Wednesday, January 05, 2005

fyi Motorola to build cell phones into ski jackets

All:

Pointer to article:
http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,98693,00.html?source=NLT_AM_B&nid=98693

Kobielus kommentary:
See previous post re creative potential of apparel/accessory-embedded handheld phone/camera technology. A few points to glean from this article:

• The outerwear uses interactive cell phone and portable music technology in snowboarding jackets
• In a bid to win over twentysomethings.
• Motorola and privately held apparel maker Burton of Burlington, Vt., will jointly develop jackets, helmets and caps, to be released in the latter half of 2005.
• The jackets will have a padded casing for a Motorola cell phone and an MP3 music player.
• They will feature a device on the sleeve that lets the wearer control incoming and outgoing calls, and toggle back and forth to music, sending audio signals to removable speakers in the hood.
• cell phones with built-in cameras.
• New clothes will use Bluetooth technology, which allows devices such as headsets and computers to communicate with each other over a short range without wired connections.
• "You'll see more things coming down the pike from us where we'll be taking this technology and vetting it with other partners," said Bruce Hawver, who heads Motorola's accessories unit.

“Twenty-somethings” are the least of it. These are tools, not toys. I’m a forty-something and I want it all.

Jim