Shoppers should be warned. In the not-too-distant future, their lives might be dominated by one brand. They will have to choose one name and stick to it, living life through that brand.
Q&A: Phone makers and big brands join forces for bucks
When did Porsche branch out from making cars? Porsche Design was founded in 2003 to bring all Porsche accessories into a single brand.
Why did Porsche team up with Research In Motion (RIM) to make a BlackBerry? This is not the first phone to be designed by a fashion or luxury brand. Prada teamed up with LG last year. Phone companies are leveraging the power of luxury brands.
Where can the Porsche smartphone be purchased? Porsche Design has stores in Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall, although stocks are reportedly leaving the shelves fast. The phone costs Dh7,025 (US$1,912) in the UAE.
For some with a healthy wad of cash, that moment is already here. Porsche has just designed a BlackBerry phone under its Porsche Design brand.
In conjunction with other companies, the car manufacturer already designs a whole host of other products. It designs clothing, watches, glasses, shoes, luggage and kitchen knives. It is also rumoured that Porsche is looking into building houses, selling food and creating artificial dogs. But these are just rumours.
For now, Porsche lovers will have to make do with splashing out Dh7,025 (US$1,912) on a new Porsche Design BlackBerry phone. Unfortunately, it in no way resembles a Porsche.
The P'9981, as the phone is named, is slim, made of stainless steel and has a leather finish on the back. It boasts a 1.2 gigahertz processor and high-definition video recording.
It runs on the new BlackBerry 7 operating system and also features custom Porsche Design icons as well as the car maker's font throughout. It comes with 8 gigabytes of memory, which is expandable to up to 40 gigabytes with a microSD card.
Research In Motion, the manufacturer of BlackBerry, believes the Porsche Design smartphone is the "perfect collaboration between style and function".
At about three times the price of a normal BlackBerry, it will have to be. The phone is pitted against other luxury designed handsets such as Vertu's latest offering, the Constellation, which has free concierge service as standard and even has a sommelier available at the touch of a button.
The Porsche Design BlackBerry cannot quite compete with those services, but the handset does include a personal identification number that identifies the user as having a P'9981 smartphone on the BlackBerry network.
But no one will need to see your Porsche PIN to identify which phone you carry. Your Porsche car parked in the garage, and your Porsche shirt and socks will nicely indicate which phone you have in your pocket.
Top 5: Most expensive phones
1 Stuart Hughes-designed Apple 32 gigabyte iPhone 4 Diamond Rose – US$8.2 million (Dh30.1m)
1 Stuart Hughes-designed Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme – $3.2m
1 Peter Aloisson-designed iPhone 3G called the King's Button – $2.5m
1 The Goldvish Le Million – $1.3m
1 Diamond Crypto Smartphone – $1.3m
Source: www.cellphoneinn.com
The Quote: Like, what is the least often heard sentence in the English language? That would be: Say, isn't that the banjo player's Porsche parked outside? - Jackson Browne, American singer
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