Style statement: Cell phones get thinner

NEW DELHI: Slim is in this season. The latest design mantra for mobile phone makers in the Indian market is to be high on the slim quotient. This trend, kickstarted by the Moto RAZR and SLVR series, is now being replicated by almost every mobile manufacturer. While LG and UK-based Fly have already launched their offerings, BenQ-Siemens, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are following suit.

With the Indian market getting increasingly design and style conscious, major players are aiming to have a slim phone in their portfolio, which explains the slew of launches in this category.

This week, Samsung will introduce what it touts as the world’s slimmest phone-X820, a 6.9mm thin model from its Ultra Edition series. Motorola, on the other hand plans to roll out it’s CDMA RAZR called ‘Style’ bundled with a Tata Indicom connection.

That’s not all, Sony Ericsson, joins the bandwagon with its Z550 model by the end of this month. Last week LG launched its first phone from the ‘black label series’ along with Fly, which launched three slim phones. These two brands would now be extending their slim phone portfolio in the coming months.

And the fight on being slimmer hightens with each launch, “The BenQ-Siemens EF81, which would be launched soon, is the slimmest 3G phone yet, beating LG U880 by 2.3mm and Motorola V3x by 4.1mm,” says a BenQ-Siemens spokesperson.

Keeping with the slim factor, BenQ-Siemens’ next launch in India is on similar lines — the S68. “We have a dedicated category catering to the slim factor,” says Sony Ericsson general manager ( India) Sudhin Mathur. The company also claims that its recently launched PDA — M600 is the thinnest device in the category.

Fly India CEO Rajiv Khanna has a different take with regard to the company’s positioning: “We are eyeing the replacement buyer who constitute over 40% of the metro subscriber base.” Fly is also set to widen its offerings in the slim segment — next on the cards is the 9.2mm Fly 2040, to be followed by the RAZR look alike — MX300.

Samsung is also gearing up to face the slim fight with its ‘ultra slim’ edition launch this week. “Our focus area will be design and form factor and we plan to introduce the slimmest phones in the candybar slide-up and clamshell categories,” said Samsung Telecommunication head (marketing) Asim Warsi.