The New York Times‘ Roy Furchgott takes a look at silly fashion phones like Vertu’s $10,000 Ferrari, Motorola’s $2,000 Aura, and something Tag Heuer calls a “communication instrument.”
The high price is largely for the exotic case materials and short production runs, functionally, the luxe phones aren’t so luxe. “The first Prada phone was $600 to $800 and LG has the exact same phone for $99,” Mr. Greengart said.
He concludes that they’re mostly marketing. It’s true – remember the million dollar laptop that never really existed? – but that doesn’t quite cover it. While Moto has many cheap handsets that can live in the aptly-named Aura’s glow, other bling-gadget companies don’t make mass-market models. At least some of these things are for real: people spending thousands of dollars on cell phones is their business plan.
The real problem with luxury gadgets is that they are mostly bad gadgets. This is why the likes of Vertu make shiny knockoffs of old-fashioned handsets: they simply have no design or engineering chops.
iirc Vertu is a division of Nokia.
I think they have the design and engineering chops but they are aiming for a niche market that cares about something else.
I agree it isn´t worth paying so much money for such a “gagdet”
Cheers
Ck from TheJunction
I’m all for luxury gadgets. When the revolution comes, they will be easy markers to identify whose up against the wall.
Oh, did I say that? I apologize. I’m just bitter that our economy is hemorrhaging money and rich people are being offered stupid stuff to prove their rich.
Vertu offers a special human service too no ?
The now free as dirt RAZR used to be $600. Several years before people thought apple was crazy for releasing a phone for that same price.
Vertu was the first phone with enough class and polish to live up to the gold-plated bullshit that its owners spew into it.