Claudia Schiffer "totally hooked" on Palm

Palm fashion: Claudia Schiffer touts new blue handheld Claudia Schiffer, supermodel

She used the event to announce that her Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition is now available on her Web site. She also spoke with CNET News.com.

CNET News.com: What made you first pick up a Palm?
Schiffer: I read some articles on it. I thought it sounded really interesting, and so I picked it up. I got totally hooked. I used to carry around really heavy journals with me and heavy address books. So all of a sudden I was carrying around this lightweight Palm with me instead. It was so great.

What do you keep on your Palm?
My calendar, obviously, all my addresses, and then like a to-do list. On my Palm right now, I have a couple of things that I actually like very much. There is something actually that is perfect for me. It's called the Abroad application. It's great for currency conversion and measurement conversion, a (world) time clock. I have some other fun things that women would love that are on the Claudia Schiffer Edition Palm, (such as) a nutrition application.

Palm has a reputation for not appealing to your crowd, necessarily--as being something that geeks carry around. Did you have that perspective at all?
(Laughing.) No, I mean, when I looked at the Vx, I thought it really was sleek. When I chose the color for my Palm, I chose this aqua color, which is between blue and green and metallic. I thought it looked really fashionable.

It's so light. It looks quite elegant the way it's shaped. It's beautiful.

So you wouldn't think twice if you saw a guy with his Palm?
No, I'd think, "Oh, cool, he has a Vx. Great." Of course, I'd be very happy to see also lots of women carrying my Palm in the aqua color.

I think you've talked about this in the past. Only about a quarter of Palm's users are women, while half the people on the Internet are women?
Yeah, 25 percent are women. It's so little. I hope by offering this color to women and also having the software that's women-oriented...that hopefully they'll have fun buying one and playing around with it.

Do you know of any other models who carry around Palms?
I don't know any, no. I hope I can introduce them to the Palm through my Palm.

What other types of electronic devices do you like to use?
I have a computer and my Palm, that's all I need. Of course, a cell phone as well.

Are you planning on entering other types of businesses?
I'm planning on my Web site, ClaudiaSchiffer.com, to sell a lot of different products, exciting products. At the moment I'm brainstorming on all kinds of different things that are technology related--to basically connect technology with fashion.

Right now we're working on a leather folder that the Palm can go inside that is very fashionable and trendy. That will probably come out in the spring of next year. There are lots of other ideas we're exploring right now.

Do you think fashion and technology are worlds that haven't met enough so far?
No, I think lots of companies actually have already started to look into it. I hope with the products that I'm selling on my Web site, that they will be so fashionable that a lot of women get excited about them.

Obviously one of your goals is to broaden the appeal of Palm to more women. Have you gotten a fair response from men who are more interested in a Palm now that they know you are interested in a Palm?
In August, we did an initial announcement just to see what the reaction would be. Within 48 hours we got like 50,000 requests through email. There were a lot of men also requesting information...It's hard to find who actually will be the person buying the Palm off my site because a lot of men, I assume, will buy them for their girlfriends or their wives.

You were around today seeing some of the developers. What were some of the things that people were saying to you?
I used the opportunity to say, "Any of you out there that have any other ideas for software for applications and so on to please email me." A lot of people have come up to me and said, "I have this idea. I have this other idea." It's exciting, so I can't wait to look through all the ideas.