Slim Mobile Phones are In

Cutting flab, without losing any of the advanced features seems to be the latest fad of mobile phone companies and the concept is selling big time. Not till long ago, it was assumed that advanced features such as camera, couldn't be incorporated in slick ultra slim models, not any more. "Slim is very much in. People are moving towards classy looking phones and of course the fact that ultra-slim phones come with almost all the features that matter is helping too," says Llyod Mathias of Samsung. Motorola has sold around 25 million RAZR V3, an ultra slim phone, worldwide ever since it was introduced last year, says Mathias. According to ABI Research, an international technology research organisation, of more than 900 million mobile phones that will be shipped worlwide this year, slim phone segment alone is expected to account for some 200 million! Whether it is Samsung's D820, Sony Ericsson's M600 or Motorola's Razr V3 and Slvr L6, they all have one thing in common - they are slim and "cool". "There has been a transition in the market from heavier and bulky phones to slim and ultra-slim ones. We are moving towards "slim & wide" design says Yuvraj Mehta of Samsung. Samsung recently launched its slim slide phone D82O in India. Just at 15.2 mm thick and weighing around 90 grams, D820 is packed with features like MP3 player and 1.3 Mega pixel rotating camera. Innovation in design is the USP for almost all the ultra slim phones that are flooding the market. "In the beginning, when slim phones came into the market they were more about the looks. But now the customer wants the slim phones to be rich in features also," says H S Bhatia of LG Electronics India. "Design is a critical element of our phones and we also keep the latest market trends in mind. If sleek phones are in demand, we are ready to meet it," says Sudhin Thakur of Sony Ericsson. Companies are thus gearing up to bring slim models in all the segments of the market with a few changes according to the demands of the segment.