Nokia unveiled three new models of its super high-end Vertu phones and celebrated its first free-standing shop in town on Thursday, taking over Habitu the Pier in Harbour City.
Given that they're asking customers to fork out a major load - more than HK$600,000 for the priciest diamond-encrusted edition, to the paltry sum of just over HK$40,000 for a strawberry-inspired handset - the phone-maker tried hard to reinforce its luxury quotient.
Models were hired for a phone fashion show - elegantly walking around carrying the mobile like a chunk of jewellery - and boring, ordinary hors d'oeuvres were replaced with a complete buffet table, enough for guests to make a meal of the salad, grilled seafood and dessert spread.
With one of the phone models inspired by Ferrari's 60th anniversary, a fire-red Italian sports car was even displayed on the terrace. The only problem was, hardly anyone noticed. How typical of Hong Kong: only here would people ignore a perfectly hot Ferrari in order to look at mobile phones. Then again, some of the phones are worth more than cars I've owned.
