Nokia sees Vertu of luxury handsets

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The rich are not like us, they are different.
Ernest Hemingway: Yes, they have more money.

THE FAMOUS exchange between the great American writers comes to mind on reading a Reuters report suggesting that Nokia's luxury mobile-phone brand Vertu cannot keep up with cash-stuffed punters knocking at its door to buy handsets seemingly designed by Paris Hilton's poodle stylist.

Even if you don't accept at face value Vertu's claims that, "we cannot meet demand", the continued existence of a company selling devices plated in gold, encrusted with diamonds and costing thousands of pounds is an abomination of taste.

It's also an abomination of sense as phone designs and components age quicker than fashions in skirt lengths. Take a look at the Vertu site and ask yourself if these gaudy gewgaws will gain in value or just make you think to your older self, "what on earth was I thinking of?"

Perhaps the rich really are like us, just stupider -- and there's one born every minute. Still, who cares so long as your pink phone is clad in "hand-embossed leather checked for resistance to everything from hand-cream to lipstick"?

What a terrible, terrible world this is.