For those of you looking to truly impress your friends and colleagues with your wealth and status, you might want to familiarize yourself with
Vertu.This British subsidiary of mobile phone giant
Nokia makes phones costing from $6,500 to $72,500. Even the lower-priced models boast fine materials such as Italian leather and 18-carat gold, while top-of-the-line units are studded with hundreds of diamonds and other precious stones. The market for such luxury is bigger than you might think. Parent company Nokia doesn't disclose sales figures, but Neil Mawston, associate director at the British telecom consultancy
Strategy Analytics, estimates that Vertu sells about 200,000 handsets a year at an average price of $8,000. That works out to $1.6 billion, nearly 3 percent of Nokia's $58 billion revenues.Says Mawston, "Vertu is Nokia's version of Ferrari. It creates a warm luxury feeling for the rest of the phone line."Vertu's president, Alberto Torres, says sales are on track to rise 120% this year. That follows 140% growth in 2006 fueled by booming sales in Russia, China, and the Middle East. "From what we've seen, the creation of a multibillion-dollar market in luxury phones over the next few years is very possible," Torres says.According to Vertu's Torres, sales in Russia already outstrip those of any country in Western Europe, while the Mideast market should clock triple-digit growth until 2010. Demand is strong in more developed countries, too, with U.S. sales up 200% last year. Other companies competing in this market include Switzerland's GoldVish and Russia's
Gresso, who both offer handsets that run into the thousands of dollars. The prize for the most expensive phone, though, goes to Russian data-protection company Ancort, whose platinum-covered, diamond-studded
Crypto smartphone sells for $1.3 million.We had
previously posted on the fact that luxury watchmakers such as Tag Heuer have announced plans to enter the luxury mobile phone market, too. As for where you can buy Vertu phones, unfortunately there are no locations in Washington State so I'm out of luck right now. But if you happen to be in San Francisco, there are two locations:
European Designs on Townsend Street and
Tourneau on Market Street
