Puma takes a break from clothing
By James • Feb 23rd, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Puma
It isn’t unusual for famous brands to collaborate on computing products. Ferrari and Lamborghini have both done it with their line of laptops. D&G has done it with mobile phones. Puma, the famous German apparel company, has joined the fray with their Puma-branded smartphone.
Gathering momentum
The phone is actually designed by Sagem, but is Puma branded. It was announced at Mobile World Conference, but slipped through the cracks amongst all the heavy-hitting manufacturers and megaton announcements. Now that MWC is over and the chatter surrounding the conference is no longer dominated by technology pundits, it appears the Sagem-Puma phone may very well have an audience.
Vital statistics
The smartphone has a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen and a built-in GPS functionality that has stand-alone GPS usage as well as geotagging usage. Additionally, the phone has an LED flash for its 6x zoom 3.2 megapixel camera.
Visually, the phone looks good with a slick black finish and it has a custom crimson mobile OS. To Puma’s credit, the company has attempted to justify its affiliation by including ‘athletic and sporty’ features in the form of a built-in pedometer.
The killer feature
- Photo: Apple
The smartphone has a killer feature, though, and that is undoubtedly its built-in solar cell for charging. This is an encouraging move from Sagem and Puma and the hope is it may encourage other mobile phone manufacturers to follow their lead. In an age where going green and reusing energy are top of most people’s minds, this phone, though admittedly not nearly as powerful as the competition, is leaps ahead in terms of environmental concerns.
Whether this will be enough to sell people on the Puma phone is unclear. While pricing and availability have yet to be announced, the phone is expected in November and Sagem hopes the Puma affiliation will hold it in good stead.
Tags for this article: smartphone
