Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Motorola wears technology on its sleeve

From: "marcel_rf1" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 19:14:18 -0000

Motorola wears technology on its sleeve

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Published: Friday, June 06, 2003 

BY RHONDA ASCIERTO 

Why lug your cell phone and personal digital assistant around when
you can wear them? 

Wireless, wearable digital devices are the future, say analysts, and 
Frog Design Inc. is looking to get a jump-start by making wearable 
computers trendy. 

The Sunnyvale design firm is famous for creating stylish products for 
the likes of Apple Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. 

Now Frog has released its first conceptual designs for "fashionable" 
wearable products for Motorola Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill. Financial 
details of the deal were not disclosed. Frog typically charges
$50,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars for its projects,
although it has done multimillion dollar deals before, says Frog 
public relations director Paul Brunato. 

While the products were invented by Motorola's iDEN group and the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Frog's job was to make sure 
users would want to actually wear them. 

"We need to make the technology fit more closely with your lifestyle 
and Frog definitely has experience to do that," says Franco Lodato, 
chief designer at iDEN's subscriber's group. 

The devices will be able to operate independently, but the plan is to 
have them interconnected via Bluetooth wireless technology, says 
Lodato. 

"We picked devices that you are used to wearing," Lodato adds. 

Frog creative director of industrial design, Jonathan Guerra, who led 
the Motorola project, says the devices were inspired by "bionic" 
design, which is a metaphor for design based on objects in nature. 

"We're taking technologies that are structural and man-made and 
enclosing them into something that will go onto the body, so the most 
appropriate metaphor was bionic," Guerra says. 

The first range of wearables is targeted to 18- to 30-year-olds, he 
says, but Frog also is working on designs for industrial use and the 
health care industry for future Motorola devices. 

However, if you're itching to get some cool technology in your 
wardrobe, you'll have to wait until 2005 when the products are 
expected to hit the market. A "starter set" of two or three of the 
devices likely will cost between $500 to $700, says Peter Aloumanis, 
vice president and general manager of Motorola's iDEN's U.S. markets 
division. 

Motorola is not the only company making wearables. Siemens AG
launched a range of electronic jewelry in February called Xelebri, 
which doubles as a cell phone. At around $400 a pop, Siemens hopes to 
begin selling them by Christmas. 

And it seems wearable devices are likely to catch on. According to 
market research Gartner Inc., by 2007 more than 60 percent of 
Americans and Europeans will carry or wear a wireless computing and 
communications device at least six hours a day. That number goes up
to more than 75 percent by 2010. 

Lightweight and trendy designs, as well as low-prices, are key for
the mass adoption of wearable devices, says Jackie Fenn, a Gartner 
fellow in emerging trends and technologies. 

Fenn believes the hub-and-spoke concept of Motorola's devices is 
"sound" but that Frog's trendy designs may be the driver. 

"Some people will pay a premium for a wearable device," Fenn says. 
"But they usually pay it for fashion, not functionality." 

http://www.svbizink.com/headlines/article.asp?aid=4644&iid=303

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