A Ferrari with your mobile phone, sir?

The gimmick is that the car can be controlled using its infra-red port and one of the latest NEC handsets. The toy cars are on sale in Japan for around £50 and are made by Konami.

One of the models is a bright red Ferrari which very aptly sports a Vodafone logo as does the real thing. The other model is a yellow Jordan. The amusing fact is that of the two NEC handsets which can control the car one is sold by J-Phone (J-N51) while the other is the N504is from NTT DoCoMo.

J-Phone is a Vodafone subsidiary, so DoCoMo is probably going to be very reluctant to stock a toy Ferrari with its arch rival's logo all over it.

From a British perspective it will be something of a hoot if the first NEC handset compatible with the cars is one of its 3G models. That would mean that Hutchison (3) would be faced with a similar dilemma. Does it stock only the Jordan car or does it publicise Vodafone via the Ferrari? µ