Top luxury mobile phones

Luxury goods companies seems to be realising the potential of Geek fashion. The companies which realised long ago their brands could be extended to more than clothes and bags, have been rushing to embrace the gadgets.

And on the top of their attention are mobiles, which has been a status symbol and part of fashion accessories for some time now. International fashion labels Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Armani are rushing in to release fashionista mobiles.

Here's a look into the Designer Mobiles.
Vertu Ascent Ti
Vertu is a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones. The company is an independently run, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia.

The concept of the company is to make mobile phones in the same vein as luxury watch manufacturers like Rolex, IWC and Patek Philippe.

November saw the launch of the high-end Vertu Ascent Ti in India. Ascent Ti is a quad-band 3G handset with a 3 mega pixel camera with flash.

In Ascent Ti, 'Ti' stands for Titanium, a non-corrosive metal with the highest strength-to-weight ratio, plus the ability to withstand extreme temperatures.

Ascent Ti comes in three colours: Black or Red leather with a Black ceramic pillow, or Brown with a Silver ceramic pillow. The phone has a scratch-resistant Sapphire crystal face made of the same material that is used for the camera lens.

TAG Heuer

Last month Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, part of French luxury goods group LVMH, licensed its name to French customised design manufacturer Modelabs for a series of luxury mobile phones.

“The launch of the first TAG Heuer mobile telephone is foreseen for the second half of 2008,” the companies said in a joint statement.

Modelabs will collaborate with Tag Heuer for the design, production and marketing of mobile phones under the Tag Heuer brand.



LG Prada
Last December 2006 LG Electronics and Italian fashion goods maker Prada announced an exclusive partnership to develop a mobile phone.

The first Prada phone, LG-KE850, was launched in January 2007. In LG-KE850, Prada's involvement extended beyond exterior aesthetics to the key elements of the user experience such as the advanced touch interface, ring tones, pre-loaded content, mobile phone accessories and the exclusive leather case, inspired by the classic Italian craftsmen tradition.

The LG Prada phone introduced for the first time touch-screen display on mobiles eliminating the conventional keypad, making the overall usage experience a highly tactile one.

An extra wide LCD screen maximised visual impact, allowing users to benefit from several key features of the phone, including 2 megapixel camera featuring Schneider-Kreuznach lens, video player and document viewer capacity.

LG Prada was launched at a price tag of $780.

Levis Mobile Phones





Levis (yes, the jeans manufacturer) launched their first mobile phone in Hong Kong with French group ModeLabs. The customised design manufacturer (CDM) introduced the first Levi's handset last month.

Featuring a 2 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, MP3 player and Bluetooth, Levi’s phone also carries the Levi's brand logo at the back.

Asian markets, particularly China, are the largest in volume in the world for mobile phones and are hence highly strategic. However, no mention on price of the Levi's mobile device.






Samsung-Armani Mobile Phone



In September, Italian designer Giorgio Armani joined forces with Samsung Electronics to design a mobile phone, along with other consumer electronics.

Armani, one of Italy's leading fashion designers, unveiled the mobile phone model in September at his show for Giorgio Armani women’s wear for spring and summer 2008.

Armani-Samsung phone has the size of a credit card and is 10.5 millimeters thick. The phone has a 2.6-inch QVGA TFT LCD screen and is equipped with a 3 megapixel camera, a music player supporting various types of music formats and a full Internet browser.

The Giorgio Armani-Samsung Mobile offers a microSD type external memory slot and comes with a Bluetooth stereo headset.






Motorola and Dolce & Gabbana



In June 2006, Dolce & Gabbana teamed up with mobile manufacturer Motorola to launch a limited-edition MotoRAZR V3i phone that retailed worldwide for about $550 and included a swinging gold pendant with the initials DG, three disco polyphonic ring tones and a voice that announced the name of the fashion house when the phone is switched on or off.

D&G and Motorola also partnered to release 1,000 "gold" Motorola RAZR V3i phones. Sold exclusively through Dolce & Gabbana boutiques worldwide, V3i model featured the famous RAZR slim shape, and included a premium gold metallic finish.

It also boasts a personalised background with screensaver, a tailored sound for power up and down and an exclusive polyphonic ring tone. Other specs of the quadband GSM gold V3i included Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, and a microSD memory slot.






Sony Ericsson Julien MacDonald

In March 2007, the fashion designer Julien MacDonald gave a spring makeover to Sony Ericsson K510i.

Julien replaced the midnight black and polished purple exterior of the phone with an exotic floral print.

The handset features a 1.3 megapixel camera with digital zoom, Bluetooth and an MP3 player.


Source: http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604657.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604658.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604660.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604661.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604663.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604664.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604695.cms
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-2604697.cms