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And in the ensuing corporate lather, LG managed to beat Apple's 3G iPhone to market with its finger-friendly interface and smooth, sleek lines.

But this morning it has been revealed at Boy Genius Report (BGR), that the company is releasing un updated version of that phone, the Prada II.

Several well-informed sources say the Prada II will have features like a 3-inch touchscreen, 5MP camera, a front mounted camera for video calling, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, a full HTML browser and a slide-out QWERTY keypad, along with the usual bells & whistles we have come to exptect with a 3G smartphone.

Of course, LG is staying mum on the issue, but it seems, it has decided to tap into a number of recent surveys that have found that a significant number of people (anywhere form 20-30 per cent depending on the survey), buy a certain mobile phone brand for fashion reasons, instead of technical ones.

Watch this space!