The ToyBox
Andrew Nusca & Rachel KingVersace prepares launch of $5,000 mobile phone; competes with luxury watch market
Summary
Italian fashion house Versace plans to introduce a luxury mobile phone in May to compete with rival brands and the premium watch market.
Topics
Blogger Info
Andrew Nusca
Biography
Andrew Nusca
Associate Editor
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
Rachel King
Biography
Rachel King
Rachel King is a freelance journalist based in New York City and San Francisco. She has previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated. Currently, Rachel also blogs about travel industry news and trends for True/Slant.
And you thought an Apple iPhone cost a ton of money.
Italian fashion house Versace plans to introduce its first mobile phone in May, to the tune of some $5,000.
The company is partnering with French manufacturer ModeLabs Group for the device, which also makes phones for French fashion house Christian Dior and watchmaker Tag Heuer, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Introduced in 2008, the Dior phone retails for about $5,000. The new Versace device is said to retail for even more than that, and will be officially unveiled next week in Paris.
The Versace phone joins the Dior handset as well as Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Armani handsets as phones become, well, pricey (disposable) fashion accessories.
The rub: The high-end mobile phone may be the next luxury watch.
Such devices are in demand the most in Asia, Russia and the Middle East, according to the WSJ report.
True to Versace style, the bespoke phone — yes, it can be customized for the individual customer — will feature premium materials such as leather.
The operating system? Your guess is as good as mine.
Illustration: Motorola’s Korea-only Motoroi Android phone. No, it’s not the Versace phone.
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Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
Disclosure
Andrew Nusca
Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.
Biography
Andrew Nusca
Associate Editor
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
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