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It would only take 17 of these to break 16K. 16K is not an insignificant amount of money (to me, anyway), but 17 phones isn't really a whole lot of equipment.

You couldn't buy 2 of this Android phone for $16000.

To a lesser extent, this car reminds me somewhat of the pre-iPhone cellular industry about 10 years ago. Nokia and others sometimes had models put out which were not as breathtakingly advanced, but instead, had silver/gold cases, inlaid gems or crystals.

Vertu still happily sells their phones with gems and precious metals in the cases. The iPhone hasn't hurt them at all, they've just switched to Android for their flagship model. I gawked at the models on display at IFC Mall in Hong Kong just last month. They have half a dozen branded "boutiques" and at least ten jewelers licensed to sell their line-up in Hong Kong alone. There's always a market for bling and tackiness.

This reminds me of Vertu's mobile phones like the Ti. Absurdly expensive (around $11k), running Android with a light skin, with an ancient dual-core and 1GB of RAM, just 64GB of flash memory, a tiny battery, an 8MP camera and a ridiculously dated 480x800 3.7" screen. The only reason to buy one is the unusual materials and the "concierge" service. It's basically a phone for people with a lot of money and little taste or knowledge.

There really seems to be a market for this sort of thing, that's the worst of it.

You may be in the market for one of these. Sadly no iOS but they do have "Exclusive ring tones and alerts played by the London Symphony Orchestra" and at $10K for an ugly case and very little functionality they make iPhones look cheap.

Has any phone ever cost more than $1000? I've always seen the really top end hardware debut around $700 but rapidly fall to $500.

There are various "luxury" manufacturers, like a Nokia subsidiary called Vertu, who will happily sell you a phone for £8600. If Wikipedia is to be believed, it runs the might power of Symbian, that most prestigious, high end powerhorse of phone OSs (well, actually EPOC32 was nice back in the day...).

There seem to be a few more specialised "luxury" companies, like Goldvish and Mobiado, as well as ones branded as Dior, Tag Heuer etc. They all seem to be what would be considered feature phones (or perhaps low end smartphones in some cases) in stupidly expensive cases. But it's hard to tell, as the actual phone software and specs doesn't seem to be the main focus with these phones for some reason...

Has any phone ever cost more than $1000? I've always seen the really top end hardware debut around $700 but rapidly fall to $500.

There are various "luxury" manufacturers, like a Nokia subsidiary called Vertu, who will happily sell you a phone for £8600. If Wikipedia is to be believed, it runs the might power of Symbian, that most prestigious, high end powerhorse of phone OSs (well, actually EPOC32 was nice back in the day...).

There seem to be a few more specialised "luxury" companies, like Goldvish and Mobiado, as well as ones branded as Dior, Tag Heuer etc. They all seem to be what would be considered feature phones (or perhaps low end smartphones in some cases) in stupidly expensive cases. But it's hard to tell, as the actual phone software and specs doesn't seem to be the main focus with these phones for some reason...

There are phones that cost more than a $1000?

Behold: The Instrument

Just read the article, haven't read the comments yet.

Moore's law as far as CPUs and GPUs has already slowed down considerably this entire decade. As far as memory, so far as memory the chips aren't that thin yet. What this means is what everyone has been saying for a long time: more cores, more ram. More cores means applications need to be parallelizable. That's at least a one time overhaul of most of the world's code base.

Lets assume hardware improvements in general slow down. This leads to a hardware situation closer to what we had in the 1980s:

a) Because hardware is stable operating systems and applications can be written more efficiently to take greater advantage of the hardware. That means refactoring high level code into lower level code to get speed ups. The popularity of Java is basically based on rapidly changing underlying platforms, make platforms stable and we have language revolution with much less hardware abstraction. Compilers will get faster as well.

b) Because hardware is stable computers don't seem like as much of a disposable item. Getting a good quality system to keep for many years makes economic sense. So we can get a one time boost as people move back from $700 computers to $3000 computers, where they expect to get 10 years+ out of their computer.

c) In the area of cell phones we could see the same thing. While cell phones are too breakable to ever become extremely expensive (though there are people who get expensive cell phones now: https://store.vertu.com/en/) if the platform were to stabilize we could see much richer client applications. If you expect to be on the same cell phone (with just hardware replacements) for a decade your willingness to buy expensive software goes up.

So lets say I don't agree with 2020, because around 2020 is when you start to see everyone upgrading. Which of course leads to software with much higher system requirements which drives more upgrades.... But maybe 2040 we have a stagnant computer technology industry if nothing interesting happens. I guess that could happen but I dont think its likel. However even if it did, this creates another advantage. You now have stagnant hardware, stagnant operating systems, stagnant languages, stagnant applications. An environment where corporate computing and custom code becomes a great value. And that is a huge and ever growing code base. So now we are out around 2060, where the industry is in maintenance mode. So the question is: between 2010 and 2060 do you think no one is going to come up with a really good idea?

I think it serves as a great tech demo. Features that work will start showing up elsewhere, patents or no patents. Phones are a commodity business, the iPhone is a boutique product. Too expensive for wide adoption, but maybe a portent of things to come.

Remember how people said the iPod was too expensive and had no market when it came out? I think the iPhone may be in the same situation. It certainly has a lot going for it, including integration, design and simplicity. When you consider that there is the $4000 Vertu, that is getting bought by people with deep pockets and those who want to make a statement, I believe there is market enough for a well design, easy to use Smart Phone. This may just be the product to bring the smart phone to the masses.

Video games won't be highbrow until someone does for a game console what Vertu (flash, sound) did for mobile phones. Just think: a $40,000 PlayStation 3 with a special jewel-encrusted controller, including a sapphire "concierge" button that brings a world of service to your fine imported Italian leather sofa.

They are traditionally a high-cost, high-margin vendor who adds value to their products by marketing. There is no room for that in the cell phone market

Somebody should tell Nokia that. Of course, those are completely ridiculous phones, probably aimed at the sort of folks who'd buy a Maybach, so that's a bit above what Apple'd probably be interested in.

Well, a "decent mobile phone" could cost you $20,000 -- probably more if you get one of the "diamonds" models.

Perhaps they mean a Vertu?

For one, compromising ergonomics for everyone for features that only a subset of owners might use isn't a good idea.

And another, a phone that costs as much as a mid-range laptop (laptops start at $500 now) but smaller and easier to steal or lose doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Compared with my $20,000 platinum Vertu Communications Instrument (Flash), a $900 phone would be quite cheap. I would buy this "Nokia N90" if only it had a concierge button and some jewel-encrusted highlights.

The RAZR was "too expensive" for a few months; now you can find it for free* with a service contract.

* $1,200 minus $500 activation rebate minus $400 service activation credit minus $150 rebate which must be filed no sooner than 90 days and no later than 120 days from time of activation minus $150 rebate which must be filed no sooner than 180 days and no later than 210 days from time of activation equals FREE!

Enjoy: http://www.vertu.com/

Well, I didn't know they existed until I was at an airport with too much time on my hands looking around in the shopping area. Ever heard of Vertu ? Neither did I...

Be sure to be seated before you click this link

Glad I could help you in finding your next cellphone ;-) (I'm myself an owner of a 75€ Siemens cellphone, so I'm not in the market for these kind of phones)

Or do the mean cell phones like the Vertu line of cell phones, ranging upwards of $20,000...

Of course they will. I am getting on one of these because I feel 20K stg is a small price to pay for the comfort of knowing I have a crystal display cover which is scratch proof. Finally I can sleep at night.

You should try vertu then. These are cell-phones with military-quality components that really only concentrate on making phone calls (no extra bells and whistles).

For instance, instead of using a crappy 10c filter they would use a $5 filter, other components similarily. You're gonna be paying $8K for their cheapest offerings but quality is definitely there.

Target group is mostly people who buy rolexes but at least you can't complain that there isn't a such a phone. Can I have the kingdom now?

I'd pay good money for something like that.

Check out http://www.vertu.com/ which are built by Nokia but sold as "Vertu". Only 20 grand for a cell phone, but hey, the platinum chassis is bound to love^W last you a long time!

No gadgets included, just a very pleasant mobile telephone.

Regards,
Nokia Astroturfing Dept^W^W^WAnonymous Coward

You can put down quite a bit on a cell phone. For entertainment, I was able to put together one for about 25K using the configurator on thier site and I was going cheap. They call the phones instruments, just like Lilly Tomlin. :-)

You can put down quite a bit on a cell phone. For entertainment, I was able to put together one for about 25K using the configurator on thier site and I was going cheap. They call the phones instruments, just like Lilly Tomlin. :-)

when you can get one of these?
In particular, note the pricetag.

-Afreet

www.vertu.com

(P.S. Did you realise there's a $10,000 Nokia cellphone made in gold with encrusted diamonds.. not bullshitting, seen a number of stories about celebrities buying them. Anyone know what they're called?)

Vertu. I believe it is Latin for "person with too much money." I mean, that is like Krusty the Clown-level conspicuous consumption.

~Philly

(P.S. Did you realise there's a $10,000 Nokia cellphone made in gold with encrusted diamonds.. not bullshitting, seen a number of stories about celebrities buying them. Anyone know what they're called?)

You want to look at vertu They are enormous. If you live in London, you can see them for sale at Selfridges.

It seems a great deal of money for something that you can easily leave in a cab.

Oh, I almost forgot. To view the Vertu web site, you'll need an Internet browser that supports Macromedia Flash. My wife's fully-loaded Powerbook G4 supports it just fine, for example.

I just picked up a Vertu Platinum / MMII for the wife the other day, and she has been most thrilled with it. Of course, I sprung for the optional headset and platinum cradle. She loves the personal concierge service -- they managed to get us tickets to that Puccini opera that just opened up downtown. Simply marvelous.

Of course, I can't blame you if you are unprepared for such luxury. Such a pity.