Luxury Mobile Operator For The Rich And Famous Downgraded To Be For Just The Modestly Wealthy

from the discount-luxury? dept

Tue, Oct 3rd 2006 4:18am — Mike Masnick

We found it a bit amusing last year when a Japanese company decided to open up a "luxury mobile phone service" for the super wealthy. Unlike some others, the goal of Voce wasn't to let people have super expensive, gold- or diamond-encrusted handsets. Instead, it was all about the service. For a $1500 signup fee and $500 per month, you'd get an ordinary Motorola RAZR with unlimited calling and data. They would give you new handsets every so often, but they'd also act as a 24-hour concierge service. Any personal help you needed was yours for the calling. Of course, there are plenty of concierge services out there, and it's not clear why it should ever be associated with a mobile operator. Apparently, the company has discovered that there really isn't a huge market for such things. Having already downgraded the upfront fee to $1,000 and the monthly hit to $400, they're now dropping the prices once again -- this time cutting them in half. It's now $500 to enter, and $200/month. They still insist there's a big market for such things, and plan to try to do a nationwide launch (rather than in just a few select cities) sometime next year -- but the fact that they've had to repeatedly drop their prices so much suggests that people don't really care very much about a mobile operator for the rich and famous. The people who could afford such a thing probably already have all of the concierge service they need -- and without anything in the way of a special phone to offer, it's hard to see the value. On top of that, when you're introducing a luxury brand, rapidly dropping your prices tends to suggest there isn't any real luxury there.

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17 Comments

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dorpus, 3 Oct 2006 @ 4:46am

Unless
There can be a service that grants a US phone number AND a Japanese phone number to the same cell phone, so international travellers don't have to have two phones. Despite the claims made by "international cell phone" services, you only get a number in one country, so other people calling you have to make international phone calls.
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RantMax, 3 Oct 2006 @ 5:30am

Who can forget...
http://www.millionaires24.com/

The e-mail service for millionaires (dumb enough not to simply get their own domain/server)
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fornowjustcallmeBob, 3 Oct 2006 @ 6:03am

Never knew
http://www.millionaires24.com/

I guess there is a sucker joining the internets eveyr day, huh? At $399 a MONTH they prolly only need one active user to make their little scam pay for itself and a few lunches....
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JoJo, 3 Oct 2006 @ 6:39am

Re: Never knew
But, but, it features "GLOBAL ACCESS"

Can you do that on your poor little gmail account? huh?
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Republican Gun, 3 Oct 2006 @ 7:20am

Exchange
I thought millionaires had exchange servers. Who else could afford them.
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That Gives Me An Idea, 3 Oct 2006 @ 7:47am

Re: Never knew
Geez....I'd sell them a gmail account for $50 a month...
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Basil Fawlty, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:12am

Re: Exchange
Charities can afford Exchange servers. Microsoft has very generous charity pricing.
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Matthew, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:40am

Re: Unless

Unless by dorpus on Oct 3rd, 2006 @ 4:46am
There can be a service that grants a US phone number AND a Japanese phone number to the same cell phone, so international travellers don't have to have two phones. Despite the claims made by "international cell phone" services, you only get a number in one country, so other people calling you have to make international phone calls.

Can't one simply forward calls? It doesn't affect me so I haven't researched too deeply, but it doesn't seem like a huge problem especially with VOIP -- not to mention IPv6.

http://www.tollfreeforwarding.com/international-call-forwarding.html

Rates for a USA, California, Los Angeles phone number forwarding to Japan
Setup Fee:
$ 0
Monthly Minimum Fee:
$ 10
Japan:
$ 10 includes 61 minutes of call time per month when calls are forwarded to Japan. Additional call time is 16.5 � per minute.

Japan-mobile:
$ 10 includes 26 minutes of call time per month when calls are forwarded to Japan-mobile. Additional call time is 39.0 � per minute.

That's not amazing numerically speaking, but why would you need two phones?
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 9:12am

RE: Exchange
MS Partners get Exchange on the cheap too. However if we want to use 2007 we must upgrade all our boxes to 64 bit procs so Dell will end up a happy camper. Maybe then we can start charging for globaly accessible email with unlimited storage (who has more than 4 or 5 gigs of email anyway?)
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dorpus, 3 Oct 2006 @ 10:44am

Re: Re: Unless
Ok, where do you get these VOIP phones, and do they work in both countries? I've had many a sales clerk in both countries insist at length that an electronic device will work fine in the other country, only to discover the opposite.
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Bandito, 3 Oct 2006 @ 10:45am

I'd pay $200/month for Unlimited voice/data
I get hosed here in the great white north. I pay $150/month for 1500 daytime minutes (unlimited evenings/weekends) and $100 for 200mb of data. Screw the concierge service, just give me a $200 package for unlimited voice/data and I'm laughing.
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spoon, 3 Oct 2006 @ 11:59am

Re: Re: Re: Unless
http://news.com.com/Motorola+to+use+Wi-Fi,+VoIP+to+move+cell+calls+to+Net/2100-7351_3-5575684.html?t ag=st_lh
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mmurray, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:09pm

No Data
After reading the article, the $200 covers unlimited voice and text messaging. Their contract with Cingular won't allow them to have a data services plan. Not such a great deal after all.

If it came with a Blackberry and Data plan, I'd be awfully interested in the deal.
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jessie, 21 Nov 2006 @ 2:44pm

luxury mobile phones
i was lucky enough to purchase a beautiful handset from the following: http://www.b4utele.com/index.asp?function=DISPLAYCAT&catid=43 none of this concierge rubbish here - just pure beauty.
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jason, 8 Dec 2006 @ 2:29am

Exclusive 24k gold plated luxury mobile phones!
u dont wanna miss out on this one guys, some truly stunning handsets here.
very classy site too!
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Mcgill, 28 Jun 2007 @ 11:49pm

Motorolla Cell Phones
Well the only good thing that kept me connected with motorolla is their concierge services. Otherwise there are local companies which can give my multiple cell phones for $500 having similar features those of motorolla RAZR :D
Simply, Moto rocks for me ;)
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cabalamat, 8 Feb 2008 @ 7:09am

Millionaires24
Ah yesd, millionaires24.com, the email address that says more about you than cash ever can... specifically, it says "I am a retard with more money than sense".
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