Motorola and Oakley to form a new venture to fuse Motorola’s latest Bluetooth technology with Oakley’s glasses. First designs are expect mid-2005.
The details are thin on the ground at the moment but lots of phrases that could mean anything are being bounded around by both sides. Here’s a couple; “enabling seamlessly mobile wireless communications anywhere and everywhere consumers want to be” – Motorola; “expanding the possibilities for our new electronics category” – Oakley.
Perversely the Oakley Safe Harbor Disclaimer is about twice as long as the information provided.
Back in September Oakley released their MP3-player sunglasses, the Oakley Thump, which have been well reviewed, despite their high cost for not much storage.
Motorola have of late (and to some effect) worked hard to try and recapture their position in the mobile phone market, having lost out to other phone companies considerably. They’ve designed products that they hoped would be more appealing to the youth market and have spent extensively on marketing.
This deal with Oakley looks like another step in that direction, as it brings with it ‘cred’.
Cos Lykos, Vice President of Business Development said “Oakley’s engineering team now has an expanded technology arsenal to develop new and innovative electronic products.” So it’s highly possible that some interesting products could come out of it.