LG admits first Prada phone touchscreen confused customers

So try the new handset instead

18 November 2008 17:54 GMT / By Stuart Miles

LG has admitted that the first version of the Prada phone didn't go down as well as it had hoped with its customers when it first launched.

"We had people saying that people were uncomfortable with the touch interface", Chang Ma, VP marketing LG mobile global, told Pocket-lint.

The response has been to create a new handset complete with pull-out QWERTY keyboard, however it hasn't been without cost. The new phone, which still sports the same front styling of the first Prada handset, now features a pull-out QWERTY keyboard making the handset almost twice the weight and double the size.

"We wanted to recuperate customers who want keyboard and touch", said our man at LG.

The design, part response to the lack of a decent virtual keyboard and an attempt to woo people who actually want a keyboard, will go on sale in the UK in the coming weeks.

Available on Orange and at phone retailer Phones4U in the UK, the phone will be free on contract, although cost 600 euros SIM free.

To sweeten the deal, the new mobile phone will come with a "Connected" watch that will let you see when people are calling, reject incoming calls, and read text messages without getting the phone out of your pocket.

The watch, called The Link, will be free for the first 1500-3000 customers in the UK, and around £200 thereafter.

An LG spokesperson has said that he expects the watch, which currently only works with the Prada, to be made to work with other high-end LG handsets, although those looking to use it with their iPhone or BlackBerry will be disappointed, for now it's only for LG handsets.