THE MOBILE PHONE...

 ...FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVERYTHING

MOBILE PHONE SHOW-OFF: Danish design icon Bang & Olufsen has launched a mobile phone which breaks with all traditions of what a phone should look like, and how it operates.

It is the mobile phone which ends an era – and starts a new one. Bang & Olufsen’s collaboration with Samsung on the pocket miracle called Serene has quite simply created the ultimate mobile phone. One just couldn’t advance much further using existing technology. At the same time it introduces a completely new way of viewing the mobile phone, and especially how it is used. Serene is elegant and beautifully crafted, at the same time as being a technological wonder.

Superior
When Bang & Olufsen and Samsung began collaborating on Serene two years ago, both groups brought their special competencies to the project. For B&O it was their superiority in design, mechanics, sound and concept, while for Samsung it was their competencies across the entire spectrum of mobile phone technology. “We set the objective of clearing out all the confusion of buttons and keys which have characterised mobile phones for many years past,” says Brian Stilling Laursen, Bang & Olufsen’s product manager for telephones. “At the same time we wanted to create something entirely different which totally breaks with traditional preconceptions. We wanted simplicity and functionality which build on intuition, while at the same time employing the most outstanding technology. And we have succeeded.”

Simplicity
Serene does everything other mobile phones can do – plus a bit more. And it’s a lot more simple to use. All the functions are placed in a thumb controlled wheel, and are activated by just four operations: Go – Stop – OK – Clear. The screen is positioned quite naturally under the wheel. Until you choose the opposite, when it automatically reverses. “Our raison d’être lies in making things that make a difference,” says Stilling Laursen. “We think we have done that with Serene. Our objective has been to make Serene the most accessible and easy-tounderstand of all mobile phones, in a state-of-the-art design by David Lewis, using the most advanced materials possible, and with mechanics and a sound which surpasses everything else. The fact that it has a camera, offers net access, and also interfaces with our wireless DECT telephones and exchanges e.g. telephone directories and the like, we consider a matter of course.” Serene is as yet only marketed in Europe, and the price of around EUR 1050 means that it will never become a mass market product. But then one gets the very best that the market can offer.

http://www.serenemobile.com