Consumer products will embrace Fashionable sylish look and partner with name brands !

The Flasy Flash Drives called Crystal-ice Philips-Swarovski USB

The more and more technology companies are using fashion as their marketing and sales vehicle. The two top names Philips and Swarovski pooled their resources in order to come up with this glitzy and quite unique-looking USB drive, which is included in the Active Crystal Collection.

For sure all you computer buffs out there know how useful the USB drive can be. But then did you know that USB drives could also be an accessory? Well with this Philips and Swarovski crystal integrated USB drive you’ll have another think coming. By its appearance, this USB is really quite eye-catching. To top it off, this memory stick is really capable of storing your much-needed information with its 1GB storage capability. With one of this Active Crystal collection you will be killing two birds with one stone as you can have a portable storage and a great accessory to match! No price has been disclosed, you have to wait ‘til August if you want to get your hands on one of these babies.

The two companies have made a multiyear partnership that brings together designers from both companies to create, develop and market consumer electronics accessories under a new brand, Active Crystals.

There is a gap in the market for lifestyle electronics," said Henk de Jong, general manager of business group peripherals and accessories for Philips, in a telephone interview from Eindhoven, the Netherlands. "Women age 20 to 40 are enormously interested in a blending of lifestyle, design and functional technology that is not intrusive."

In the past, Swarovski has licensed its stylish name and crystals for a variety of electronic gadgets — there are, for example, a pink Swarovski Nintendo DS Lite game player, a Decokichi Swarovski- encrusted mouse, headphones with Swarovski crystals by D'Cruz, Swarovski-embellished ear buds from Elecom and a Zakang Kiss heart-shaped MP3 players with Swarovski crystals.

The Philips-Swarovski peripherals will carry a modest price premium, executives indicated. The price range over the whole product line will be €40 to €250. "We didn't want to price it so that women think it is not for them," de Jong said.

"This is a long-term strategy for us," Provoost said of the Swarovski move. "There are many concepts on the table — sound and storage are just the entry points. Consumer electronics in many respects has become a lifestyle business and, I would say, a fashion business."

In general, girl gadgets with designer names "are very hot today," The emphasis by electronics companies on seeking a feminine touch, is less about women catching up with technology and more about tech companies catching up with women.

As more and more women are becoming tech savy and powerful in business the consumer electronics will have to be sensitive to fashion and jazzy looks of the products.

We will see more and more technology companies partnering with the fashion brands to launch the high end fashionable consumer goods in the market place. This is just the beginning of such wave. This holiday season will be flooded by such items some of the examples are ipod, iphone, notebooks, headphones, mobile phones that will be high fashion items for women and men.