Mobile devices long time ago became a status good, as expensive clothing, cars and watches are. And Vertu with no doubt is a leader in this industry. This company is owned by Nokia, however it is very hard to see any similarities between these brands, even on their websites it is very difficult to find that they are technically the same corporation. This all is made for one purpose to emphasize the uniqueness and accessibility only for very few.
Vertu for many people has been a trademark for luxurious phones, as they are hand made, built from materials as titanium, stainless steel, sapphire glass, silver, gold, and diamonds and obviously are very expensive (cheapest models start at $6000), however not many see them as practical devices, most of the Vertu users have more technologically advanced phones for everyday use. The demand for luxurious phones is only increasing, especially in Persian Gulf, Russia and China. Many other competitors have entered the market, and Vertu in order not to lose market share is stepping away from their traditional approach of producing luxury phones lacking in technology and starting to create new phones which will be able to attract customers as both status goods and technologically advanced mobile devices.
It can be seen as complete change in objectives as before Vertu was designed to help people emphasize their status by showing others that they can afford a phone which can only make calls and text and does not have something which much cheaper phones already had for 5 years as cameras, mp3 players, navigation systems etc. Now Vertu is aiming for manufacturing phones which will be practical, technologically advanced, and still as luxurious as they were. The first step towards archiving it is an a new QWERTY keyboard model.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/nokias-bright-spot-luxury-handset-maker-vertu-09292011.html
