LG's PRADA Phone Rivals Apple iPhone

In the catwalk-crazed nooks of society, the fashionistas who gleefully fork over nearly $3,000 for a PRADA bag, can now have a new, matching accessory -- a PRADA phone. South Korea's LG Electronics has teamed up with Italy's high-end apparel and accessories manufacturer to produce an equally high-end phone.
The companies are touting the PRADA Phone by LG as a real breakthrough in the industry, describing it as the first completely touch-screen mobile phone, apparently sidestepping the fact that Apple introduced its own touch-screen iPhone just last week.
Indeed, there are numerous similarities. The PRADA Phone by LG plays music and videos on a wide, LCD screen. It has a 2-megapixel camera, eight megabytes of internal memory, and yes, it looks a lot like Apple's iPhone. The slick, button-free, touch-screen interface is particularly similar.
And even though the two phones share some of the same characteristics, the PRADA phone is aimed at a high-end consumer, with plenty of extra cash to spend.

When it hits European stores in late February, the 12-mm thick PRADA phone (model KE850) will cost about 600 Euros (equivalent to US$780) in France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

LG says countries in Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, can expect the phone in late March. The Korean version is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2007.
There's no word yet though on when and if it will launch in the U.S.