Do you think it’s racist for a company to customize its product range for specific regions? Wow, we can’t offer products/services in a multiple languages, because that would be racist – they’re only useful to certain portions of the population. McDonald’s can only offer the same products all over the world in order to be fair to everyone, so no Angus burger in the States, no McGriddles in Canada, etc. Also, say bye-bye to those girls at game launches/promotions and car shows– we’ll replace them with sexless robots and mannequins!

I think people are missing the point here. The main point of this phone’s sexism is not the pink colour (although it is sexist to only have a pink phone for women- why can’t men have one? Why don’t they produce phones in more colours than pink and black/gray, such as blue, red and green like Nintendo DS?), but the fact that they think women need a phone that will tell them how to look pretty and will buy them on that basis. It will probably be ridiculously expensive and not necessarily work all that great, but that’s ok because women don’t care about things like ease of use of value for money, just cuteness, right?

It’s a pretty strange thing to package with a phone anyway- on the one hand you have as practical tool that everybody needs, and on the other what amounts to forced advertising for something that you can find better info about on the internet or in magazines. But it’s following a long and time honoured trend of making things for women which include gimmicky beauty-related parts (eg cars with extra mirrors and lipstick compartments) because product designers couldn’t think of a better way to make their product appeal to women. It sends the message that no matter what you do or buy (technical phones, use computers, drive a big car), what matters most is that you look nice because that’s the only thing that counts about a women. It’s often used to disguise a worse product because they think women are stupid and can’t tell, and a lot can’t- not because they are stupid, but because men gatekeep with technical knowledge and women are discouraged from getting into science and tech.

Pink and geobot, you are straw-manning. Market segmentizition is not discriminatory. WHat is discriminatory is when you make products for one sector that aren’t really customized to fit that sector, they’re just the mainstream product with a few bells and whistles and image changes added. This phone is basically a regular Android phone with random stuff attached. It would not be racist to have things in different languages because products need to be accessible to everyone. The case of gendered colours is different because it’s not about providing different options, it’s about forcing people into gendered categories. Not all women like pink and beauty products, but not do we necessarily want a plain black phone either. And hey guess what, not all men want a black phone either! Why cant we have a range of colours, or if not possible, skins to change it? I know why of course- because it’s more expensive to produce- but that means we’re being forced into gender categories for the benefit of the companies. Some women DO want a pink phone, and that’s fine, and they should be able to get that, but it’s insulting that Samsung assumes that that applies to all women. Yes, I know I don’t have to buy the phone if I don’t like it, but that’s not the point. The point is that this phone’s marketing is part of a larger media and societal complex that emphasises that you have to be conventionally feminine and that looks matter most.

WHy can’t we have a phone designed for women that would be useful specifically to them without being patronizing? Women tend to have more responsibilities outside work so why can’t there be a smartphone that incorporates that? For example by emphasising planners, diaries and reminder alerts? I use the alarms on my phone a lot to remind me to do things, and I wish they were more customizable and I could name them so I can recall what it was I was meant to be doing when it goes off. And it should be marketed and designed in a tasteful and non-patronizing way ie not made to be all about being a mom or whatever.

Wow, I didn’t know I cared this much about a damn phone but the comments were so stupid I had to say something!

I’d say they shouls make the phone avaialable in diffent colors to entice everyone. I know my wife wouldn’t mind a phone in white, black, bronze or even mustard yellow. Can I get one with HelloKitty on it ? It’ll sell.