Bid farewell to those boring mobile phone cases or the plain uniform look of your laptop. With the range of gadget wrappings available, you can say hello to a spanking-new look for your beloved tech-toys.

Victoria Sendy fell in love with the new HP Mini Vivienne Tam limited edition. The bright red mini notebook with its pink peony flower print caught her eye and got her heart racing. But she got over her admiration pretty quickly after spying the price tag: US$699.

"That's $200 higher than the ordinary HP Mini," says the 25-year-old. "I had to forget it, no matter how beautiful it is."

Her disappointment, however, didn't last long. When she was walking around Taman Anggrek shopping mall, in West Jakarta, she spotted Skinzindo, a shop with the goods to give her laptop a "facelift".

"I guess I don't have to dream about that Vivienne Tam notebook anymore," Victoria chuckles. "I can get my notebook wrapped in style, which is pretty much the same as any limited edition fashion laptop. And . it comes at a price of less than $200."

Victoria headed off to Skinzindo that evening to get her new white mini notebook pimped. "I wanted to go crazy with some cute images - all in pink," she says.

She certainly wasn't the day's only visitor to the store. Several people made their way to the small booth to get their gadgets covered in style with colorful skin wraps, made of a thin protective transparent film. Seventeen-year-old Hendra Kurniawan wanted to wrap his cell phone with one of his own cartoons, for the second time.

"There's nothing that can make me happier than having my own designs on my gadgets. It truly lets me express myself," he says.

Indeed. Gadgets today have gone beyond their basic function of being mere electronic communication devices. Now, they say something about their owners, playing a role as a medium for expressing oneself and making a fashion statement.

"Everyone wants his or her gadgets to be different than others'," says Reby A. Kisela, who owns the Skinzindo outlets across the Greater Jakarta area. "So people go for *gadget personalizing' which can make them stand out from others."

Of course, it's not merely about the superficial aspect of turning mass-produced gadgets into trend-setting accessories, Reby adds. When going for gadget-wrapping, people are actually seeking to protect their gadgets from scratches, dust, liquid spills and sweat. Which is why, Reby says, Skinzindo uses the tagline "protect with style".

"People want to prolong the value of their gadgets. This way, they can maintain the gadgets' resale value. Before, they used cases to protect their cell phones, but they found *the cases* are less personalized," he says.

"Now, we have the gadget-wrapping that can do the protecting job, while at the same time reflecting the owner's personality."

Gadget makeover fever has been around in Japan for years and now countries such as the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia are catching on to the trend.

According to Reby, here this fever accompanies the country's intensifying passion for gadgets, with sales of cellular phones, for example, growing at around 30 percent per year.

"The market in Indonesia is also promising because our people love to change their cell phones, which includes modifying their looks," says Reby, who started his business a year ago.

Skinzindo is one of a few players in the country's gadget-makeover business. It currently has 12 outlets across Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

With Skinzindo, customers can personalize not only their laptops and cell phones, but also cameras, music players, game devices such as PlayStation and XBox, and among others. It only takes 15 minutes to wrap a cell phone, while a laptop takes around 20 minutes.

To get one side of a cell phone wrapped using a ready-to-use design costs Rp 75,000, making it Rp 150,000 to get both sides of the phone covered. The same prices apply for cameras and digital music players such as iPods. The price for wrapping a laptop jumps to Rp 100,000 for one side, and another Rp 50,000 to get the inside part covered. For any of these services, if customers wish to use their own designs, an extra fee of Rp 5,000 is added.

"We have thousands of ready-to-use designs," Reby says, adding that some people prefer to have their own photographs printed on the wraps.

"The photos can be anything. Some want to have the picture of their dog on their gadgets, and I remember there's one who put the picture of his beloved motorcycle on his cell phone," he chuckles.

Reby also says that many of his customers make gadget-wrapping a regular activity, for example, changing the design once in three months. This is possible because "the wrap can be removed without leaving any residue or stickiness on the surface," Reby says, adding Skinzindo uses premium grade PET and adhesive technology from China.

Yuningsih of GMask, another gadget-wrapping company, shares similar stories. She says that many of GMask's customers just aren't satisfied with wrapping only one of their gadgets.

"There are customers who want to personalize their laptop, cell phone, iPod and camera using the same design or theme," she says. "So, when they carry those gadgets at the same time, they look trendy and fashionable."

Actress Anya Dwinov, Yuningsih says, is one of the shop's loyal customers who has feverishly embraced the craze for wrapping her gadgets.

"Just few days ago she came back again to re-wrap her two cell phones," she says, adding other celebrities sometimes had some "odd" requests.

"Singers like Hedi Yunus and Tasya, for example, wanted their microphones to be wrapped. Maybe that would make them look OK onstage," Yuningsih chuckles.

So, for such an unusual request, or other standard services, how much must customers pay?

"For gadgets other than a cell phone, PDA, laptop or iPod, like cameras and microphones, we charge Rp 225,000," she says. The price for wrapping a standard candy-bar cell phone is Rp 200,000 for both sides, or Rp 120,000 for one side.

"Wrapping a communicator or PDA costs Rp 275,000, while for an iPod it costs Rp 200,000," Yuningsih says. Full wrapping on a laptop costs Rp 1.2 million.

"Our prices might be higher than in other places, but we can assure *customers* that we use the highest-quality transparent film made in Japan, as well as having an excellent final result," Yuningsih says. GMask has two outlets in Jakarta and Bandung, which are among around 40 branches scattered around the world.

In Indonesia, she says, the most-wrapped gadget recently is the BlackBerry phone.

"Almost everyone now has a BlackBerry, so no wonder that some people want their BlackBerry to be different from others'," she says.

And with BlackBerry already becoming a symbol of chic, the designs chosen for it match that image.

"Most customers pick the designs with patterns and monograms of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry for their BlackBerry," she reveals. "Well, anything that sounds *branded' and fashionable."

Where to wrap your gadgets

Skinzindo

- Taman Anggrek Mall, West Jakarta, 3rd Floor (in front of the mall's capsule lift and Texas Chicken)

- Semanggi Plaza, South Jakarta, Ground Floor (in front of Gramedia)

- For more outlets check out www.skinzindo.com

GMask

- Plaza Indonesia Extension, Central Jakarta, 4th Floor *E02-B-1, 021-70932989

- Bandung Electronic Center, LU Floor, Block J 06, Jl. Purnawarman 13-15, Bandung

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