iPhone, LG Prada; now Armani joins fashion phones with Samsung

Tidbits from my time-travel into the digital future that already exists here in Seoul...

So the iPhone is the sexy cool must-have gadget for Americans. Europeans are rather split by the device, some say they gotta have it, others are quite luke-warm to it. But as I suggested back in January when it was announced, now I have confirmation from many Korean friends and contacts, that the iPhone is totally not overwhelming the local industry. Several have pointed out that the iPhone is mostly a copy or clone of the award-winning LG Prada phone (which won the industrial design award already last year well before the iPhone was even announced)

With that, we met up today with our friend Matthew Weigand of the Korea IT Times (a brilliant monthly magazine on whats happening in IT industry in Korea. If you like our book Digital Korea, this magazine is the "must-read" follow-up which literally covers all the same topic matters from broadband internet and 3G mobile telecoms to virtual reality, robotics, telematics etc, just like our book.

Matthew gave us his latest issue of the printed magazine and in it there is a fascinating story that Samsung will be introducing soon an Armani phone, based on the remarkably positive success of the 600 Euro/900 USD LG Prada phone. Fashion and phone industry convergence, yes, you heard it here before at Communities Dominate. It is rolling along. Now Armani, when do we see phones by Brioni, Canali, Hugo Boss..