toclair@ittimes.co.kr
The world's third-largest cell phone producer Samsung Electronics hopes to team up with Italian fashion company Giorgio Armani to compete against the Prada phone.
Seoul-based Samsung said Tuesday that it had been in talks with Armani over the past few months with the aim of making the so-called Armani Phone. "Our employees conducted a meeting with Giorgio Armani officials a couple of months ago, [after] seeing LG forging a business alliance with Prada," Samsung spokesman Lee Seung-han continued: "Armani and us [Samsung] began to seriously consider about releasing a new model in collaboration when LG hooked up with Prada."
LG introduced the Prada phone in March in Europe with a price tag of 600 euros and the phone has successfully been introduced in Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. Despite its high price, the innovatively designed handsets hit the big time in most markets, even encountering shortages in some places. For instance, enthusiastic Korean fans purchased the Prada phone for $1,300 at online auction sites long before other customers received their phones after waiting on waiting lists.
Following the sales records, some predict that it is just a matter of time before Channel or Gucci phones join the market.
