Luxury smartphone maker Vertu hits dead end with nobody buying its $46,600 18-carat gold phone

The smartphone that catered to the rich and famous has hit a dead end as luxury smartphone maker Vertu has announced that it will be liquidated.

Given the hype created at its launch, it’s surprising the UK-based company struggled to find a customer base for its $46,600 polished 18-carat red gold phone.

According to BBC, the company has an accounting deficit of £128 million leading to its liquidation.



Over the past few years, Vertu has been through a tough period, after first being bought by a Chinese holding firm in 2015, it was sold to a Turkish exile in March this year.

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The company’s $19,000 Pure Jet Red Gold phones didn’t do much to increase its sale despite its early hype.

It was equipped with "exclusive ring and alert tones” created for Vertu by renowned composers and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra,” but that wasn’t enough for customers to throw money at it.

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Back in January, Vertu announced its latest luxury device called the Constellation, that used handmade exquisite material such as anodised aluminium, wrapped in soft leather that was specifically sourced from a “family-run” tannery in Italy.



It had a 5.5 inch Quad HD display and fingerprint reader the supports NFC for Android Pay. A 12-megapixel rear camera backed by 128GB of internal storage and 3,220mAh battery means the smartphone is well equipped to take and store great pictures and videos.

We all thought there will be people out there to splash money on this but at the end of the day, even the richest fell for an iPhone.


 

This article originally appeared on Mashable.