Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
If you thought my recent “Tins and Fins” post about the $2500 Roddler personified conspicuous consumption, how about this? The luxury unit of Nokia has started selling a phone designed jointly with Ferrari for about 18,000 euros ($25,400) at its stores in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore. Vertu has released the second Ascent made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Ferrari. Unlike the Vertu Ascent Ferrari 1947 where 1947 phones were made only sixty will be made. 
The Vertu Ascent Ferrari 60 is inspired by the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (Photo below left from Wikipedia) and features wallpapers and ringtones of it. The Ascent is made of titanium and uses the same philips screws used in construction of as well as the same leather used for the seats of Ferrari cars. The back features the iconic Ferrari gear gate in titanium. The phone comes with a Vertu Aerius bluetooth headset and a valve from a Ferrari F1 car. The phone also comes with a service package which allows the phone to be serviced every six months and have the leather replaced. (Info and photos from here.)
Reuters notes luxury goods segments are benefiting from fast economic growth in countries such as China, India and Russia, while Middle East markets have strengthened as a boom in commodity prices has increased incomes.
Nokia and other cellphone manufacturers are increasingly teaming up with designers. Earlier this week Italian designer Giorgio Armani joined forces with Samsung Electronics 
to design a television and a mobile phone. And the iPhone’s not cheap!
So now boys and girls, you have it, a $2,500 stroller and a $25,000 Ferrari-branded cell phone (interesting progression!). Wanna bet they sell all 60? You should start getting the idea that there are markets for luxury goods “out there” that are untapped! Make it and they will come. Hank
If I weren’t a poor college student and had enough money to be able to spend $25,000 on a phone, I would probably be ordering it right now. I might even spend in the 6 figures if a Ferrari comes with it. But that’s only if I had the money. Fortunately, some people do and I’m willing to put some of my scarce money on the bet that all 60 will be sold in a fairly short amount of time.
There is also now a Prada phone manufactured by LG. There is more information about that in the article below:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/18/lgs-ke850-prada-official-iphone-says-wha/
The funny thing about luxury products: nobody needs them but everyone wants them and those who can afford them and don’t really care about the price will always buy luxury products. If you have ever seen MTV Cribs you know what I mean, all those celebrities have so many luxury products which they really don’t need, but they like to have them.
I go back to India almost every summer and it’s funny to see how more and more middle-class people are willing to pay up for luxury products. Jewelry, cell phones, brand clothing and cars are some of the things people are willing to pay more and more money for. I see several new boutiques every summer and a few years ago I had never seen a luxury car in Mumbai, now I see several each day. People there are very optimistic about the future and right now they’re more interested in buying than saving money.
There is a huge market for luxury items. You could sell all 60 of those phones in half an hour and there would be a demand for 600 more. Some times it is mind boggling what people will pay for somethings but they will so it’s (check out that correct usage Hank) not a bad idea to get into the luxury market.
I have no doubt in my mind that these ferrari speciality brand watches will sell out all 60 of them made. If you think of th market of people who drive a ferrari, they have enough money to spare to have this nice watch. What you better fit in a ferrari then a ferrari cell phone. Now a day people are realy indulged in specialistic and exclusiveness of different items, so if there is something that is supposed to be a special edition or there is some type of limited ownership then customers will jump at the opportunity to purchase it. It almost seems like people believe exclusiveness acredits ones status in this dat in age.
That’s awesome, when I become a successful entrepreneur I’m going to buy one, then I’m going to buy a gold plated toilet and I hire domestic servants and call them on my Ferrari phone and say “, hey clean my gold plated toilet.”
Like Hugh mentioned previously, there is a separate market for luxury-goods buyers. For the people that have Ferrari’s obviously enjoy the finer things in life. This next finest thing is a ferrari-branded cell phone to accompany the ferrari. I would recommend for people looking into the luxury-good market to focus mainly on China, Japan, and Russia for their growing economies.
Unlike the Roddler, I can actually see someone buying this though. Having this phone would be a serious status symbol. It’s not just ugly like the Roddler. Also, it is not that hard to believe they will all sell because people who go to a Ferrari dealership with intent of buying a car obviously have a lot of expendable cash and I doubt that $25,000 would feel like a lot of money to them.
I just hope that the phone works… I’ve had bad luck with cell phones lately, so this product makes me wary. I think it is brilliant though… people are willing to fork over big bucks for a name. Though the increase in quality may not be directly relatable to the increase in price, the name brand seems to make up the difference.
The moral of this story is the power of a brand name. The only reason that this phone is a hundredth of the price is the name. Ferrari has spent so much money and effort on the cultivation of their name, now they are cashing out. This phone is to match the rich people’s Ferrari. Brilliant, they will probably make millions.
That shifter back plates’ pretty cool,, i wonder if its gas powered and makes a little rev up sound when you turn it on….. Yeah, the 60 will sell…. but, dam you’d think Ferrari would come up with a better kind of horizontal expansion scheme than that. Sell ring tones, watches, make-up, patented Ferrari designed tattoos or just more cloths; they’ll sell but it isn’t going to improve the image or brand of Ferrari.
and the look sucks, at least make it carbon fiber or gold plated
I have seen this phone store in Bahrain and I have to disagree with most of you and say that if I did have the money I would have bought one of their phones. Their phones come with a 25 year warranty, upgradeable hardware and firmware and most of all even when run over by a car at 44 Km/h(sorry, I will ONLY use SI units except when I deal with Aeronautics). That is right, not even scratches with that impact. The reason it sells at that price is because of…the law of demand and supply. But there were phones that were of 3000 dollars, not feature rich but extremely durable. Vertu has an amazing customer service too.
It is just a brilliant brand and this was well established even before this model came out. It is a no nonsense, no fake or imitation brand.
I may not go for this phone or this brand for now though since as a tech junkie I might buy the upcoming n81 8GB or n95 8GB or the n82 nokia phones(one of them of course!)
Don’t get me wrong I love Ferraris but that is a ridiculous price for a cell phone. I know you said that we have to think of the target market for this kind of product but it is just really hard for me. Even if i was super rich I couldn’t make myself blow money on something like this, but I guess material items aren’t what I am about. But if I was a materialistic rich person with a Ferrari, I guess that this would be a nice accessory to brag to my other rich friends about as I tell them how much I spent on it. Hm… I guess this target market would be a very good one to get into if you had the money to do it. Make a product that looks cool and fancy, stick a ridiculous price tag on it, and laugh all the way to the bank. I get it.
I’m all about practicality. I know everyone needs a little luxury now and then. I would never even use the phone cause if I lost that phone I’d think my world was crashing down. I actually understand the luxury stoller better, but the cell phone, c’mon. People who have money to throw away like that should be forced to use their money for some good, rather than a cell phone that’s going to be outdated within the next 6 months.