The PRADA Phone by LG (KE850), better known as the LG Prada, is a

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

made by

LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG, LG Corporation, the fourth ...

, created in collaboration with Italian luxury designer

Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding ...

. It was first announced on 12 December 2006 and was made official in a press release on 18 January 2007. The Prada was the first mobile device with a

capacitive touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically layered on the top of the e ...

, thus not requiring the use of a stylus. Its black minimalist look, designed by Kang-Heui Cha, was an evolution of LG's popular

Chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

. The LG Prada was announced shortly before

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

CEO

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

announced the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

on 9 January 2007. After the release of the iPhone the head of the LG Mobile Handset R&D Center was quoted saying he believed Apple had stolen the idea from the Prada after it was announced as part of the

iF Design Award The iF Product Design Award was introduced in 1954 and is annually conferred by the iF International Forum Design. The award, which spans multiple disciplines, has more than 5,500 entries from around 59 nations every year. History The iF Indus ...

, where it won a prize in September 2006.

Features

The LG KE850 phone featured a glass covered touchscreen, with monochromatic user interface based on

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Barry Allen ** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...

, and there are influences by Prada not only in the interface but some pre-loaded content on the device such as ringtones. There is a Micro SD slot for expandable memory,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

, and a few other extras include the ability to view

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

and Microsoft Office documents. Four games were pre-loaded: Halloween Fever, Photo Puzzle, Virus, Pipe. LG prada phone private picture

The model released in South Korea also featured a DMB TV receiver.

Release

The KE850 Prada was first released in the UK, France and Italy in March 2007, retailing for 600 euros, followed by other European territories as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. It was not released in American territories. A silver coloured model of the Prada was released in January 2008. It also featured a virtual QWERTY keyboard in place of T9.

Reception

The KE850 sold 1 million units in the first 18 months. The touch slate design of the Prada would then influence those of other phones by LG, including the LG KS20

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

smartphone, and the LG Viewty in 2007. A successor, the LG Prada II (KF900) was announced in October 2008, as well as the LG Prada 3.0 (P940) in 2012.

Awards

International Forum Design iF International Forum Design GmbH (iF) is a Hanover-based organization providing design-related services. Foundation International Forum Design was launched in 2001 as the operative business arm of design promotion company iF Industrie Forum De ...

—Product Design Award for 2007 *

Red dot design award The Red Dot Design Award is an international, annual design competition for product and industrial design, brand and communication design as well as design concepts, in which the Red Dot quality label is awarded to winners. The Red Dot Design A ...

—LG Prada Wins "Best of the Best" red dot Design Award, 2007 * Fashion phone of the year—Mobile Choice (2007) * Best fashion phone—What Mobile Awards (2007) * Gold for best looking phone—CNET Asia Readers' Choice Award (2007/08)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lg Prada (Ke850) KE850 Portable media players Prada

Features

Release

Reception

Awards

See also

References