Xelibri
5

When it was launched, the Xelibri 5 was described as “an angular trendsetter about the size of two matchboxes”. It weighed 74 grams and was available in "ultra blue" and "mercury" colours. The company claimed the phone was “inspired by elements of industrial clothing” suggesting that “it goes perfectly with casual cargo pants and, thanks to the supplied snap-link, can be conveniently attached to a belt or waistband”. When users wanted to make a phone call they “simply snapped out of its clip”. In the launch material for the Xelibri 5, it was described as follows: “Just like The Evolutionary History of Man – from water to land the Xelibri 5 moves from inside the pocket to outside. Clip it here, chip it there, clip it anywhere!” More information about Xelibri: In 2003, German mobile phone maker Siemens launched a range of quirky fashion-centric wearable mobile phones, with “radically different shapes” under the Xelibri brand. When announcing the project, Siemens described the Xelibri products as “fashion accessories that make phone calls” which featured “innovative wearability concepts”. The Xelibri team declared it had “abandoned the whiz-bang technological promises of the future in favour of provocative style and a lot of fun” delivering products that would “shake things up a bit with designs unlike anything you’ve seen before.” The company’s hypothesis was that “most people buy the mobile phone that looks the best, and many have a habit of showing it off.” It believed this showed that mobile phones could be “potential fashion accessories like watches, handbags, and shoes.” This was underlined by its belief that it made “fashion accessories that look good, feel right and happen to make phone calls”. The president of Xelibri, George Appling, stated that he envisaged “a scenario where people will own many fashion accessory phones and wear the one that matches their mood, the occasion, or their attire”. In what most believed was a near-saturated mobile phone market, Siemens hoped this approach would help it capture a new avenue of market share. The goal was also to persuade consumers to own several phones. Xelibri worked with top designers such as IDEO to develop the products and it was planned that designs would change frequently. Each Xelibri collection consisted of four phones and like fashion accessories the plan was that there would be a spring/summer and fall/winter collection. Furthermore, the phones were only planned to be available in limited quantities. The first collection was entitled "Space on Earth" with the first four models ranging in price from €199 to €399 euros ($215 to $430). The company decided its phones would predominantly be sold through department stores and fashion retailers with the first Xelibri phones becoming available from April 2003 in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Singapore and China (including Hong Kong), and elsewhere from September 2003. The second fall/winter "Fashion Extravaganza" collection (also known as the “Beauty for Sale”) was unveiled in October 2003 with the announcement of Xelibri models 5 to 8. In the press release associated with this collection the second wave of devices was described as featuring “abundant colour” with their 4,096 colour displays, new animated menus and “materials [that] give a dash of flamboyance”. All the devices in both collections typically included basic features such as voice dialling, vibration alerts, polyphonic ringtones, integrated games, and an integrated clock with an alarm. In some cases, the devices had more striking features such as a make-up mirror and “snap-link”. The SIM card could be changed without opening the phone for three of the four models in the second collection. The phones were promoted by a high-profile marketing campaign featuring bizarre, attention-grabbing advertising. This marketing ran in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China and Singapore. The commercial for the first four products (see below) comprised 90-second cinema, 60-second and 30-second TV films supported by press ads in magazines such as Vogue and Elle. There was also a teaser campaign in the windows of a number of prestigious retailers in various European capital cities, including Selfridges in London and Colette in Paris. The commercials were set in a world where everyone looks the same and were designed to satirise the slavish-like following of fashion. The first advert showed a man (Joel David Moore) walking down the street with a dog. When he stopped, the dog turned into a beatbox and the man began to dance. At the same time, pandemonium breaks out with people screaming and running everywhere. The man suddenly becomes a "dance criminal" and has to run away and a huge manhunt to capture him ensues, but everyone looks the same. In the end, the mob thinks it has caught him - but he turns out to be the wrong suspect. Meanwhile, the real "criminal" escapes to a mythical dream world, where everyone dances and has fun. The idea behind the advertising was to support the positioning of Xelibri as being very different from other “technology-obsessed” mobile phone brands. The advert won a coveted “Lion Award”. One of the straplines used by Xelibri was "That's so tomorrow", intended to be a twist on the phrase "That's so last year." Sadly, the venture proved unsuccessful and the project was abandoned in 2004 following poor sales. It was reported that around 720,000 mobiles were sold representing less than two percent of Siemens mobile phone business. Interestingly, the Siemens logo only appeared on the battery cover. A key factor in the failure of the project was that the “fashion forward” customers that Xelibri attracted at the time were also technology enthusiasts. While the phones were super-trendy, they were usually lagging from a technology perspective. The first collection launched with black & white screens just as the market was shifting to colour screens. The second collection launched with colour screens just as the market was moving to phones with integrated cameras. The ethos of the company is captured in one of the statements it made at the launch of the first collection of devices: “Be very careful about taking us too seriously. We don’t, so there’s no reason you should.” Xelibri’s mission statement was “making the mobile world a bit less serious, a bit less complicated and a lot more fun.” Without a doubt, the Xelibri team delivered some of the most unique mobile phones ever produced. Many thanks to George Appling for the information he provided to the Mobile Phone Museum.