Will the cube help LG woo customers?

The iPhone started the touch screen revolution and now the Korean giant is hoping that the different interface of the LG Arena will make it a must have for mobile users

When Apple announced the iPhone with a touch screen in 2007, it changed all the ground rules. All the competing vendors were forced to come up with some product with a touch screen in order to show the world that they too had a product that could compete with Apple.

One of the companies that had to do this was LG Electronics. It made its foray into the touch screen segment with the KP500, which is popularly known as the Cookie. This phone, however, is only an entry level phone and doesn't have many of the features that are found on high-end phones. In fact, even features found in LG's own high-end series like the Renoir are not found in Cookie.

Beyond the Cookie

But this doesn't mean that LG's foray into the touch screen segment is limited to only the Cookie. We have to remember that LG is the world's third biggest maker of mobiles. Additionally, LG Electronics is also a part of the LG Group, one of the largest chaebols (a chaebol is a South Korean form of business conglomerate that is government-supported. Some chaebols are larger than entire countries) and companies like LG are known for trying again and again to get the top slot. And LG has the money to do innovative research its 2008 global sales were $44.7 billion.

And it is no surprise that LG has now come up with the KM900, which is known as the Arena. While the Cookie was more of an entry level product, the Arena appears well thought out if one goes by the initial reports of this product, which will be released shortly at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later in February 2009.

Enter the Arena

While the Cookie featured a screen of 240 x 400 pixels, the Arena is expected to have a screen of 800 x 400 pixels, and this means that you can see a lot more. Also, the camera is being upgraded from the 3 MP in Cookie to 5 MP in Arena.

But perhaps the greatest innovation of the Arena may well be the interface. While many are used to the standard touch screen, the Arena will feature what LG calls a cube interface. This is expected to provide four customisable home screens that will in turn drive direct access relating to all the features of the phone.

And LG wants to make this a fully loaded phone, unlike the entry-level Cookie. In a press release, Dr. Skott Ahn, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, said that Arena will be a fully loaded multimedia phone because it features a host of multimedia capabilities. In fact, though the product has not yet been launched, it is claimed to have DVD quality video recording.

Capabilities apart, it may well be the cube interface that may play a make or break role in how the Arena is perceived and received by the market. Many of us, who have played with things like Rubik's Cube in our younger days, may relate to the intuitive interface that the cube provides.

QUICK TAKE
>>LG's Arena will have more features than Cookie
>>Reports suggest that the product may feature DVD like recording
>>But the cube interface may be what makes the mobile stand out