Vertu, the luxury cell phone business arm of Nokia, gave the media a preview of its posh handsets and shop in Tokyo’s Ginza district on Wednesday prior to the commencement of marketing in Japan on Thursday. The Vertu Japan flagship store located in Ginza, is a three story affair with main floor devoted to display of the three models available – Signature, Ascent and Ferrari – while the second floor offers a private lounge and level three caters to customer service. The Ginza shop will initially offer 14 handset models, including a cell phone with the prancing horse crest of Italian sports car maker Ferrari. Their prices will range from 670,000 yen ($7,150) to 3.7 million yen ($39,482).
Vertu is a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones. The company is an independently run, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia. The concept of the company is to make mobile phones in the same vein as luxury watch manufacturers like Rolex, IWC and Patek Philippe. The most expensive model it has ever made is the Signature Cobra, at US$310,000 (~€217,000); the most expensive regular model is the Signature Diamond at US$88,000.
