The $54,000 diamond-crusted Samsung SPH-E3200
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 7th 2005 10:15AM
posted Feb 7th 2005 10:15AM
Just when you thought the buzz about diamond-studded gold-plated luxury cellphones was dying down, the mother of them all goes up for auction on a South Korean site—it's currently going for about $54,000 (the auction's got four more days). Step aside Mobiado, Vertu, et. al.; Choi Moon-young, the phone's designer, claims he had 10 designers and engineers working for three months to build the 240 diamond-encrusted, gold-set cellphone, "the world's most precious mobile phone." That's all well and good, but couldn't they have at least gone to greater lengths than just beefing out the already before-blinged EVDO-enabled Samsung SPH-E3200?
What is the point of jewelled mobile devices? You'll throw it out (or lose it) in 2-3 years anyway.
10 Designers and Engineers working for 3 months for THAT? Somebody get me his Human Resources Dept. That's the kind of cushy job I'd like to have.
The consumers who buy these should pay for three children to health insurance for 3 year instead. They would feel better about themselves and then maybe they wouldn't need a $54K cell phone just to make them feel like they are worth something.
Oops. There I go. Being rational about gadgets. When will I learn.
- jjp
Or you know paying for all those same children's actual medical expenses instead of forking it over to an insurance company...and you know with the saved money maybe feed a couple hundred Ethiopians.
Sticking a few diamonds on a plastic mobile phone is just about as tacky as you can get, like sticking a porsche body on a ford fiesta. At least the Vertu phones are engineered quality.
Ya realize that 0.2% of the world owns 90% of the worlds wealth (a demographer can correct me - its just an estimate i overheard)... so what do they have to loose... besides ... if they wanted to upgrade their cell phone... they probably have a jeweler that will custom bezel their new i730 with the same stones..... besides... diamonds are a fair investment. :o)
bob