They probably are... and seeing that discussing real estate has nothing to do with the original topic of this thread (which I deviated from, and for that I apologize), it's time for me to bow out. I'm hungry, craving a drink, and stand the gain nothing from an internet argument :)

Enjoy :p

The vertu has no functions apart from calling a person, and SMSing.
no camera, no wifi.
I have a HTC touch. great price for what you get. plus it runs on windows mobile. great for business ppl who need to check their email, review word documents. and it supports up to 4GB SD card

I have a good friend who had one of the stainless steel versions of the first vertu (forget the name). I poked about with it and it struck me as something that one would only purchase should they want a certain subset of society who would know what the vertu was to see them. It was big, heavy and functionless. For these reasons, the friend ditched it not long after and got something with all the features and functions. I believe it gave him back rubs and vacuumed his floor at night.

The Vertu is made with high quality metals and leather, watch glass, ball bearings in the keys to make sure the key-press is smooth, leather features etc etc

They are hand made etc etc

Basically they are aimed at people who would not think twice about spending 20k on a phone.

And believe me, there are a lot of them!!!

My shiny new Vertu has a 3MP camera :)

And an underground bunker to store my sms lol

Hope whomever buys one of these has given 5-10x the purchase price to organizations that make the world a better place to live.

If there is a steady market for 10k+$ watches, there is a market for 10K$+ cell phones.

I coach a youth offenders football team at weekends :)

a watch doesn't become obsolete as easily as a mobile phone :)

I have no qualms spending $10k on a watch knowing that in 10 years time, I can still wear it and it will still work and look good. I have major qualms spending $10k on a mobile phone that is obsolete from the time of purchase.

It should be noted that VERTU doesn't sell most of its phones in the USA. The biggest group of buyers is concentrated in Russia, Middle East, and some parts of Asia (i.e. the people who would take a Maybach over a Bentley, a Rolex over a Patek, etc.) Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but even in NYC, where a great many people can afford Vertu phones but carry RAZRs or Blackberries, people know you are trying to be very flashy (rather than trying to convey class and style) when they see a Vertu.

I would recommend having a nice Blackberry 8820 and a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso or Patek Philippe over a Vertu.

Please keep discussion to the Vertu itself as opposed to why someone would want one or not and their motivations for purchasing one.

Thanks,

Jeff/Kanebear
Moderator
Travel Technology