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Vertu caters for mobile-phone snobs

Paul Lim, Vertu's assistant sales manager, yesterday displays the world's most expensive mobile phones in Singapore. PHOTO: AFP

How much would you pay for a mobile phone that seems as heavy as a brick and cannot even take pictures? Up to US$32,000, if the phone carries the name Vertu.

Despite their hefty price and relatively limited functions, sleek handcrafted phones manufactured by Vertu, an independent unit of wireless communications giant Nokia, are becoming sought-after status symbols in Asia.

Self-made millionaires, celebrities, high-flying professionals and ladies who lunch are flashing Vertus made of precious metals, ceramic and leather at one another in Asia's corporate boardrooms and country clubs.

Vertu, which started selling its phones in Asia two years ago, refused to disclose sales figures as a matter of policy but a senior executive claimed sales are doubling every six months.

The most avid buyers in Asia are mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, Indonesians and Singaporeans.

"It's seen as an achievement icon," Eric Lee, Vertu's sales director for the Southeast Asian and Pacific region, told AFP. "Deep down inside they are not looking for gadgets and cameras, they are buying into an attitude."

"This is very hard to describe," he said. "They are actually seduced by the Vertu element of mystique."

Vertu's showrooms, which display phones in spotlit showcases and shun the flashy marketing gimmicks of typical mobile phone shops, are indeed designed to project understated elegance, down to the polite salesmen's dark suits.

Based in London, Vertu has offices in Paris, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, with a select roster of dealers in 20 countries and territories, including Kuwait, Macau and the United Arab Emirates, places where conspicuous spending is not seen as a social crime.

Lee reckons that the typical Vertu customer earns around US$300,000 a year.

The flagship Vertu model is a platinum-cased Signature model, costing US$32,000 dollars. The yellow gold version costs US$18,500 dollars.

The cheapest Vertu is a leather-clad Ascent model, worth a mere US$4,700.

"Don't say cheapest. Please say entry level," Paul Lim, assistant store manager at a Vertu shop along posh Orchard Road in Singapore, advised a wide-eyed journalist.

At this price range, you don't buy a mere phone but, in the words of Vertu brochures, a "luxury personal communication instrument" made with the same attention to detail as Swiss chronometers and Italian sports cars.

Finally, buying a Vertu means joining an exclusive international club.

Owners have access to a 24-hour Vertu Concierge hotline activated by a button on the phone.

The service is manned by "lifestyle experts" who assist customers with travel, dining, shopping and other needs, like finding tickets to a sold-out show or a good plumber.
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