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High-fashion phones This season's styles emphasize sleeker designs, added frills

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Digital cameras. Computers. MP3 players. Walkie talkies. You can still buy them separately. Or you can just buy one of the latest mobile phones.

With Christmas approaching, autumn is a time many new phones compete on the phone-fashion runway to be this season's hottest handsets. They're sleeker and offer more capabilities than their predecessors, wireless analysts say.

Some allow you to access your company's server; offer global text messaging; and even have vibrantly colored display screens to replace the drab grays, among other features.

"You'll find more bells and whistles, but at a cost," said Jane Zweig, president of the Shosteck Group in Wheaton, Md., which analyzes the wireless industry.

As technology advances, more devices and software are being packed into a smaller package. That's great news for the multi- tasker, bad for your wallet.

Sleek styles include the clamshell style Palm phone i500 by Samsung - for $599. It includes Palm features in a Web-enabled phone with Sprint's PCS Vision Service, its nationwide coverage.

"It has 50K to 70K (Internet) connections, faster than some desktop connections," said Susan Cheney, Sprint's area vice president based in Oak Brook.

Then there's the Samsung i330 combination phone and computer at $499. There's also the Hitachi G1000 phone and camera that has 400 MHz equal to a PC, for a mere $649.

Not in your budget?

There are cheaper options. How about the Sanyo 8100 camera phone for $99, after a $100 rebate, for example.

Mobile phones for less money, or even for free, are usually slightly older models and require one- or two-year contracts, many wireless service providers say.

The options are almost never-ending.

You could consider, for example, the chrome-accented MPX200 Smart Phone by Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. This phone, a product of a partnership with Microsoft and AT&T Wireless, will connect with any Windows-based operating system and includes other features comparable to your desktop.

AT&T Wireless hopes to introduce the Smart Phone on Oct. 20. The price is still unavailable.

"It's an aesthetically pleasing phone," said Jim Chengary, marketing vice president for AT&T Wireless in Chicago.

Next on the horizon is Edge, which allows for speeds comparable to a cable Internet connection.

AT&T Wireless, like other wireless providers, is test marketing Edge in various U.S. cities and could introduce it here sometime in January. It involves using a data card with an antenna that inserts into a laptop, which can then be used as a phone.

Still want more?

Think televideophony, said Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

"That's when the picture is basically three-dimensional on your handheld. It's going to be that kind of quality," Celente said. "That will be the biggest breakthrough."

But that could be a few years away.

"We wrote about video phones three years ago and now you're seeing them," he added. "Technology keeps changing, so it's hard to put a time frame on other advances.

"The design is there for televideophony. Except the design has to catch up with the production of the technology."

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