Luxury smartphone maker Vertu collapses
Vertu is going to liquidate after last-minute attempts to save the struggling luxury phone maker failed.
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The British handset designer, which produced expensive devices for a niche luxury market, has recently faced serious financial difficulties which appear to have proven fatal.
As reported by the BBC, Vertu's problems lay within "an accounting deficit of £128 million," which has not been resolved despite being sold by the company's owner, a Chinese holding company, to Turkish businessman Murat Hakan Uzan.
Uzan intended to pay £1.9 million for the brand to come out of administration, but with the company running with so much debt on the books, failure seemed inescapable without serious investment.
Unfortunately for Vertu, liquidation means that almost 200 employees will lose their jobs.
Founded by Nokia in 1998, the handset maker was known for creating handsets out of the ordinary. Vertu used leather, alligator and lizard skin, precious metals, titanium, and jewels, as well as synthetic sapphire for its screens.
These hand-made smartphones, however, came with very high price tags. The Signature range, for example, costs between £11,100 and £39,100 for a single smartphone.
The handsets were touted as being made from "only the most exquisite materials and cutting-edge technology."
Speaking to the BBC, IHS Technology analyst Ian Fogg explained that Vertu's business model was highly unusual.
"They hand make the phone at incredibly low volumes and they were incredibly high-priced," Fogg said, noting that the use of synthetic sapphire and such unusual materials may also make the production process difficult.
It seems that while there are many in the world with money to burn, paying thousands of pounds for these smartphones did not appeal to a client base large enough to keep the company afloat -- especially when you bring competitors such as Apple and Samsung into the picture.
It's possible that Uzan, as he will retain the brand name, could rebuild. However, whether there are enough clients out there looking for ultra-luxury handsets to make such a business once again viable remains to be seen.