Although some companies have been slow to pick up on the public's love affair with the Apple iPhone and iPad, Muji (Japan's version of Ikea) is taking advantage of the hype by rolling out an entire suite of apps for the devices.

At first glance the apps might seem like lightweight throwaway apps designed only to promote the company's brand, but while the apps aren't groundbreaking, it's clear that they were well thought out and may in fact be quite useful. All optimized for English, Japanese, Chinese, the Calendar (free) app syncs with your Google online calendar, and the Muji-to-Go app (free) offers international currency calculation, weather, international clocks, and a handy traveler's chart of power plugs according to country. The one paid app, Muji Notebook ($3.99), even offers the ability to create documents using a combination of drawing, handwriting recognition and predictive text input. You can see the Notebook app in action below.

Via Muji