It's not often a mobile phone is a hot story in Women's Wear Daily, but at the Milan Fashion Week, Italian designer Giorgio Armani has announced a mobile phone and other devices produced by South Korea's Samsung.
In a press release, Giorgio Armani, President and Chief Executive Officer of Giorgio Armani S.p.A. says:
"Today fashion has expanded to encompass our way of life, not just how we dress, but how we design our home, the hotels we stay in, the car we drive and the technology we buy. In fact, we make as much of a personal statement with the mobile phones that we carry or the televisions we have in our living rooms as we do with the shoes and bags we wear or the furnishings we chose to place in our homes. These are all lifestyle decisions, where design and performance are the criteria. Samsung has successfully anticipated the growing role for consumer electronics in our lives, while recognising the importance of self-expression in the development of its products."
It's a tiny credit card-sized device with a touch-sensitive 2.6inch QVGA screen, 3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth.
By adapting a haptical UI, users can feel an immediate mild vibration when they touch icons on the display. Being the size of a credit card and a mere 10.5 mm in thickness, the Giorgio Armani-Samsung Phone fits sensuously into a user's palm.
It sounds like an interesting phone but the cross-industry deal is not really surprising. Samsun's main rival, LG Electronics, has already combined with Prada, another Italian luxury goods designer, for a mobile phone.
Tip of the hat to Unwired View, which announced on September 13 that Samsung's SGH-P520 is the Armani Phone. Also, ThisNext published the spec in July, where jfang commented: "Samsung's answer to the iPhone or LG Prada? Maybe... "
What Armani added remains to be seen....
