Friday, August 25, 2006

* * * Cute Phone Alert * * *

Anyone who spends any time on the various forums around the web will probably have stumbled across images from Cute Overload. I'm not sure how they'd feel about putting a moible phone on there, but a contender has surely arrived in the form of the BenQ-Siemens AL26 Hello Kitty phone.

As you can probably tell by the name, the new offering from Siemens is branded with that most charming/irritating (delete as appropriate) of Japanabrands - Hello Kitty. While this cutesyness makes me want to attack my eyes with a cheese grater, anyone who has had the pleasure of teaching Japanese teenage girls will know that they absolutely adore this stuff.

You may think that this phone is just the AL26 with some cutesy graphics on there. You would be... wrong. Well, just about. The phone comes fully loaded with Hello Kitty wallpapers, ringtones, videos and all that jazz. I suppose it makes some kind of sense, what with this being a 'cute' phone and all.

Anyway, this development (along with Apple's U2 branded ipod) has lead me to consider some other branding crossover opportunites. How about:

The Timmy Mallet brand hammer/mallet - why was this never explored?
The Gary Glitter 'My Gang' dirty mac
Roman Abramovich moneyclip
Tony Blair gearstick - unfortunately there is no reverse gear...

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Another new RAZR!

Check out the Mobile Gazette's preview of yet another RAZR: http://www.mobilegazette.com/motorola-razr-xx-06x07x28.htm

They are questioning the need for another RAZR, and some might say quite rightly. While the phone has been one of the iconic designs of the noughties, perhaps it is time for a manufacturer of Motorola's resources to move on to something fresher. After all, the other firms have created equally stylish variations on the theme, such as LG's Chocolate and the swathe of folding Nokia phones recently released onto the market.

What will be the next big step forward in phone design? I'd like to suggest the return of the huge, Graphite-stlye phone. With retro styling taking over everywhere we look (notice girls in leggings and pumps, boys in skinny jeans), isn't it about time that we all had phones the size of bags of sugar?

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

RAZR leads the way

Just a a quick post - has anyone else notice how flagrently other mobile phone designers are ripping off Mototola's RAZR?

Nokia, who have led the mobile market for years with their iconic designs are now being heavily influenced by the flat, sleek, fold-down RAZR as can be seen on their 6111 handset.

Samsung's E900 is another RAZRLIKE handset on the market.

Elsewhere, LG's chocolate is another variation on the same theme.

I like these phones - as a child of the eighties, I guess this is what I always imagined technology to look like, and form should certainly be given as much thought as function!