My last stop before heading home is Seoul, a few more meetings and I am ready to head back. Only today I managed to take a few hours off and visited some art galleries. Korea is really trying to become a key player in the world of design, so much goverment money is pouring into supporting the industries. The emphasis on design is very much focused on industrial, brand and graphics and not a higher leve of design thinking and applications. They are at least 5-7 years ahead of China and Taiwan. They should be starting from understanding that the design is not only part of industrial/economic policy but a strategic capability to affect all areas of industries and national competitiveness.
For those of you that are gadgets lover, we’re stuck with a constant upgrade cycles and every 6 or 9 months we ask ourselves the question: Do we the new iPhone 5 or iPlate or iGlasses or the new Blackberry Torch or Thunder or Storm? The strive to do more with gadgets and inventing new features and functions and even applications are making our life easier, but not most of the time. These companies are, and will forever be, in a perpetual competitive race to release the next gadget, phone or software that will revolutionize (and complicate) our lives.
Retailers, consumers and carriers are all stuck in between their wars in this age of technology. Nowadays, technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that causing many companies to win fast and lose fast. The game of business is now like currencies trading and highly leveraged. There are no signs of any slowing down. I think at some point it will hurt PC and netbooks will be obsolete. Chocolate Agency (China) will be introducing the futuristic mobile phone that is green and beautiful. Samsung, Nokia and LG phones will intensify the innovation battle, Motorola is trying for a comeback.
Everything here is all touch; everyone I’ve seen the last two week in Japan and Korea is using some touch phones. Samsung launched a full-touch cell phone "Nori" designed for women. The product's name Nori is from the pronunciation of a Korean word, which means play. Typically Asian style, the exterior of the phone reminds you of a cute toy. You can put character stickers on both front and back of the phone, and 3D motion photo function enables you to convert 2D pictures to stereo ones.
And LG launched the first full-touch cell phone "XOXO" with the highest resolution for female consumers that featuring a collaboration with the fashion brand "Lovcat". A heart which is the Lovcat's symbol is printed on the case. It is the attempt to position the phone as more of a designer bag. Very Asian idea but will work here.
And then there are other addons one such as the ZTE Peel available for $80. The Peel is a custom-developed case for Apple's iPod Touch that adds 3G radio capabilities to the Touch, but no voice services. The Peel connects to 3G data network and creates a Wi-Fi mobile hotspot, allowing the iPod Touch and one other device to access the Internet via Wi-Fi. No contract is required. It is compatible with Windows and Apple computers, and offers up to 3 hours of battery life. Want to see one that adds Voice capability to iPad.
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