Sirin Labs has raised $72 million in private funds to launch the device, which would be aimed at executives. It plans to open its first store, in London's Mayfair, in May. We guess it will try to get another one on Park Lane.

Sirin co-founder and president Moshe Hogeg said that the smartphone was made from the most advanced technology available, even if it is not commercially available. It also uses almost military-grade security.

It will be based on the Android operating system and run otherwise unspecified technology two to three years in advance of the mass market, he said.
Hogeg believes thousands of executives in the United States and Europe will stump up that amount of dosh to avoid the cost of being hacked.

He put the value of the global luxury phone market at about $1.1 billion, a fraction of total mobile phone sales. Most top end phones sold are more for status - regular phones with gold and diamonds.

Britain's Vertu sells phones in that category from $10,000 to $300,000, while Apple's iPhone 5 Black Diamond sold for $15.3 million, although that was just a regular iPhone with extra bling.