Sharp's GX25 Ferrari Vodafone phone

We're not trying to whip Ferrari fans up into a frenzy over gear they won't find or anything, but we just thought you might want to know that Sharp's got a new GX25 Ferrari edition phone available on Vodafone in the UK, should you be headed over to Old Blighty any time soon. It's got Bluetooth, a VGA camera, 262k QVGA display, and that classic shiny fire-engine red exterior with the horsey emblem. You know, so you can bust it out fast, make a fast call, put it away right quick. Besides, you know what they said about Ferraris being so choice, and recommending picking one up if you have the opportunity.

[Thanks, Liam]

[darx @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Acer now sharp? Whose next, sony?

[Dave Kinsella @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

"..you know what they said.."
"They" being Ferris Bueller?

[KBS @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

nice color! just need to get the car now haha=)

[Dylan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Way Way WAY too late engadget, its been out for 4 or so months, and already sold out on the net and the majority of places. Ill be impressed if anyone manages to pick this phone up now.

[Dylan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Heh, looks like its just my area, still avaiilable most areas, bugger vodaphone :(

[speedwell @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I thought it was an electric shaver until I read the copy.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

The means... if you have the means...

[happy gilmore @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

this will go great with my bmw lighter!

[mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

"..you know what they said.."
"They" being Ferris Bueller?

-------------------

Hilarious that you picked up on that! :D

Seriously, Ferrari does not need this crap.. What is the point of putting your name on an Acer or on of these phones.. Unless it was a cash deal (uhhh Ferrari needs money wtf??) I dont get it.. why dilute your brand like this..

[Iliana @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I bought it, it's very nice and classy, the VGA camera is very good! forza Ferrari!

[Gerhard Schreurs @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Yes, Ferrari coffee mugs and shower gel are in the same league as Tweety mousepads, and the same goes for adorned laptops, should there be extra charge for appearance alone and nothing else. But these Ferrari edition Sharp phones are different, there's some true and unexpected courtesy towards the fans involved here.

Some background first. Ferrari are the only team consistently participating in F1 events from 1950 up to now. The brand is (speaking marketingwise) rich in tradition and is one of the best known and strongest in the world. And it got to be like that by delivering quality results and showing persistance and naturally because of the high-octane image of F1 itself. Ferrari came back successfully every time after adverse F1 seasons and such a brand is not so quickly diluted, commercially or otherwise. That could rather be left to Far East copycats, stamping the name and badge on any toy or cheap trinket to be flogged through any channel that would take them.

So copyright-infringement lawyers saw to all dubious Ferrari items being removed from shops. And from then on selected licenseholders and strictly controlled sales channels were sole distributors of the merchandise. Hologramseals saying "Official Licensed Product" will set you back a lot more than before, but will give you the assurance that only reputable manufacturers were involved and that strict Ferrari quality guidelines were met. Those were Ferrari's measures to at least not let the brand get diluted by seeing its name written across rubbish. Is this about taking all spoils for itself, too? Of course, but name a brand (Adidas, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Porsche, Caterpillar) who hasn't picked up a sideline (cosmetics, apparel, watches) these days. Most often as far astray from the original core business as Ferrari has driven it.

The Vodafone name first appeared on the F2002. That season Schumacher equalled Fangio's record of 5 consecutive world championships and the F2002 turned out to be one of the best cars the Scuderia had ever built. Around that time Vodafone had bought its way into American, European and Asian markets via AirTouch, Mannesmann, Eircell, China Mobile and Japan Telecom Holdings and was becoming the world's largest provider. It had a powerful motive to join forces with the best known and at that time most victorious and prestigeous brand: getting the right sort of consumer publicity and goodwill and staying big and noticed as a premium strong A-brand itself. Fame rubs off and the time and opportunity for this couldn't have been better.

And you wouldn't believe it, but these Ferrari merchandise phones are the best effort I've come across yet in containing a substantial sort of "thank you" to all the paying F1 fans for boosting up success and profits, rubbing off on Vodafone's results. And Ferrari was happy to cooperate, because the tens of millions of sponsorship money brings about some serious Scuderia courtesy obligations towards its benefactors (I dont't know about the Voda-amount, but Marlboro shelled out some 68 million dollars this year to have its name written across strategic parts of the F2005). Hence those nice commercial Ferra/Voda vids and pictures, news and background info to enjoy for anyone who buys into Voda 3G and the right for Marlboro to use red F1 car pics on every cigarettebox and shop display.
Vodafone already carried the good and dependable Sharp products for many years (even Beckham was seen with one) and the GX25 and 902 had absolute top specs in their specific range. I myself bought the red 902, so I will comment on that further on. For best overall design you must shop Finnish, but for best overall functional hi-tech combined with durability you must shop Japanese. So these Sharps were chosen to be made into special limited editions and Ferrari approved those specific choices. Believe me: there would never have been for instance a Ferrari Sagem MyX or a Ferrari Nokia 2600. Ferrari only approves of merchandise quality matching its own prestige and vision on technology.

The red 902 has the same base white material underneath its racing red as the standard white model has. But this particularly lustrous red colour is difficult to achieve in a deep and even finish, as Olympus also found out with its own licensed 2004 digital camera product (they had to spray several layers). Quality scratch- and ruboff-resistant typeface and logo prints/decals were applied and the results matches any highly detailed quality crafted specialist product only to be had in racing item shops, carrying a hefty price tag. The 902 is rather bulky and, when folded and in white livery, rather looks like two slabs of plastic stacked together. But the red and the silver trim have done wonders for this optical design flaw; I wouldn't know any current Nokia model which would have lent itself for the same clean yet hi-tech appearance when converted. The finish of the red 902 is superb, the looks are stunning. Seeing is believing and I will not part with it. Ever. You would expect a hefty overprice, like with the mug, the shower gel, the laptop and other genuine hologramsealed items. But there isn't. Vodafone offers these models bundled with subscriptions for the same price as the regular GX25 or 902.

So whoever paid the price for Sharp to go trough these limited edition efforts, including the unique interface design and pre-loaded extra's not present in other Vodafone simlocked 3G of non 3G-phones, the fans entering Vodafone shops do not have to dig deeper when they choose this special livery. I find that decent. You would also suspect the Ferrari content to be a lure to spend money within Vodafone's Live!-portal. Not necessarily so; there are indeed sportfansites you can subscribe on, for e.g. the latest footie or tennis or F1 news, for monthly fees ranging from 1 to 3 Euros. But a same sort of site within the portal, solely dedicated to Ferrari, is again free to enjoy and its quality more than matches the quality of the paid sites. Bear in mind that there are several computerservers in the world where this free information has to be kept spinning for 24 on 7, only to provide its content to its users without revenue. There are also people employed to update this free content on a regular basis. Vodafone had no obligation to do it this way; it is free PR that fans can profit from. Users only have to watch out for cranking up their data transfer rate too much when watching free content over and over again. In such cases the "internet fair use policy limit" will quickly be reached, after which a certain data transfer rate will take effect. But users are told this in advance and have the means to check their consumption rate online for free at any time.

What Schumi & Rubens said in the ad, is also no exaggeration; "Fans can follow the team's achievements from close by and have access to unique Ferrari company content". The limited edition Sharps indeed do have bonuses over the standard ones. The portal content is the same for everyone, but the 32 MB SD-card packed with the 902 contains the Ferrari 3D Experience game (which showed in practice that the 902 is a lot more responsive than the Nokia 6630 I already had), some nice black&white vintage Ferrari pics and two video clips from Vofa/Ferrari cinema trailer ads. The 902 itself has some F1 realtones to be used as ringtones and sports a wallpaper showing Schumi spraying schaumi, and of course the lovely animated GUI icons.
By the way: never before has there been so much fan&theme content presented in such a multimedial way in such a hi-tech handheld package, free to enjoy wherever and whenever. That also is a marketing first, with a rich mobile provider, a leading edge mobile technologymaker and a rich prestigious brand having teamed up to make this possible. Such occasions do not present themselves often within a decade; some years ago there might have been a better moment, but the right technology to