TECHNOLOGY CALGARY HERALD Friday, December 10, 2004
Bling, bling
Cellphone
chic is
calling
young
women

BARBARA BALFOUR
Calgray Herald

Back Away from the Babe, Bar Star, Slightly Spoiled Princess.
Words to live by, especially if they're splashed across the screen of a cellphone that belongs to a young woman aged 16 to 24.

For many young women, cellphones have never been just about conducting business or calling home. With the advent of cellphone chich, these palmsized commincation tools have become the ultimate fashion accessory that can be customized inside and out.

For starters, to dress up the phone screen there are more than 130 "wallpapers" and animation clips available for download through carriers like Fido, Telus and Rogers that target this market specifically.

There are also downloadable video cliips and ring tones. After all, a plain old "bring, bring" is so dull when you could be alerted to your latest call with an edgy rap song.


Wallpaper clips by the hundreds are available to dress up cellphone screens.


As well, girls are accessorizing their cellphone exteriors with coloured faceplates to match their outfits, cute cloth pouches to snap on to their handbags and sparkly crystals to glue onto the antennas.

Or, some ship off their cellphones to a company in Los Angeles to have them set with Swarovski crystals for about $300 US.

"For girls of this generation, technology is intrinsic to their lifestyle. They use it in ways that people of other generations don't," says Lorane Poersch, CEO and president of Crazyfunbabe, a company based out of Winnipeg that designs the animations and wallpapers targeted at this highly lucrative market."Entertainment has traditionally been created for guys. But it's the girls who are the communicators extraordinaire."At $1.50 to $4 a download, the cost is not a prohibitive factor toward multiple

downloads, and each graphic can be previewed online before purchase.As handsets and cellphone infrastructure continue
to evolve, other features Crazyfunbabe hopes to design include e-greeting cards, diaries and daytimer planning. Currently these features can only be supported by the higher-end models -- which teens can't afford -- but it's only a matter of time before they will be able to buy them as technology advances and the prices start dropping.

Robert Gerrity, director of marketing for Rogers Wireless, predicts we'll see a more sophisticated merging of music with cellphone applications, including built-in MP3 players and stereo sound. Rogers currently offer a customized MuchMusic phone that allows for music and video downloads.

In Canada, which tends to be about 18 months behind the trends in Asia and a year behind Europe, accessorization is just starting to catch on. It's a huge market as an estimated 70 to 80 per cent of those in the 15-24 age range own a cellphone, says Brian Sharwood, a telecommunications analyst with the Seaboard Group in Toronto.

While there is a smaller range of products currently available in stores for Canadian youth, that might very well change when Virgin Mobile launches its Canadian stores in early 2005, says Sharwood.

Once just a way to keep in touch with friends and family from school or at the mall, cellphones for girls have become the ultimate fashion accessory, with downloaded screens, faceplates, even inset crystals.
"We should look out for hipper products and edgier concepts to hit the market, like vending machines with cellphones in them."
Crazyfunbabe wallpapers and animations can be downloaded from:
http://mytelusmobility.com; www.rogers.com/graphics; and www.fido.ca.

To have a cellphone set with Swarovski crystals, or to order a do it yourself kit, see www.myblingring.com.




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