Samsung and Giorgio Armani have recently unveiled their long-term partnership, which should soon result in fashionable, co-branded gadgets like mobile phones or LCD screens.
During this week’s Milan Fashion Week, Samsung and Giorgio Armani representatives will announce their future collaboration, focused on imprinting Samsung’s products with Armani’s style.
The first co-branded gadget will of course be a mobile phone, built from top to bottom with the new touch-screen-trend in mind. Already implemented in Apple’s famous iPhone and in LG’s Prada smart phone or HTC’s Touch, the keyboard-less interface of the new Samsung-Armani phone will make use of the so-called haptic interface, which sends the owner a quick feedback under the form a small vibration when the virtual icon on the display is touched.
The phone will be a GPRS/EDGE, tri-band (900/1800/1900) gadget with a 2.6-inch QVGA TFT LCD touch-screen and will feature the usual music player found in most of today’s cellphones, plus a 3-megapixel camera and a microSD memory slot. The fashionable device will measure 10.5 mm in thickness and will come wrapped up in a specially designed Giorgio Armani leather case. As a bonus, future buyers will also get a wireless Bluetooth stereo headset.
The Samsung-Armani handheld will "meet the needs of those who aspire to own a technologically advanced and beautifully designed telephone with which to communicate and complete their lifestyle," according to the two companies’ statement.
About his involvement in the high-tech industry, Giorgio Armani had this to say: "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."
Apparently, the device will be launched in time for the Christmas shopping season- sometimes in November, but only in Europe and for a hefty price (650 euros) that might ward some customers who eagerly await iPhone’s debut on the Old Continent off. Plans for the phone’s release in other areas have not been disclosed.
The South Korean electronics behemoth’s collaboration with the Italian fashion powerhouse will also cover the construction of new LCD screens, that might be unveiled early next year (probably at CES) under the Armani home- interiors line, Armani/Casa.
After Nokia, Motorola and LG, Samsung enters with this new collaboration in the select club of companies who build products for a restraint, but very rich audience, willing to pay a lot of cash for a unique but very valuable item. Nokia for example, owns the Vertu brand, which includes a phone built entirely from gold and platinum, estimated at $35,000… But Vertu is simply dwarfed by a phone crafted by Switzerland-based GoldVish, under the supervising of Emmanuel Gueit, a watch and jewelry designer whose credits include items for Harry Winston. Dubbed “Piece Unique”, the diamond-studded and solid-gold stuffed cellphone reaches a whopping $1.25 million and is not destined for mortals…
In the past, Samsung had teamed with Bang & Olufsen to make a special edition of the Serene model SGH-D820.
