Porsche Design Group unveiled its first mobile phone in France called the P’9521. The P'9521 is designed by Porsche, however, it's engineered and manufactured by Sagem in France. The handset retails fro $1,600 and will be sold in Britain, Dubai and other foreign markets later this year. The handset will hit the United States by early 2008 and maybe distributed via Porsche auto dealership network and its five U.S. based Porsche design stores.
Porsche isn't the first automaker to partner with a cell phone manufacturer to launch branded cell phone. In 2003, Motorola partnered with Harley-Davidson to launch the V60i. Ferrari and Sharp partnered in 2005 to launch the red GX25 that was sold via Vodafone in Britain. Mercedes-Benz and Vodafone partnered to launch the McLaren Mercedes GX29.
Unlike the other partnerships which were pretty much a one time limited edition deal, Porsche plans to offer future models. Besides selling cars, Porsche is known to sell accessories such as luggage, eyewear, watches, and ties.
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