New Aura, Same Trend;
Motorola’s $2000 Mobile Phone
Those who have, buy?
A Call to Quality
In late 2008, Motorola released the Aura, a $2,000 cell phone. What it lacks in modern-day feature-rich gadgets, it makes up for in austere styling, quality materials and precise engineering with a Swiss-made main bearing and 130 precision ball bearings; tungsten-carbon-carbide-coated main gears; chemically etched textures and patterns; a mirror finish; and a scratch-resistant 62-carat, grade 1 sapphire crystal display.
Reality Check
In the midst of a recession has Motorola gone mad, or will their release of a $2,000 phone prove to be a timely decision?
In an October Washington Post article, Bain & Company Partner and retail expert Darrell Rigby said, “Contrary to some popular predictions, high-end retail is not recession-proof. There’s not a retailer in the country that isn’t taking this downturn seriously.”
However, an alcohol distribution manager recently noted while his mid-range clients are buying slightly less prestigious brands and low-end consumers are opting for the lowest possible price point, his upper-end clientele’s purchase of top shelf brands has sharply increased and profits are up.
Likewise, a custom home builder reports sales increases so great they have more business than they can handle and said this has been their experience in past recessions as well. The high-end builder cites low material costs and attractive interest rates available to affluent, asset-rich customers, as driving forces.
My father once told me he believed that during bad economic times affluent people spend money as a means of escape—a self-administered reassurance, a distancing from the dark realities around them.
You Make the Call
Time will tell if Motorola can successfully circumvent the recession by developing a phone that transcends it. If branded properly, the Aura may have the proper cachet to attract wallets still overflowing with disposable income.
Visit the Aura Microsite or, if you’re already sold and have what it takes, buy it here.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Doubtless a great time to have (as opposed, one supposes, to not having). I’m hardly qualified to address any psychological component to this trend (as relates to escapist consumerism), but I wonder if a prolonged recession does not carry with it the possibility of a fundamental change in the sorts of objects we covet. If, in hard economic times, consumers curb spending and return to low-cost activities of a nesting nature (time with family, gardening, cooking, God-forbid using the items they’ve already purchased), is it really a given that an economic upturn will slingshot the middle class back into a spending frenzy?
Unequivocally, there will always be those rarified few for whom a $2,000.00 phone is within reach. My larger concern would be for those brands who presume that the ongoing purchasing power of the wealthy will translate into aspiration among the rest of us if and when the economy returns to the old status quo.