Spotted at New York Fashion Week: Butterflies and hummingbirds hovered inside the tents, but these particular species came equipped with at least a gigabyte or two.

Designer Vivienne Tam’s“Butterfly Lovers” digital clutch laptop from Hewlett-Packard made its debut on the runway with her Spring and Summer 2010 collection. Just inside the entrance to the Bryant Park Tents, a hummingbird was ready for its close-up — on the cover of one of the Palm Pixi Artist Series limited-edition cellphones on display.

Just two of the most colorful examples of how fashion is using technology to court design-savvy customers, one of the biggest trends seen at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which wrapped up late Thursday night.

“For me, fashion plus technology equals ‘double happiness,’” Tam told Reuters backstage.

Indeed, the “enter” key on her latest HP laptop is imprinted with the Chinese characters for “double happiness.”

The champagne-gold laptop will have more capacity and more features than her first limited-edition HP digital clutch with the red “Peony” print cover, which Tam unveiled on the runway last September. The “Peony” laptop — light enough for a woman to carry like a clutch evening bag — has 1 gigabyte of RAM, according to the Neiman Marcus online catalog, where it’s listed “in stock” for $699.99.

Tam says her inspiration came from the classic Chinese love story, the “Butterfly Lovers,” who are regarded as China’s “Romeo and Juliet.” A classical music lover, Tam noted that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto.

HP sees fashionable tech for women as a golden market, with plenty of opportunity to expand with wireless mice, storage devices and other accessories, says Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president of global marketing.

Check out this video of the “Butterfly Lovers” laptop on display at the Fashion Week party in Vivienne Tam’s boutique:

Meanwhile, Palm aims to serve fashion-conscious men and women with its Pixi Artist Series phones with limited-edition covers designed by five artists. The Hummingbird cover by artist Cole Gerst in bright orange and green on a light turquoise background looks unmistakably feminine, while the Skull by artist Jeremy Fish in cream and black appears more in sync with a male aesthetic.

The new Palm Pixi phone line will be launched for the holiday season in partnership with Sprint Nextel, says Palm senior product manager Mike Akamine. Each artist’s design will be offered on only 5,000 phones — for a total limited run of 25,000 units, Akamine told Reuters.
Each phone will have about 7 gigabytes of available internal user storage.
Check out the Palm Pixi Artist Series phones:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pixi/artist.html

For a look at another designer using tech to reach more customers, check out this video of Norma Kamali showing her spring clothes outside the Apple store in Soho:

Take a look at Reuters story:
Technology in starring role at New York Fashion Week
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58H4TD20090918

Check Out the drop in online sales.
 
Even online retailers are ready for 2008 to end. After we heard about the abysmal holiday season at stores, comScore said online sales for the holiday period up to Dec. 23 dropped 3 percent. It was the first decline in online spending since comScore started tracking online sales in 2001.
 
The end of 2008 will also mark the first quarter that online sales fell. From Oct. 1 through Dec. 28 e-commerce spending fell 4 percent to $36.8 billion, according to comScore. 
 
So who were the biggest winners and losers in December? Through Dec. 24, Hewlett Packard’s online traffic in the U.S. rose 28 percent to more than 19.4 million unique visitors.  Apple, with more than 35 million visitors, saw its traffic rise 19 percent.  Meanwhile, traffic to Circuit City’s site fell 21 percent.  Presumably shoppers were spooked after it filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would shut some stores. Dell’s traffic was down 17 percent.  EBay was still the most popular site, though its traffic fell 4 percent to 85.4 million visitors.
 

Also in the basket:

Jobless claims drop by much more than expected

China dairy boss pleads guilty in melamine case

Bratz dolls to get reprieve, manufacturer says

Walmart Pulls Out of Nielsen’s PRISM (Advertising Age)

(Reuters photo)

Best Buy is looking to lure more consumers with a “Blue Label” series of products that initially includes laptops and is expected to expand to other product lines.

The retailer has started selling two notebook computers made by Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba that include features consumers had asked for, such as a lighter-weight design, backlit keyboard and longer warranty.

Specifically, the two new notebooks are thinner than 1.5 inches, weigh less than five pounds and come with a two-year warranty.

Best Buy worked directly with Hewlett and Toshiba (whose computer is pictured) in developing the products, which are primarily intended for the second- or third-time laptop buyer. Both notebooks retail for $1,199 and are only available at Best Buy.

“This is definitely something that we want to have a broader footprint across our store,” said Jason Bonfig, Best Buy vice president of notebook computing. He said it was too early to say what other electronics categories could get Blue Label products.

(Photo: Best Buy)