Portable Gadgets Adding a Little Chic to Geek

Pink cell phone earpieces, thigh holster that stows a phone, sunglasses with a Bluetooth wireless microphone attachment, etc. Companies are trying to take the geek out of gadgetry to drive up sales in the phone accessory market, writes The Washingon Post.

"As things get sleeker, it's going to be something that's more and more important" for mainstream fashion, said Robin Sackin, at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. But it takes time for things to gain enough acceptance to become a mainstream wearable item.

Ken Eisner thought his wearable Razrwire was cool, for example. But a guard at Reagan National Airport did not like the look of Eisner talking to himself and wearing sunglasses indoors with a suspicious attachment dangling near his sideburns. The Bluetooth attachment enabled him to use his cell phone without hanging a black cord from his ear. "Though considered geek wear by some, it's considered fashion-forward by others," Eisner said in his own defense. The guard's "concern was that I was a complete weirdo," said Eisner.

Wearable technology is big business for companies because accessories generate retail profit margins ranging from 60 to 80 percent. The accessories market could grow 10 to 15 percent every year. At Simply Wireless, the number of accessories in the chain's 50 Washington area stores tripled in the past two years, now including items such as leather cases and animal-print bags for cell phones.

For cell phone carriers, the benefit is also additional talk time. Making the phone inseparable from its wearer makes it possible to make more calls from the ski slope, the convertible and other places that have not been hospitable to talking.

The number of cell phones that come with Bluetooth capability is in the 55 percent range, and by the end of the year, most phones will have it built in -- which, in turn, means a bigger market for wearable stuff, said Towster, at Cingular. "There's talk, discussion and development around [clothing] products as well," he said. "It's easier to use when integrated with everyday items that people already use."

Such devices will gain even more acceptance as prices come down and more people buy them, analysts and retailers said.

Regine | 3:11 PM | Cell Phone Fashion |
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/10/010313.htm