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Label-loving technophiles have it good these days. More and more luxury-goods companies are crossing over to the once-staid sphere of tech gadgets and stencilling their glitzy logo on every thing cold and metallic, from humble thumbdrives to notebooks.
The mobile phone is a favourite target. Prada and LG collaborated to create the Apple iPhone lookalike KE850, Armani and Samsung for the chrome-edged P520, and Julien MacDonald and Sony Ericsson for the sprightly K510i. And who could forget the ritzy gold Razr born from the blessed union between Dolce & Gabbana and Motorola?
Last month, renowned Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer announced a tie-up with French design label Modelabs to create a line of luxury mobile phones that will be released in the second half of next year.
New York-based clothing designer Vivienne Tam showed off a concept-edition MP3 player that boasts a gleaming scarlet body with seductive curves not unlike those of a teapot handle, albeit a very stylish one.
It seems that international fashion houses have wisely caught on to the "ker-ching" revelation that their coveted brand status can rub off on a raft of goods beyond handbags and apparel.
After all, tech gadgets are veritable fashion accessories — what you carry and use reflects your personality and style. For fashionistas, a designer logo on any object gives them immediate bragging rights.
But pretty as they may be, the fruit of the liaisons between fashion labels and electronics makers sometimes appears to be wanting in functionality. Under the swanky hood, you may find that the specifications are nothing to scream about, and the features disappointingly pedestrian.
Remember the Philips-Swarovski memory sticks masquerading as crystal hearts and jewelled locks? All that bling is a treat for the eyes but the added bulk also means that users might not be able to slot other peripherals into their computer's ports.
Last year, French jeweller Cartier also unveiled a USB flash drive, androgynously sleek in brushed palladium and unapologetically chichi with embossed numbers mimicking watch bezels. The drive has a grand total of 1GB of memory capacity, and will cost nearly $1,000. You pay a premium for the name, not for technical superiority.
Some electronics makers disguise basic specifications by hooking up with a fashion brand. For example, Samsung recently dressed up its no-frills 3G Z240 clamshell by painting it crimson and stamping it with the logo of Spanish designer Vittorio and Lucchino.
Beneath the alluring front however, it is still a simple phone with basic specifications — 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth-capable, and 25MB of internal memory.
Sometimes, functionality and practicality are sacrificed to preserve the aesthetics of a product, and the priorities of luxury fashion houses do lean towards pleasing the eye. Look at six-inch stilettos, ultra-skinny jeans and rib-crushing corset tops — not very functional, are they?
Similarly, a qwerty keyboard on a phone is terribly handy but designers are not rushing to slap one on because it just does not look very good. After all, phones conceived from designer marriages favour smooth touchscreens and petite keypads, not clunky keyboards.
At the end of the day, it is simply a matter of priorities. Looks and functionality are not mutually exclusive but one of them sometimes takes a backseat.
Consumers often unconsciously make buzzword-compliant devices their starting point, and then ask what features they would be willing to sacrifice for brand cache.
The Prada LG KE850 might not be 3.5G or WiFi-enabled but its 2-megapixel camera is respectable, as is its battery life.
The reality is that the average tech device already meets most consumer needs, and high-end specifications and designer looks are both luxuries. The question then becomes which luxury do buyers want to pay a premium for.
Word has it that Samsung-Armani will be debuting an LCD screen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next year. There's no word on the technical specifications but it will probably not be too shabby. Would we want one? Hell, yeah! - TODAY/ar
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