Games Gadgets n Technology

Can an object speak volumes about your personality? Well, it sure can, if that object is as intimate as a mobile phone. Accessorisation is the buzzword today – be it your wardrobe and the paraphernalia that goes with it or the cozy interiors of your abode. If you aren't in the 'let-it-be-accessorised' league then are you sure living on Mars. The markets is ionised with new innovations each offering that 'extra' bit to woo 'the' mass of customer base. Mediocre pace and space is not for these high-end mobile phones that take form of a style statement going beyond a mere possession of need.

Indian mobile phone market is ripe with juicy entrants like ‘Nokia’ series, ‘HTC’, ‘LG Viewty’, ‘BlackBerry’ et al. And the flamboyant elite have added their favourite piece of jewellery to their existing grandeur.

Grand talks:

BlackBerry

The latest BlackBerry smartphones launched in India such as the BlackBerry Pearl 8120, the BlackBerry Curve 8300, 8310 and 8320, come with advanced multimedia and powerful voice and messaging capabilities. They are choices for executives and consumers who want to make the most out of their work and personal lives.

Katie Lee, RIM Asia Pacific explains, “The smartphone has become a lifestyle statement. Consumers demand robust performance and user-friendly experience for both messaging (voice and data) and entertainment (multimedia) in a stylish design and form factor.” She adds, “Smartphones come with strong consumer-friendly features, such as high resolution camera, multimedia player, ability to share photos via MMS, email and IM clients. Recently, RIM introduced a Facebook client allowing users to log onto the popular social network site on their preferable locations, as well as upload and share pictures via Facebook.” The phone ultimately helps users manage their work and lifestyle uniquely and hence has become a preferred choice in the market place.

Price range: Rs 14,990.00 to 31,990.00/-

Nokia:

Nokia believes in catering users who are looking at combination of style, class and functionality. Devinder Kishore, director marketing (India) says, “The phones suit consumers with an active lifestyle, who can use their stunning designs and cutting-edge features as a fashion statement.” He adds, “Nokia high-end products translate in a combination of ‘Style with substance’.”

Knocking deals:
Nokia 8800 Arte is built with combination of exquisite materials, glass and stainless steel. Its twin sibling, the Sapphire Arte sports an actual sapphire gemstone and a leather cover to commemorate its exclusivity.

PRISM Collection is a modernist collection of sophisticated phones with unconventional designs. It comprises of Nokia 7900 and 7500 Prism. The signature diamond-cut designs exhibit class.

Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold is 18-carat gold plated with the sapphire-coated, scratch-resistant glass display. A smooth sliding mechanism reveals a stunning colour screen (up to 262k colours), high resolution camera, exclusive ringtones by Brian Eno and a wide array of messaging functionalities.

Nokia N95 and N95 8GB - Personal entertainment has taken on a whole new meaning with this multimedia computer, optimised for enjoying videos, playing games, or even locating destinations with A-GPS.

The Nokia E90 is the first GPS enabled device from Nokia Eseries portfolio. The device offers onboard GPS along with high-speed connectivity to allow consumers to search map and navigate to a location.

Price range: Rs 20,000 to 60,000/-

LG:

Anil Arora, business group head, GSM, LGEIL is of the view that their phones offer perfect harmony of stylish design and smart technology. They cater to those who are stylish, want to flaunt the latest gizmos, are abreast with latest technology and who want to lead fashion. These customers consider themselves trendsetters and fashionable.

Arora explains, “Our products have a balanced mix of all the three aspects - lifestyle tag, smooth functionality and superior brand. ‘Viewty’ provides mobile users with high feature-led technology in the palm of their hand. The professional-level camera phone boasts of a number of 'world's first' easy-to-use features never seen before in a mobile handset.”

Price range: Rs. 10,000/- (Shine Slider) to Rs. 22,000/- (Viewty).

HTC

Ajay Sharma, country manager, HTC (India) says, “In this era of converged devices, mobiles have long transcended from being just voice and texting devices to ones that offer a multitude of applications and functionalities. Today, they serve diverse purposes - from being an entertainment medium, extending to m-commerce platform, GPS device to a device that supports business and enterprise solutions as well.” At HTC, they believe that their data-centric devices have different attributes to offer something to everybody, right from a student to a corporate honcho. It is the first phone with a touch flow technology, provides a Microsoft Windows platform, Version 6.

He adds, “Our device should offer them total connectivity with mobility in terms of Internet email access etc. Devices should have appealing form factors, which the customer would like to flaunt. And, business capabilities, which they would like to have, a simple user interface that is easy to use, and good multi media capabilities to pass their free time.”

Price range: Rs 13, 000 to 28, 000/-

Though the mobile revolution is just a decade old in India, its growth has been phenomenal attracting the best of the world. Consumer is the king and nothing but the best can appeal to these masters, who are on the better end of the stick.

Kishore aptly concludes, “While a lot of focus today is on the volumes of new consumers in India, we are also seeing a silent revolution of discerning consumers picking phones not only on the basis of capabilities but also design and form factor. Today, consumers are increasingly becoming more sophisticated in their selection of handset so that they can get best blend of technology and style.”