I genuinely can't see why anyone would pay that for a handset. They are an icon of conspicuous consumption, nothing more.<p>Regarding the OS choice, they are right about market share which is why they were on Symbian and are now on android. Only time will tell where they end up.
I do not know if Vertu was ever run at a profit, but, evidently, their new owner thinks it is possible.<p>The future prospects for Vertu are probably on an upward trend. If they can keep the software on their devices updated, a nice Android phone should have a five year lifespan before it is hopelessly out of date and unable to run new versions of the OS or lack the peripherals to support new features.<p>The size of phones, and screen resolution might be stabilizing. Several years of incremental improvements to power efficiency and other parameters will still add up to obsolescence. But, eventually, phones may become more like wristwatches. I have worn the same watch for more than 20 years, and it was made to last.