Call me: Fixed-line telephones used to be a lot like refrigerators: dull but essential. These days they are more akin to microwave ovens: more buttons than dials, and still useful, but not a must-have item. Marketing the humble phone is similar to promoting any commodity that consumers can live without — you need a gimmick.
Sanyo has conjured something very Japanese in attracting attention to its fixed-line offerings. The functionally titled TEL-LANW60 automatically announces Urgent Earthquake News Flash alerts as soon as the Japan Meteorological Agency issues them. The quake-warning system needs an Internet connection to do its work — the newer iPv6 standard, not the old iPv4.
Not content with an aural warning, the phone's 1.7-inch backlit liquid-crystal display on the handset flashes a red warning, another light on the handset blinks and a red light on the LAN terminal box also flashes red.