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Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin
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This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads

By | June 14, 2011, 6:00am PDT

Summary: The latest addition to the golden gadget family is this solid gold iPad from Camaél London. Got some cash to burn?

If there is one thing we love on the ToyBox, it’s the conspicuous consumption of gold-plated gadgets. The latest product to fuel this unrelenting passion is this solid gold iPad manufactured by Camaél London.

Running at a decidedly unaffordable £89,999 (~$150,000) Camaél’s solid gold blows gold-plated offerings like the Nokia Oro and 24-carat gold Kindle out of the water. Users can customize the iPad with a variety of shades of gold and assorted gems, the later of which certainly won’t make the tablet any lighter.

The best part? Each purchase comes with a special presentation box hand delivered by Camaél’s very own courier service. Hows that for service?

Now the real question is, why not the iPad 2?

[Luxury Launches, Camaél London]

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Apple iPad, Consumption, Ricardo Bilton

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

Disclosure

Ricardo Bilton

Ricardo Bilton has no investments that may conflict with his work with ZDNet. Similarly, he has not worked with any companies that he may write about in his technology coverage.

Biography

Ricardo Bilton

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications. He lives in New York, and is a graduate of Amherst College.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
sid_hiphaps@... 18th Jun
i hope it jailbreak-ready . lol
View in thread
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
LoverockDavidson 14th Jun
So not only do you get to waste money on the iPad, you get to waste it on gold plating too. Wow.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
jmiller1978 14th Jun
@LoverockDavidson

It's solid not plated.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
rikasa 14th Jun
@LoverockDavidson

The very fact that a company would do this is proof of Apple's ability to create, maintain and enhance elevated perceived value, regardless of how good the actual product is. What's even more of an indictment for competitors is that even older versions of Apple products garner such 'golden' attention. I'm no Apple fanboy - I use Win7, Ubuntu, OSX, iOS and Android. I work in sales & marketing in a different industry and only dream of being part of creating such brand power, or merely carrying such products.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
Fletchguy 14th Jun
@rikasa
Actually this just shows how to stupid apple users are plain and simple. How stupid of a person would it take to buy an ipad let alone a gold ipad? lol
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
rikasa 15th Jun
@Fletchguy
Gee thanks for managing to simultaneously insult me and miss my point. Run along now and create equivalent brand recognition / 300 billion market cap while you're at it.
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Where's my gold iPad?
camcost@... 14th Jun
No way!
A gold computer is out of the question.
But, that said...
Of all the computer's I've owned (15 to 30 perhaps) the iPad would be the only one I would even think of owning in gold.
Why?
Because it's the only one which would look good in gold. It has no ugly keyboard, flip-up screen, separate mouse, multiple input jacks, and other obtrusions which take away from the smooth look of the device.

Whether you're a fan of the device or not, in all honesty it does look nicer than a laptop or desktop (if that's what you choose to compare it to).
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Conspicuous consumption
tom@... 14th Jun
"Sure, I could have spend the money to feed 500 families for one year in Africa or 10 families in the US. But hey, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the admiring looks I get in the conference room."

I'm always disgusted when I see how resources are wasted to satisfy narcissistic disorders of a few while many others in the US are struggling to keep their homes, bring food on the table or keep themselves alive in other parts of the world. A little luxury to pamper yourself once in a while is Ok. But this level of ignorance is over the top. Sorry, I have no sympathy for gadgets like this, their creators, their owners or those who admire them.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
rbmorse 14th Jun
@tom@... I suspect the feeling is mutual.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
tom@... Updated - 14th Jun
@rbmorse Touche. Good response. And I'm afraid you are right.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
hayjeamodo 14th Jun
@tom@...
It's called freedom. And it's none of your business what one does with his or her earnings.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
tom@... 14th Jun
@hayjeamodo
It's not freedom if some live with their money on others expenses just because they can. Though I will admit that a golden iPad will most likely not hurt anybody else. It just feels wrong to me.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
barak88 14th Jun
@tom@... Get a life and stop telling others how to spend their money.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
rikasa 15th Jun
@tom@...
Despite my earlier comments on brand recognition, I humbly accept your very correct assessment.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
WindowWasher 14th Jun
The people who waste money on things like this should be donating the money instead to charities. This is a sin.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
boomchuck1 14th Jun
@WindowWasher

Agreed, this is over the top, but to follow your logic anybody buying a new car that is more than just basic transportation should be donating that money to charity. Or how big a house do you actually need? Anything over 600sqft should require a donation to charity too. Gee, much of the world does without nice computers. You should be donating that money to charity too.

Is the gold iPad a waste? Sure it is, and more so than many other things, but you could make your same statement about anything that is perceived by someone as a luxury. And remember, to much of the world pretty much everything in America is a luxury.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
tom@... 14th Jun
@boomchuck1
Boomchuck1: You are spot on! I am in fact making the same statement about houses and cars and so on. "pretty much everything in America is a luxury." This is about to change because we are running out of resources. I'm not saying that you should give all your money to charity but I would love to see a taxing system that is not based on how much money you make but on how many resources you consume. Your income, healthcare and basic foods and basic clothing should be tax free. Small cars and small houses small TVs a.s.o have a small tax. Luxury cars, huge TVs, big boats, snowmobiles and other expensive toys are taxed higher and gold plated iPads should be taxed at 100%.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
barak88 14th Jun
@WindowWasher You wash windows. I trade commodities. You make a few hundred dollars a week and risk your life for that. I make many thousands of dollars a day and risk my fortune with every act (trade). The difference is that my fortune is worth as much as your life because as rich as I am, I don't try to tell others how to spend money or live their lives. I used to clean bathrooms in an airport. I chose to leave and find a different line of work. You can either keep washing or move on, but you cannot tell others how to or what to.
MYOB
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
opcom 15th Jun
@WindowWasher
If it has enough gold in it to be worth the sales price in a few years, then it is possibly an investment. That is not a sin. It's also not a sin that I kept the 1oz gold coin my employer gave me. Should I have just put it in the collection basket because it was more than I needed to have in my pocket? Should I not have spent extra money on heavy duty tires for my truck but bought the cheapest kind? How is it a sin to obtain useful things of value and use them properly? A person that buys that thing no doubt makes enough money to generously donate to their choice of worthy recipients. Maybe they do donate generously to help the poor or whatever is proper, but like myself and many others do not advertise it for all to see. If the residue (the gold or the collectors value) from that iPad when it is no longer usable as an iPad is worth anything, maybe it will be auctioned off for charity some day. We can't judge the buyer of it. Many rich people donate monies and we never hear of it.
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How much does this thing weigh?
Michael Kelly 14th Jun
I thought one of the major selling points of the iPad was the low weight. Doesn't this go against what the iPad stands for?
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An improvement
kidtree 14th Jun
That's a definite improvement over my cast iron iPad. It's starting to rust already.
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It costs as much as 300 regular ones, but how much does it WEIGH?
Moshe Feder 14th Jun
This is totally silly of course, but I won't be shocked if some rich idiot buys it. Considering how heavy gold is, though, it won't be much fun to use. This is case where gold plating would really make more sense, for some dubious value of "sense."
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
robbb@... 14th Jun
@Moshe Feder

But if it got scratched, you could see through to the real whatever kind of metal iPads are normally made of....
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
ktower 14th Jun
hell yes, I'm going to run right out and get them for the kids and myself and to hell with all of the other uneducated under undernourished people in this country. It is going to look good sitting on the front seat of my Escalade.
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Nope, not going to buy one.
rmhesche 14th Jun
I'm waiting for the platinum version.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
barak88 14th Jun
Wow, imagine reading That in bed and falling asleep and having THAT crashing down on your nose..

Is there a six week wait for the solid gold model as well?
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to fletchguy
barak88 14th Jun
Sorry you cannot afford to buy any Apple products. Perhaps if, in your next life, you return as a human being with some understanding and compassion, and without so much jealousy, you too will be able to buy an Apple/Mac product.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
bigmat 15th Jun
What is the weight of gold again... does this solid gold make the Ipad too heavy to lift off the desk...or carry aroubd.. IMHO this device is made by idiots for idiots, I am sure if you talk to the true wealthy they don't squander their valued income on status symbols that they cannot use. That task is left to the gamblers that shift your money around...and pay themselves handsomely for the privaledge of having access to your money...
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
opcom 15th Jun
It's obvious that the presentation box, courier delivery, and the fact it's a Apple product make it worth much more than the paltry amount listed. But I do expect for that amount that Steve himself will personally deliver it.
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
jayohem@... 15th Jun
So they knock themselves out to create a lighter weight iPad and what happens? Some marketer comes up with the equivalent of Paris Hilton's pink-sparkle-phone to weigh it down.

Gold plated! Does it match her lead-soled Manolo-Blahnik heels?
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RE: This solid gold iPad costs as much as 300 regular iPads
sid_hiphaps@... 18th Jun
i hope it jailbreak-ready . lol

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