Android smartphones with the latest hardware can often have price tags of $600 or higher if you buy the phone outright instead of picking one up from a wireless carrier and paying it off over the course of your contract.
But Vertu thinks there’s a market for luxury smartphones that cost 10 times as much. The company’s new Vertu Constellation smartphone has a price tag of $6630. Seriously.
For that price you’d kind of expect a phone made out of solid gold… and while that’s not quite what you get, it’s not that far off the mark. While the phone has decent (but not spectacular) specs, it’s the case design that really sets it apart.
The Vertu Constellation has a sapphire glass display and a titanium case that’s covered by calf leather.
Under the hood, it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and features 32GB of storage, a 13MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front-facing camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and a 4.3 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display. The phone runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software.
Aside from the expensive materials that go into the case, Vertu helps justify the high price of the phone with additional services including Vertu Life which offers access to invitation-only events and clubs. But basically the only reason to spend thousands of dollars on a phone is probably so that you can tell people you spend thousands of dollars on your phone.
In other words, there’s no good reason to do it.
via Engadget
I have one.
I must have it. The gold iPhone is for the huddled masses.
This sort of thing has been around a while, the sort of people who simply MUST have something the masses don’t have and can’t ever have. Tech has wiped out the real differences, anyone who really wants it can have a state of the art Apple or Samsung phone. This one isn’t even state of the art, just gaudy and show instead of do.
At least if you pop the money on a Rolex it will likely outlast the owner, a BMW or Mercedes will be good for a decade or more of reliable service; but this is tech, regardless of the build quality nobody would be caught dead carrying it in five years, the target audence will ditch it in two or three max. And being a limited run product from a small manufacturer you would probably have a lower crock rate buying off the rack at the local carrier’s showroom.
“there’s no good reason to do it” Well, everyone knows that reason is only what is rationalized after we’ve succumbed to consumption. So much behavior is due to ego, sex, status seeking, gaining access to the right circles where the appropriate attributes are carefully considered and evaluated etc, but we’re unlikely to admit it. If only reason dominated very few would pay the Apple entry fee for access to the design, style, image, either. And I only say this because I ___________ (fill in the blank, I’m not going to tell you why).
Opulent and unfortunate simultaneously.
this is a case of conspicuous consumption, and for someone who has more money than sense
Fortunately, you just described our customer base at my store. (Money + desperation – other options = PROFIT.)