Smart phone, hip dress

look at the best of technology and fashion that emerged in 2007 "" and do a spot of crystal-ball gazing too for the year ahead.

PERSONAL TECH AT ITS SAVVIEST

Cheap is out as far as personal technology goes. This year saw the launch of several lifestyle gadgets and technologies that were lapped up by consumers who clearly overlooked the accompanying hefty price tags. There was an unprecedented personal technology boom that put new gadgets in our pockets, new features in our phones, and new complexities for us to master.

Smartphones and handheld PCs that were eyed with suspicion in 2006 were gladly adopted in 2007. Nokia took the top position in creating a market for well-designed, feature-rich handsets with N95 and Communicator phones.

The Nokia N95, that introduced 5-megapixel camera phones in India, has started a trend that is being carried forward by LG and Samsung in 2008. LG's Viewty, another 5-megapixel touchscreen-based phone, is hoping to bait consumers with its swanky video and imaging features.

Samsung too is betting big on Metal 5, another slim 5 MP camera phone. As per an independent study, by 2010, almost one billion camera phones will be sold worldwide. In India, the imaging segment is growing at 6 per cent, reason enough for Nokia, Samsung and LG to hard-sell their camera phones, even though they cost Rs 22,000 or above.

Home theatre systems that were quite a rage in 2006 have been stumped by powerful iPod speakers or wireless music systems. Great performance, no wires and befitting utilisation of personal music players.

Logitech and Bose have done a great job in converting the iPod base into serious audiophiles. iPod speakers or most wireless speakers include two cube-like speakers with rechargeable batteries that can be moved anywhere in the house where they can play music from the base station (a docked iPod or any line-in source) for hours on end. Easy and stylised, these music systems are found in plenty in the price range of Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000.

Another technology that has found its way in is the global positioning system (GPS). Come 2008 and a booming demand for GPS devices will see a lot of people on our roads taking turn-by-turn instructions from their mobile phones or specialised gadgets.

Most GPS devices give audible directions though less-expensive models don't always include street names and local landmarks. But detailing partly depends on the telecom provider too, who supports with extensive maps or even third party maps that tend to be more localised.

The GPS may have been born in 2007 but will grow exponentially only in 2008-09. Get ready for millions of points of interest to be included in your GPS devices, including gas stations, hotels and restaurants. Simply click an icon on the map, for example a hotel, and the GPS gadget will call up a list of dining places nearest to your current location and also show you how to find them.

Social networking, even if most consider it nothing more than a nuisance, has come of age in 2007. The hysteria around social networks like Orkut, MySpace and Facebook took off from social blogs and websites that were huge in 2006.

Today, these networks have begun to resemble hot nightclubs"" with velvet rope barriers. Suddenly everyone wants to get connected. Having a page on Facebook or Orkut has became synonymous with being cool.

This phenomenon has now started to creep into our mobile phones too. So don't let your eyes pop out in 2008 if you see people connecting with friends (both known and unknown) over mobile Facebook or "scrapping friends" on a concise version of Orkut. Happy connecting.

FASHION'S SMALL STEPS AND BIG LEAPS

The year 2007 will go down as being a good one for fashion. A year that saw new talent emerge, one when the likes of Manish Arora and Anamika Khanna showed their stuff at the Paris Fashion Week and a year that saw senior designers like Tarun Tahiliani and J J Valaya talk about corporatising their businesses, a good sign that the industry is growing.

THE SHOW STOPPERS
Manish Arora and Anamika Khanna, two designers with personalities and design sensibilities that are poles apart; Arora's flamboyance is well-known, Khanna's reticence is her trademark. Yet, these two were selected to show their collections at the Paris Fashion Week.

For Arora, this was what he had been working for and part of his career trajectory; for Khanna, it was recognition of what fashion-insiders had always known. Though everyone applauded their inclusion in such a prestigious fashion week, the question many are asking is: Should Indian fashion designers work keeping the Western market in mind?

THE BIG QUESTION
Who should Indian fashion designers be designing for? Big Indian retailers, many big international retailers and foreign fashion journalists seem to feel that Indian designers should design clothes for the local market, which is huge, instead of trying to please a small Western market that is already saturated with big labels.

Indian wear still accounts for over 60 per cent of sales of all designerwear clothes and yet the fashion weeks have had designers showcasing lines that seem more at home at Zara or Mango.

THE FUNDING CONNUNDRUM
Fashion is big worldwide, so it is even in India, but though Indian designers enjoy lots of media space, their turnovers are still small.

Should they look to funding from venture fund capitalist and lose some control or should they try to grow through internal accruals and retain tight control over their companies? Luxury goods companies like Louis Vuitton have expressed interest in putting in money in this business. Others like JM Financial have already put their money where their mouth is. Others continue to express interest but are yet to commit. Will the next year resolve this funding connundrum?

NEW TALENT COMES CALLING
One sure sign that an industry is growing is when new talent emerges consistently. Happily, that is happening in Indian fashion. The Hi-5 show at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week has been throwing up names to reckon with each season. The names that emerged in the last two years are Samant Chauhan, Varun Sardana and Drashta.

THE ROAD AHEAD
Our fashion designers are at one of the most challenging crossroads ever. Though Indians are more aware of fashion than ever before, there are also more choices available to them.

The influx of both premimum high street brands and luxury brands has meant that Indian fashion designers can no longer take their patrons for granted. There are some who predict that among these fashion designers only the very best will survive and the rest will fall by the wayside.

Will that come true? Or will Indian fashion designers be a force to reckon with in 2008 with exciting bottomlines to match the designs on the ramp? Only a crystal-ball can tell. Watch this space.