Fashion Fones

Has anyone ever noticed, recently in the past couple of years, mobile phone brands are slowly fostering partnerships with fashion giants?

Gone are the days when a (mobile) phone's just a phone. Even the versatile Mobile Phone can't escape the clutches of materialism and its lures. Fashion is now not just limited to just clothes and accessories, even phone pouches all sport some sort of brand for all to see! Just look around, how many people have you noticed with Louis Vuitton pouches for their phones for example? Heck, those pouches can cost even MORE than the price of a mobile! And then, there's the branded mobile. A classic example is Motorola with their Dolce & Gabbana Gold limited edition v3's (*ugh*).

One of Motorola's brilliant schemes? Probably. The v3 (and now v3i) ranges now come in all sorts of colours. They started off with Silver (the original classic), then Black (arguably their best move ever), then suddenly, there's Pink, Ice blue, Red and then, D&G gold (pictured above). And just when you think they've climaxed at their ideas, they release yet another new series, dubbed "MotoRazr v3: The Miami Ink collection"!


For those who are not familiar with Miami Ink, its a weekly series shown on Astro's Travel & Living channel (no.11), all about this Tattoo parlour in Miami run by the owner, Ami James, together with 4 of his other friends.


I personally follow their episodes and I must admit, though I don't sport any yet, its created an interest in tattoos for me. From the episodes, you see a whole variety of people visiting their parlour (aptly named "Tattoo" on the front) with so many different reasons why they get tattoos, and the symbolic meanings their requested tattoos have in their lives. Of course, Ami and his crew are the best at what they do, and judging by the art pieces they've done, it simply blows you away. Check out their site here.

ANYWAYS, although I don't agree with Motorola's rainbow colouring schemes on their v3/v3i's, I do think that this collaboration with Miami Ink is a good move for them. According to Ami, "Now, people who aren't into tattooing their bodies can get one on their phone instead". Too bad though, that this is limited to the US market only. No launch plans for Asia unfortunately. Oh well.

Moving on.... if you have not heard yet, there's yet another collaboration between a mobile brand and a fashion giant, behold, the new LG KE850 PRADA. That's right, P-R-A-D-A.

"The Prada phone by LG (KE850) would feature a large 3" LCD touchscreen display with yet unknown resolution and would also have a 2 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics and a microSD memory card slot. The most interesting thing about the display itself is that it's made using the capacitive touchscreen technology. What that means is that the screen uses electroconductivity to sense your touch - much like the touchpad on the popular LG Chocolate. This technology is made to be used with fingers only, so the use of a stylus is out of the question whatsoever." (Gsmarena)

Doesn't the look and specs just seem oh-so-familiar? Yup, this is like a black version of the Apple iPhone! (Difference is, LG Prada's available end March 2007, and iPhone's in 2008!!)

From the sounds of it though, if the LG Prada has similar touchpad sensivity as the LG Chocolate, then I can bet that its gonna result in a whole lot of frustrations by users. Numerous owners of the Chocolate have already grumbled about "accidental brushes" on the touchscreen resulting in applications opening, or missed-pressed keys. But then again, LG Prada buyers won't REALLY be interested in what functionalities this LG has to offer, all they want to be seen with is, the name PRADA on the phone, and that would be enough.

Ok, maybe I'm over-exaggerating about buyers in general, but this will most likely apply to buyers in Brunei at least.

On a serious note though, maybe Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and other brands should take note of these collaborations. Who knows where it would lead them? Imagine Sony Ericsson tying up with Giorgio Armani, or Nokia with Louis Vuitton, or even Samsung with Gucci! Now, THAT, I'd like to see. In the meantime though, we've just got to settle with D&G v3's and PRADA LG's. What a tough choice.