A big hand for Apple

When the iPad hit the market earlier this year, some sceptics questioned who on earth would want an oversized iPhone? The answer, as it turns out, is simple: an oversized man.

In one of my favourite tech stories of this or any other year, it emerged this week that the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) has ordered 60 of the devices to help its chubby-fingered athletes communicate. The move follows unseemly reports that participants in the ancient and ritualistic sport have been illegally gambling on baseball.

The JSA has caught flak for its cack-handed management of the scandal - but this has now been partly blamed on poor communications.

Japanese daily Nikkan Sports said: "When [wrestlers] try to send email on mobile phones or PCs, they often end up pressing two or three keys at once."

This story's got me wondering if I can launch a similar sales drive. I see the same increasingly generously proportioned faces at the Orient every week. Do you think they would take offence if I offered to solve their fat-fingered communications headaches?