
Luxury phone-maker Vertu collapses - Huhty
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40593936
======
strongai
I worked there as a contract tech-writer a few years back. The people were
great company and very talented. But the bling and the actual value
proposition - who knows? I guess the market has decided.

Interesting factoids:

1\. They have/had airport-style security scanners that shake you down on your
way out. The idea is to prevent theft of their expensive phones and their
expensive components and decorations (think diamonds). To get out, you press a
button, and if the machine beeps, you get searched and your stuff gets
scanned. Not sure how effective it was - if you had access to the valuable
stuff (I didn't) I can imagine that swallowing a few bits and pieces might
defeat the security measures.

2\. When I started, they were owned by Nokia who had just been bought by
Microsoft. So I spent months developing a user manual based on Windows Phone.
On my last day, having handed everything over, they shyly told me that they'd
also been developing an Android model in secret, just in case the market
turned against them. Sure enough - they were snapped up by a private equity
firm and their next model was an Android.

