Vertu is a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary, the business is now an independently run division of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

.

Concept

Vertu designs and manufactures luxury mobile phones. The most expensive model it has ever made is the Signature Cobra, at £213,000 (~$310,000); the most expensive regular model is the Signature Diamond at £55,000 (~$83,000). Prices start at £3500 for the Constellation model.

Other models include: Ascent, Constellation, Ascent Ti, Ascent 2010, Ayxta and Quest. The standard Ascent models come in many different colours, such as: Black, Brown, Red and Orange. The Special Edition models come in White, Azure Blue and Pink. The Summer Collection models come in Strawberry Red and White. Variations of the Ascent also include the RaceTrack Editions and Ferrari Edition. The original Ascent is no longer being produced, though the Constellation, Ascent Ti and Signature are still in production. There is a redesigned model of the Ascent, the Ascent 2010 currently in production.

Many of the models are made using precious materials such as gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...

 (for the mobile screen

Display device

A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...

), rubies

Ruby

A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...

 (for the bearing

Bearing (mechanical)

A bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...

s) and fine leather. Each mobile is hand-made in its factories in Church Crookham

Church Crookham

Church Crookham is a suburb, village and civil parish on the southern edge of the town of Fleet, in north east Hampshire, England, located south west of London...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England.

The business is based in the United Kingdom with offices in Paris, New York, Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Tokyo, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, and Hong Kong. Vertu's president and COO is Perry Oosting, and the Principal Designer is Frank Nuovo

Frank Nuovo

Frank Nuovo , an Italian American, has been a leading mobile phone industrial designer, and a former Vice President and Chief of Design at Nokia.Nuovo started his professional industrial design career in 1986 working with Charles Pelly's Designworks...

. The business currently has over 600 employees.

Operating Systems

Previous and current Vertu phones run Symbian

Symbian

Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...

. Future Vertu smart-phones will run Microsoft's

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 Windows Phone 7 Operating System

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

.

Distribution

Vertu mobiles are only available in its own branded stores, concessions in leading department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

s such as Harrods

Harrods

Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...

 and Selfridges

Selfridges

Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...

 in London, and other authorised retailers. Vertu’s flagship store opened in 2002 in Paris and then soon after in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. There are now over 600 retail outlets, including one at Wynn Las Vegas.

Concierge service

One of the services acquired with a Vertu mobile is a year's free concierge

Concierge

A concierge is an employee who either works in shifts within, or lives on the premises of an apartment building or a hotel and serves guests with duties similar to those of a butler. The position can also be maintained by a security officer over the 'graveyard' shift. A similar position, known as...

 service called "Vertu Concierge", operated by a number of providers worldwide. It is accessed through a special button, the "Concierge key", on the side of every phone.

This "hot key" puts the user through to a team of lifestyle managers who can book services such as gourmet dining, luxury travel or accommodation around the clock.

Markets

Vertu is very popular in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and in Middle-East countries.

Vertu devices have never been popular in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Despite once having four stores in Japan, at the end of July 2011, Nokia closed the last store selling Vertu cell phones in Ginza

Ginza

is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...

External links

• Vertu - official website
• Vertu Is Its Own Reward (TIME Stylewatch article)
• New Nokia Phones for Richie Rich (WIRED magazine)