The HMD Barbie phone is a co-branded product with Mattel, the toymaking giant behind the franchise.
HMD
HMD, the company behind Nokia-branded phones, launched a Barbie-branded phone Wednesday that comes with calls, texts, and a classic “flip” design — but no internet or social media apps.
The HMD Barbie Phone is a hot pink device that flips open and shut and sports a bold “Barbie” logo on the back, harking back to the iconic fashion doll collection.
It is the result of a partnership with Mattel, the toymaking giant behind the Barbie franchise, which has produced and sold Barbie toys and accessories since 1959.
The phone is available for purchase in the U.K. starting Wednesday, retailing at £99 ($130.74). A U.S. launch is planned “soon,” according to HMD, which added that it will reveal exact details of the U.S. launch on social media.
Unlike the internet-connected smartphones of today, which are the most widely-adopted form factor when it comes to mobile devices, HMD’s Barbie phone won’t be connected to the internet.
The firm is seeking to capitalize on an emerging trend in recent years among mainly Gen Z consumers embracing so-called “dumb phones,” which lack internet and offer only basic text, call and camera features.
The concept of taking a “digital detox” has become more popular over the last few years as consumers have sought to limit harmful effects of social media on their daily lives.
“In our fast-paced digital world, it can often feel like the online buzz never stops,” Lars Silberbauer, chief marketing officer for HMD, said in a statement Wednesday.
“This phone encourages you to ditch your smartphone in times when you just want less browsing and more fun, all with the help of a true cultural icon, Barbie.”
The Barbie phone comes equipped with a 0.3 megapixel camera, along with a flash torch for taking “Y2K style” images, HMD said. When taking a photo, users can add a Barbie camera frame to go around their pictures.
The device will also sell with a hot pink Barbie cover, as well as two interchangeable back covers, including one with colored swirls and another with a shooting heart design. It also comes with Barbie-themed stickers and a pastel beaded phone strap.
HMD and Mattel are hoping to tap into the hype that swirled the Barbie franchise last year off the back of 2023’s “Barbie” movie.
The blockbuster film, which featured stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Will Ferrell, grossed $1.4 billion at the box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023.
For some, there might be a sense that the phone’s launch is arriving a little too late after the film’s release last July.
Despite the phone’s launch arriving more than a year after the film’s release, research firm CCS Insight is forecasting promising sales for the device. It estimates HMD will sell 400,000 units of its Barbie phone in the U.K. this year.
“The Barbie phone taps into the current digital detox trend with a fun design that could have broad appeal,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst of CCS Insight, in emailed comments.
“I’d imagine quite a few people will be tempted to buy it as a bit of fun, but in reality, everyone is so dependent on their smartphones that anything more than the odd day of detox will be a stretch.”
HMD has held the rights to sell Nokia-branded mobile products since 2016 after striking a deal to acquire the Nokia mobile brand from Microsoft in 2016 with electronics industry supplier Foxconn Technology.
The company, which was then known as HMD Global, rebranded earlier this year as Human Mobile Devices. Nokia earns royalty payments on sales of devices with its brand by HMD.
But the first full trading week of the month saw stocks caught in November rains.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed around 3% — that’s its largest weekly loss since the tech-heavy index slumped 10% in the week ended April 4.
A few months ago, tariffs were the shadows that stalked stocks. Now, it’s fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are trading at prices disconnected from what the firms are actually worth.
“You’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in seven stocks, for example. So, it’s inevitable, with that kind of concentration, that there will be a worry about, ‘You know, when will this bubble burst?‘” CEO of DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank,Tan Su Shan told CNBC.
“It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said Tuesday at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong.
That said, a pullback isn’t necessarily bad for stocks. It could even present “buying opportunities” for investors, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management.
After all, earnings have been “reassuring” despite worries about tech stocks’ high valuations, Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS, told CNBC. That means the rain might not last and the rally could find a way to run a little longer.
— CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan, Hugh Leask and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.
China rolls back curbs on rare earths. Beijing said Friday that it would suspend some restrictions on exports of rare earth elements. The move follows talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Oct. 30.
Nexperia impasse shows signs of easing. The Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement Sunday that it had taken steps to allow exports of certain chips from Nexperia’s China facility. Shares of Nexperia parent Wingtech Technology climbed Monday.
U.S. government on track to end shutdown. The Senate on Sunday night stateside passed the first stage of a deal that would end the shutdown. The procedural measure allows other votes essential to the agreement to be held starting on Monday.
[PRO] Chinese sectors benefiting from AI. Earnings season in the country is underway, and while it’s spotlighting some AI-related sectors that have seen growth of up to 57%, others are facing a decline because of fierce price competition.
Fundraisers and fraudsters are presenting themselves as family office representatives, seeking to dupe gullible investors — and then there are also imposters who are in it just for an “ego boost,” several industry veterans told CNBC.
An information vacuum seems to have encouraged imposters. In many markets, genuine single family offices, or SFOs, are exempt from registering so long as they manage only family money. That privacy norm often makes verification hard, said industry experts.
China has rolled back a number of restrictions on its export of critical minerals and rare earth materials to the United States, in a sign that a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies is holding.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it would suspend some export controls on critical minerals used in military hardware, semiconductors and other high-tech industries for a year.
The suspended restrictions, first imposed on Oct. 9, include limits on the export of certain rare earth elements, lithium battery materials, and processing technologies.
The export relaxations follow talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30.
Beijing also reversed retaliatory curbs on exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and other so-called super-hard materials such as synthetic diamonds and boron nitrides. Those measures, introduced in December 2024, were widely seen as retaliation for Washington’s expanded semiconductor export restrictions on China.
China classifies such materials as “dual-use items,” meaning they can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
Beyond military applications, these critical minerals are used across the semiconductor industry and other high-tech sectors — sectors at the heart of U.S.-China trade tensions.
Beijing has also suspended the stricter end-user and end-use verification checks for exports of dual-use graphite to the U.S., which were imposed in December 2024 alongside the broader export ban.
China dominates global production of most critical minerals and rare earth elements and has increasingly used its export policies as leverage in trade disputes.
As part of the latest China-U.S. trade deal, the U.S. has agreed to several concessions, including lowering tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points, and suspending Trump’s heightened “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese imports until Nov. 10, 2026.
The U.S. will also postpone a rule announced Sept. 29 that would have blacklisted majority-owned subsidiaries of Chinese companies on its entity list.
But the first full trading week of the month saw stocks caught in November rains.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed around 3% — that’s its largest weekly loss since the tech-heavy index slumped 10% in the week ended April 4.
A few months ago, tariffs were the shadows that stalked stocks. Now, it’s fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are trading at prices disconnected from what the firms are actually worth.
“You’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in seven stocks, for example. So, it’s inevitable, with that kind of concentration, that there will be a worry about, ‘You know, when will this bubble burst?‘” CEO of DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank,Tan Su Shan told CNBC.
“It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said Tuesday at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong.
That said, a pullback isn’t necessarily bad for stocks. It could even present “buying opportunities” for investors, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management.
After all, earnings have been “reassuring” despite worries about tech stocks’ high valuations, Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS, told CNBC. That means the rain might not last and the rally could find a way to run a little longer.
— CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan, Hugh Leask and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.
China consumer prices pick up in October. The consumer price index, released Sunday, showed a 0.2% growth year on year. It beats analysts’ expectations of zero growth and is the first month since June that prices rose.
U.S. government on track to end shutdown. Enough Democratic senators had agreed to vote for a deal that would fund the U.S. government through the end of January, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC.
Another missed jobs report. The ongoing U.S. government shutdown — which is now the longest ever — means the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t release its monthly employment data. Here’s what economists would have expected the report to show.
[PRO] Stocks that could bounce after sell-off. Using CNBC Pro’s stock screener tool, we found several names that are oversold, according to their 14-day relative strength index. This implies they could be due for a recovery in prices.
Fundraisers and fraudsters are presenting themselves as family office representatives, seeking to dupe gullible investors — and then there are also imposters who are in it just for an “ego boost,” several industry veterans told CNBC.
An information vacuum seems to have encouraged imposters. In many markets, genuine single family offices, or SFOs, are exempt from registering so long as they manage only family money. That privacy norm often makes verification hard, said industry experts.
