
Vertu chooses Android over Windows for luxury handset - klearvue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21387371
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meaty
I genuinely can't see why anyone would pay that for a handset. They are an
icon of conspicuous consumption, nothing more.

Regarding the OS choice, they are right about market share which is why they
were on Symbian and are now on android. Only time will tell where they end up.

~~~
mixmax
It's not about technology, it's about psychology.

If you're the target market for this phone you don't care much about the
functionality, what you care about is that other people can see that you have
so much money that you can carelessly throw around your phone that costs more
than many people make in a month. It's all about perception.

Note that an important factor is that your peers have to know that the phone
is prohibitively expensive. If they don't the point is lost. This is also why
superyachts are so popular among the ultrarich. Everyone knows that they are
crazy expensive to buy and maintain, and so they know you have the money to do
so.

Douglas Adams has an unparalleled quote about the psychology behind it - _"No
expense had been spared to give the impression that no expense had been
spared"_ This is also the only instance I've ever seen of recursion being used
in fiction :-)

~~~
bcoates
This isn't expensive enough to be actually exclusive, I'm guessing they're
mostly preying on people with upper-middle class incomes and massive amounts
of status anxiety.

I doubt they even make good bribes, as compared to other things you get for
the price they're hard to show off, don't hold value over time, and are too
easily traced.

~~~
networked
>I'm guessing they're mostly preying on people with upper-middle class incomes
and massive amounts of status anxiety

Indeed, especially so if the culture around them promotes this type of
anxiety. You'd be surprised by how many people living in big cities of the
former Soviet Union purchase used Vertu phones or outright two-SIM fakes. A
lot of cell phone repair kiosks, especially those specializing in Nokia
phones, have a "Vertu Repair" sign hanging outside. Now that the iPhone is
supplanting Vertu as a major status symbol this trend has been on a decline
but the sings and the fakes are all still there.

On an semi-unrelated note, creating a no-nonsense port of CyanogenMod or,
better yet, MUIU for Vertu phones might make for an amusing art project.

Edit: formatting, typo.

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cpursley
I just don't get it. Then again I don't get Rolex or Land Rover, both inferior
products compared to digital watch / Toyota.

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moccajoghurt
> The only thing that scratches it is a diamond.

Too bad since their target market is probably in possession of a lot of
diamonds.

~~~
vidarh
"oh no, I left my phone in the same pocket as my loose diamonds"

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meerita
Before: a luxury phone with crappy software. Now: a luxury phone with good
software.

Buy it if you like to burn money.

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Zigurd
I do not know if Vertu was ever run at a profit, but, evidently, their new
owner thinks it is possible.

The future prospects for Vertu are probably on an upward trend. If they can
keep the software on their devices updated, a nice Android phone should have a
five year lifespan before it is hopelessly out of date and unable to run new
versions of the OS or lack the peripherals to support new features.

The size of phones, and screen resolution might be stabilizing. Several years
of incremental improvements to power efficiency and other parameters will
still add up to obsolescence. But, eventually, phones may become more like
wristwatches. I have worn the same watch for more than 20 years, and it was
made to last.

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djmdjm
They'll be flying off the shelves faster than you can say "Veblen good"

~~~
arethuza
Fascinating: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good>

"for consumers who want to use exclusive products, price is quality"

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olgeni
> Each device has a "concierge" button

...and a 10 billion yen balance...

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StanS
Nokia still retains an ownership stake in Vertu and yet Vertu doesn't seem to
have much faith in its former parent's strategy.

~~~
delinka
While I can appreciate the irony, they claim to be making a practical
decision. Since the device is not disposable, and since Windows doesn't yet
hold the market share that makes them feel warm and fuzzy about the long term
... Android.

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huhtenberg
It's a status symbol. It can be running MS DOS and still have the same niche
demand.

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SlipperySlope
Looks like a wise decision on the part of Vertu.

Why doesn't Nokia make the same decision!

~~~
toyg
Because they're not the same company anymore? Vertu was sold by Nokia last
year.

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usaphp
How can anybody associate android with Luxury? Was not android made to be very
inexpensive in the first place?

~~~
andyjohnson0
They can't licence iOS and Symbian is at end-of-life. So the choice was
between Windows Phone or Android. Since neither of these are particularly
associated with luxury, the decision was presumably made using other criteria
such as ecosystem size and brand recognition.

~~~
kryptiskt
I don't think Microsoft would allow them to bling up the Metro interface, so
the choice was probably Android by default.

