A Look at the "Luxury" Phones of 2008

I watch every morning as my local news channel reports on recession. I also read mobile phone news and blogs every day. When I see a new “luxury” phone launching, it generally has the following three reactions: eye roll, giggle and gag. In light of this, I thought it appropriate to feature a few luxury phones of 2008 for your entertainment. Just remember, no matter how bad the economy gets, there will always be someone willing to spend $30k on a cell phone. They will likely use that phone to call their buddies to congratulate one another on their government bailout packages.

Mobiado Professional 105GMT

Engineering:
Entire front and back created from sapphire crystals, Swiss automatic mechanical gold-plated watch movements, Dual inset 24 karat gold-plated CNC machined/brass frame, 24 karat gold hand-painted lettering and symbols, sapphire crystal buttons. *diamond option available

Technology:
Quadband GSM and dual-band WCDMA, speaker phone, 3G luxury phone, 2MP camera, 1GB internal memory, 2-inch display with up to 16 million colors, music and video player, micro USB port
http://www.mobiado.com/

Vertu Boucheron

Engineering:
Crafted from solid gold, this phone took 1,000 hours to cut into shape, 700 hours to hand polish and more than 500 hours to build. The keypad is made of sapphire crystal and the wooden case of Noce Pedullo walnut tree courtesy of Reuge of Switzerland (what?).

Technology: 3G
http://www.vertu.com/

Christian Dior “Lady Dior” by ModeLabs

Engineering:
The Lady Dior is $3,500 to $5,000 depending on whether you have it bejeweled with 640 real diamonds or Swarovski crystals and hand-brushed stainless steel engraved with Dior and CD logos. Comes with a black sapphire crystal while the matching “My Dior” mini-phone comes with a diamond.

Technology:
2.6-inch touchscreen with QVGA resolution, 2MP camera and already downloaded ringtones!