CrunchGear

Hands on with the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Android phone
Notion Ink Adam delayed until November
Daily Crunch: Infinity Machine Edition

Hands on with the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Android phone

Posted: 06 Jun 2010 12:41 AM PDT

How much would you pay for an Android phone? $99? $199? Maybe $299 with contract?

How about $50,000. As you recall, the Ulysse Nardin Chairman is a freaking $50,000 phone. It’s only in beta right now, but it will run Android 2.1 and come in multiple styles including a model covered with diamonds. The box, as you’ll see in the video, is nutso too. It’s basically a dock with speakers and a USB port.

The phone is made for the ultrarich. As the charming young lady who showed it to us explained, it’s for folks who can’t bring their Ferraris into the club and need something equally ostentatious.

I have a few decidedly grumpy things to say about the phone here but seeing it in person – and basically understanding the ludicrousness of the idea – have made me a believer. Sadly, the phone will not be carrier subsidized but it will work on most GSM frequencies. If you’re confused by that last thing, just have your manservant put your SIM card in for you and have another mimosa.

I’ll have more video and pictures from JCK, a watch show here in Las Vegas. Until then, enjoy the opulence.

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Notion Ink Adam delayed until November

Posted: 05 Jun 2010 05:57 PM PDT

Well, that’s that. We all liked the look of Notion Ink’s Adam, with its hot-pants interface (controls in the back) and Pixel Qi screen, but if it’s not going to hit until November then there’s little chance of its survival. It’s hard out there for a tablet, and with dozens of new tablets making their debut at Computex, it may be too hard for the Adam to differentiate itself five long months from now.

What will be going on in November to thwart the poor Adam? Well, Chrome OS will be coming out, the new iPhone will be in stores, half those new tablets will be shipping, HP will likely have announced its webOS tablet, and who knows what else. It’s too bad, but with a serious delay like this it just doesn’t seem like the Adam will have any kind of pull on the consumer mind around that time. Alas!

The reason for the delay is manifold: hardware scarcity, Flash compatibility troubles, and shareholder meddling are all fingered as partly responsible. Otherwise we might have seen it as early as July — not a possibility now, I’m afraid.