Ask HN: Why is there no $10,000+ luxury smartphones?
Tons of people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on fancy clothes, jackets, purses, sunglasses, etc. So why is there no ultra expensive (but also VERY POWERFUL) smartphones out there?
http://www.vertu.com/us/en/collections/signature/shop-collec...
The most expensive phone on that page is $31,700:
http://www.vertu.com/us/en/collections/signature/shop-collec...
I believe they come with their own concierge service.
Or maybe they're just way ahead of the curve when it comes to the inevitable retro craze for turn-of-the-century phone design
Smartphones have no exclusivity or wealth signaling potential; both the rich and the poor can afford one. They're basically the new feature phone. I don't think anyone would brag about something everyone could afford. (i.e: no rich person would brag about an iPhone).
Some of the most expensive things go unnoticed to the 'untrained' eye. It might be by design in an inside joke spirit. Not many would recognize John Lobb shoes, Scabal suits, or Patek Philippe watches.. I wouldn't, but some would. They do look good and have an appeal to the hacker inside everyone who loves things well made, especially things custom made. Bespoke shoes is as 'hackery' as it gets.
>Or maybe they're just way ahead of the curve when it comes to the inevitable retro craze for turn-of-the-century phone design
Vertu's design has been consistent over the years as far back as I can remember.
Compare that to a watch, clothes, or sunglasses, where an $X item today is the same as an $X item next year.
The website is the most over the top displays of form over function I've ever seen: https://www.sirinlabs.com/
2) People don't want to switch ecosystems. Say you develop a new platform to compete with Android and ios and you come up with something better (that's a big if). Assuming only your $10k+ phones have that new OS, developers won't want to make apps for your phone. So you'll end up needing to be compatible with Android in order to get access to all of their apps. Most likely, you'll end up just using Android like some Vertu phones do. And then people will wonder why they are spending so much money on a phone that is basically just an Android phone and does the same thing as any other Android phone. Maybe you'll have slightly higher specs, but the flagship phones from the current big companies already have specs that are high enough for most users.
3) Cellphones become outdated quickly. If I spend $10K on a phone, I'm still not going to want to use it in 10 years from now. A lot of luxury items are made to last for a long time. I have sunglasses (not particularly luxurious ones) that are 12 years old. I'll concede that many luxury items are not made to last long, but for many of them, there is at least a perception of quality.
4) Cellphones stay in your pocket and aren't as visible as many luxury items such as bags or clothing.
A smart phone ends up being bad at being a smart phone after a few years. Apps stop working, web pages start loading slowly etc.
So there is much more prestige in getting the new iPhone before your peers, than owning an expensive-on-the-outside, but slow on the inside phone.
With that being said, there are companies that will tear your iPhone apart and place it inside a gold enclosure and others that will sell extremely expensive handsets. I tried talking to a jeweller about vertu phones back when they were still Nokia phones, and he tried to explain to me that people who invest ~$15.000 in a phone don't care about screen resolution or OS versions. I didn't understand why anybody would pay extra to get what was essentially a 2-3 year old.
But phones, like watches are very much a fashionable accessory, so it should be ripe for the same high-price segments as watches.