Sandalwood Partners, an early stage VC firm has invested in luxury mobile phone company with an initial capital of $2 million. It plans to invest around $10 million over a period of time. Mr Kondamoori said that luxury mobile phone market in India may see a slow uptake and firm plans to sell around 10,000 units in the first year of operation. Globally, there are a few luxury mobile phone brands, some which are part of the handset manufacturers, others as standalone entities. Nokia’s luxury division, Vertu, has handsets in the price range of $310,000, which are available in very limited pieces of 8-10. Others like SonyEricsson, Motorola have handsets priced at $300,000 and $51,800, respectively. Besides, there are other models which are priced in the range of $1,900 to $2,700. India is also the home to around 150 million mobile users and is one of the fastest growing market globally. It is estimated that this market will cross 500-million users by 2010-11.   more »