conspicuous consumption: the call of designer cell phones

An article that stood out to me in my stack of WWD's recently was, "Dialing a New Market: Fashion Designers Set to Invade Cell Phones" by Katya Foreman, December 28. It seems that many consumers see cell phones as a glamorous fashion accessory, and are willing to pay a pretty penny to flash their latest style-conscious status symbol (about $550 for the Dolce & Gabbana limited edition MotoRAZR V3i which says 'Dolce & Gabbana' every time you turn it on and off, or the Levi's phone in embossed stainless steel for around $600, or Vertu's jewel-embellished phones which range from $3500 to $70,000). And you thought the iPhone was expensive.

It seems that we will start to see such 'contract-less' phones positioned in glass cases in department alongside watches and jewelry going forward, "but who knows," says ARCchart's Matt Lewis, a British research and consulting company that will host the Handset Fashion + Style congress in London on April 23-24, "in the future, phones could end up in the handbag department."