President Paramate Rienjaroensuk said the popularity of IT devices among Thai consumers has been spreading ever since the phenomenol growth of the iPhone and the iPad.

To ride this trend, the company recently opened the first of its new retail device store. Called .Life, it covers 330 square metres of space in the freshly renovated CentralPlaza Lardprao.

"The 10-million-baht store is the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia, allowing customers to experience more innovative products," said Mr Paramate.

He said mobile phones _ especially smartphones _ have sparked a boom in accessories demand.

This opens up whole new opportunities for such products. Consumers often consider them fashion items and buy them to reflect their personal lifestyles.

Examples include Moshi Moshi headsets, Lomo cameras, speakerphones and compact projectors, as well as AR Drone helicopters from France-based Parrot that can be controlled remotely from an iPhone. "These lifestyle IT devices are trendy and functional in design. They are a step up from ordinary toys and gift products, so they should be sold in a special store," said Mr Paramate.

.Life stores are intended to complement Copperwired's existing network of more than 20 iStudio shops, which sell only Apple products.

By year-end, 10 more iStudio and .Life stores will be open at a cost of 100 million baht, said Mr Paramate.

Narong Intanate, the founder of Vnet Capital, which owns 60% of Copperwired, said the new lifestyle device shop reflects a market shift from personal computers to mobile computing.

"We intend to make .Life an icon for devices, similar to Club 21 for fashion apparel. And we plan to expand the business throughout Southeast Asia, starting with Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia," he said.

Mr Paramate added that Copperwired will open iService shops to provide after-sales service for lifestyle IT products and iGarage as a factory to sell the devices at discount prices. The first iGarage will open this week at Amarin Plaza.