I've been an avid Mujirer from the moment I took notice of the Japanese retailer's natural, unpretentious and elegantly simple products. For instance, a Muji chopping block is exactly what you'd expect it to be—an ordinary, neutral wooden block that doesn't need to announce itself.

Heralded by the design-conscious for embodying Kanketsu, or simplicity, Muji's products have been stripped down and distilled to their functional essence.

"Not a fancy towel, but a useful towel. Socks with right angles like feet. Comfortable sheets for a comfortable bed. Beautifully simple bicycles. Functional but never boring writing accessories. Cutlery that fits your hand like a glove. These are some of Muji's products:" (Muji.com)

I was curious to see how Muji's no-frills philosophy would extend itself from analog products to the digital realm. Its apps were among the first I explored when I got my iPad2 a few weeks ago, and they don't disappoint. Users experience the same clean, minimalist aesthetic and high utility they've come to expect of Muji stationery.

+ Muji Calendar is a fully functioning scheduling and task management app with a delightfully elegant interface, that syncs up with Google calendar.

+ MujiNotebook allows you to create a set of lined, graphed or plain notebooks for free-form sketching and multi-media notes. The handwriting recognition capability works fluidly for the Hiragana Japanese character set, but is buggy with basic English letters. You can share notebooks with your social network and through email, but what impressed me most was the seamless integration to Evernote and iBook (what a novel way to showcase your portfolio). Here's a YouTube video about the notebook as well.

+ Muji to Go is a travel app that provides configurable time, weather and currency options for the internationally mobile, which to be honest isn't all that relevant for me (for the time being at least).

Muji stands out from other brands rushing to launch mobile apps. Instead of pushing out product catalogs and corporate communications, Muji has crafted a well thought out experience that ties its products and shopping experience to highly functional apps that people want and will continue to use even when the novelty wears off.