Even as some guests seriously pondered the possible connection between "daringly" dressed models and cell phones, it was evident that the gathering at the Pegasus Ballroom recently were wowed by the array of new handsets unveiled by mobile equipment vendor Panasonic.
With a catwalk and high fashion set in place, the crowd witnessed a return to prominence for Panasonic, which sought to continue largely in the "miniaturized" mode of its popular G51 line (smaller than most cigarette boxes), seen dangling from necklaces and fitted snugly on the waistband of many a young trend setter (and a few older ones). For the next generation, the phone maker has bought into the main trends driving mobile phone consumption currently: the clamshell, or "flip" case, and the built-in camera. Panasonic representatives, including Karen Turner Regional Executive Advertising & Sales Promotion Manager, led the audience through video demonstrations of some seven models, three of which are immediately available through mobile carrier Digicel.
Mr. Luis Arevalo C. Sales Executive, Communications and Information Systems - Panasonic Latin America
"We have paid a lot of attention to this market as its an important one for us, and we believe we have come up with the ideal line of models to suit all tastes, needs and price points," she said.
The top-of-the-line, X300 elicited a number of ooohs and ahhhs, not least for its slide-out lens cover and pop-out viewfinder. Less than 100mm long with a width of roughly half that and depth of 21 mm, the X300 must rank as the closest thing to a spy camera yet offered to the general public. The full-featured device also has the dual capability of GPRS (or General Packet Radio Switching) and Multimedia Messaging Service, meaning that photos/videos taken can be e-mailed with relative ease. Rounding out the feature package are 40-preset polyphonic ring tones, calendar and scheduler.
Mr. Harry Smith, Commercial Director-Digicel, Mr. David Hall, President and CEO-Digicel, Karen A. Turner, Executive Advertising and Sales Promotion Manager –Panasonic Latin America SA, Mr. Naohiro Yamamoto Team Leader, Sales Team, Sales and Marketing Group, Marketing Division for the Americas-Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Limited Japan. Mr. Kazuhisa Fujita, General Manager Systems Business – Panasonic Latin America, Mr. Luis Arevalo C. Sales Executive, Communications and Information Systems - Panasonic Latin America
 As part of its bid for the fashion-conscious mobile communicator, Panasonic is also offering the X66, with its sleek clamshell silhouette and a built-in camera for those moments when the shutterbug bites. As an added incentive, the X66 illuminates in a range of "hot" colours, depending on the source of the incoming call - so a green light may indicate a friend just calling to unload the latest suss, whilst red may signal that the "Passa Passa" move is about to go down.
Coming in at the entry level, the A100 looks set to inhabit the spots the aforementioned G51 made famous. The models at the launch wore them not only in their waists and around the neck but also in their wrist and headbands. The T9 text input mode is also custom-designed for the ever-moving, abbreviation-oriented youth demographic (any befuddled parent who has tried to decipher a teenaged son or daughter's text messages will immediately resonate.). And Panasonic did not lose the opportunity to promote its established prowess in the small electronics space. Select patrons received the Panasonic portable 
CD player with headset, dual CD-CDRW playback capability and skip-proof design. From humble beginnings in Japan in the early 20th Century, Panasonic is today a consumer and corporate electronics powerhouse, making everything from cordless tools to computers. It is also at the leading edge of inter-operability through its SD memory card, which allows several different appliances to work together, for example digital cameras and notebook computers.
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