Luxury company Bellperre released its’ own luxury mobile phone and it is using questionable materials. The company is definitely asking for an environmental protest with its lineup of rare woods and exotic leathers. Source article states that the phone uses Zebrano as a key manufacturing material that buyers can choose to have on their device.
Zebrano, or Zebrawood, is not yet on the endangered species list, but it is getting there. As of the time of this writing, zebrawood is officially in the threatened species list of the World Conservation Union. Sadly, this pristinely beautiful tree is now hard to find in its native homeland of Africa. This is mostly due to the combination western interest in the product and the lack of regulation regarding the harvesting of Zebrano wood.
Bellperre has a pretty good idea of how to make a high-fashion phone, but their choice of woods and leathers are too ambitious, if not ecologically unacceptable. They have a wide selection of animal leathers that buyers may choose from. The company made its debut in 2007 during the CeBIT Global Conference (CeBIT Fair) and made proud claims that their luxury phones would not contain plastic (no confirmation on what material has been used for the circuit board of the device). The screens are covered with scratch resistant sapphire glass for an added taste of elegance.
Elegance however, does not merit lack of concern for environmental regulations. As the source article points out, even major clothing and bags manufacturer-retailer Prada had to pay the price for creating a product line that used rare woods. There are no reports yet of a case being filed against the company –though it is likely that Bellperre is operating in a country not covered by environmental laws.
There are currently no listed prices for the devices, but the phones are tri-band, keypad based camera phones on Windows Mobile with 2 inch screens. Aesthetically, the designs of Bellperre are outright boring and bland. Despite using unique materials, their mobile devices hardly look any different from Nokia’s common GSM phones.