Dubai: Tonino Lamborghini Mobile sees the global luxury smartphone business growing in double digits every year despite macroeconomic conditions and the market is worth between $800 million and $1 billion.
Bob Hatefi, CEO of the Italian luxury smartphone manufacturer, told Gulf News that many millionaires and billionaires are added every year and they have new demands and needs. Luxury phones are something that is worth more than $2,000 and the global market is worth 100,000 units per year.
The Italian company entered the smartphone business in 2012 but launched its first device in 2014.
He said that 2014 was a year of analysis, research and understanding of the market.
The company sold around 10,000 units of its first smartphone.
The phone has nothing to do now with the sports carmaker Lamborghini automobiles, which were created by auto designer Ferruccio Lamborghini. Tonino is the son of Ferruccio.
The main markets for Lamborghini Mobile were China (including Hong Kong), Russia and the GCC, but due to the collapse of Russia’s currency, the main markets now are China, GCC and Russia.
“We started mainly with Dubai and we have not put our foot on other Gulf markets like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. Saudi Arabia is another big market but in order to be quite known and be success in the GCC, we need to start from the hub and that is Dubai,” he said.
He said that Lamborghini Mobile will open an office in Dubai this year and is part of its road map.
Considering the macroeconomic conditions, he said that luxury sector had a little impact on sales. There are only few brands leading the luxury sector.
“Luxury brands do not follow the technology as technology moves very fast. The rich people follow the luxury trend rather than what technology it runs on. Even though technology is attractive, they [rich] are not technology freak,” he said.
All smartphone technology leaders have lost “market share” considerably after a certain point of time.
“Take the example of Motorola, BlackBerry and Nokia. The one that survived through the years was Vertu, it was created in 1998. It is still around and still does business because their approach was not to lead the technology but bringing a difference to the niche luxury market.
“I don’t think Vertu will consider us as a competitor as Vertu is a high-end luxury item but we are a techno-luxury item. Their [Vertu] positioning is completely different — price wise and quality wise. They are into the jewel segment and we are not,” he said.
He said that Lamborghini Mobile blends luxury with technology and creates a market of its own.
