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CNN Live Today

Look at Ultimate Cell Phone

Aired April 29, 2002 - 10:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've all that head that money talks. And these days, If you want to break out and grab a status symbol that speaks for itself, we have the number for you.

Right now, the story from Kristie Lu Stout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something for the young at heart, very vibrant, very funky as well.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nokia has got a new groove, a mobile subsidiary called Vertu out to deliver not just a cell phone, but what it calls unparalleled communication experience.

SUGUNA MADHAVAN, VICE PRESIDENT, VERTU: Anything that works beautifully and looks beautiful. And part of it was making sure that every single detail that was created offered something fairly unique in the tactile or the physical experience, and the ringing melodies is one small example.

LU STOUT (on camera): This is a handset for the seriously loaded. This hand-crafted platinum phone has Rolls-Royce leather sides, a ceramic back and a sapphire crystal screen, all yours for a cool $20,000 U.S. dollars, but money alone won't let you score one, since it's sold by invitation only.

TONY CHAN, TELECOM JOURNALIST: It gives the product some kind of status, I guess, and it gives virtue to brand the status as well. I guess it's the whole -- it's the whole couture thing, where you have to make an appointment and you have to get your body measured.

LU STOUT (voice-over): Bringing fashion to phones is really nothing new. The handset is already considered an accessory, a gauge of just how cool the caller is. But Vertu goes one step further, created a phone that could age like fine jewelry.

CHAN: Why not make phone like they used to make fine watches, like Diego Lacu (ph), or whatever, some of the fancy watch names, and use that model to sell mobile phones.

LU STOUT: Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

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