Bang & Olufsen Luanches Handset in USA

Bang & Olufsen is planning to launch its first cell phone in North America next month. The new mobile phone, entitled Serene, is a result of the cooperation between Bang & Olufsen and Samsung. The companies announced their original cooperation in 2004 and launched their handset in Europe shortly afterwards.

By combining Bang & Olufsen's concept development and design skills with Samsung's leadership in mobile phone technology, engineering and quality, both companies saw an opportunity to realize a truly unconventional mobile phone concept. "Serene is the result of our vision to constantly push the boundaries of mobile phone development and bring to our customers unique and exciting products", says Kitae Lee, President of the Telecommunications Business in Samsung Electronics.

Serene consists of two equal parts that are bound together by a beautifully crafted aluminum hinge. The display and microphone are placed in the lower shell in a landscape orientation and the circular keyboard and loudspeaker are placed in the upper shell with an elegant thumb operated wheel in the middle taking care of all primary operations.

The company said that by "restricting the number of features on the handset enables a decreased amount of user menus, which makes the experience both logical and intuitive" - which is a clever way of saying it is a bit basic in the fuctions department.

Serene comes with a triangular table charger/docking station made in polished anodized aluminum with a cut-out for the phone. If the phone is placed in the docking station or is set to table mode it can be used as mini-laptop, as the display can turn 180 degrees for convenient use in this position as well.

Recommended selling price is US$1,275 and also includes the charger/docking station and travel charger."

Posted to the site on 30th October 2006