Japan bakery scores surprise hit with 'edible iPhone'

TOKYO: Fans of Apple's iPhone who just can't get enough of the popular gadget can now travel to Japan to gobble up a tasty cookie modelled on the popular smartphone.

A small countryside bakery in western Japan has enjoyed a surprise hit with its "iPhone cookie", a handmade chocolate biscuit decorated with colourful, edible application icons.

Green Gables in Tokushima prefecture pioneered the tasty treat in 2008 as a special birthday gift for a customer's husband, said Kumiko Kudo, the 44-year-old owner of the store.

But the biscuit gained nationwide fame after a photo of it made the rounds via microblogging site Twitter, thanks to a posting by two popular tweeters, economic writer Kazuyo Katsuma and pop singer Komi Hirose.

Since then Kudo has sold hundreds of the cookies.

"It is totally surprising to have such a big reaction," she said. "At first, the cookie was made just to meet a friend's request and I had no intention of receiving additional orders."

In March, she presented one of her biscuits to the president of Softbank, the iPhone and iPad's exclusive cellular carrier in Japan, Masayoshi Son, who was quoted as saying: "I'm so happy. I cannot possibly eat this!"

The hand-made iCookie doesn't come cheap at 2,730 yen (33 dollars), and is only available by order and inside Japan, where the waiting time to snap up one of the biscuits has been as long as two months.