An MP3 player from Russia, with love

(Credit: Gizmag)

Usually when we see so-called luxury items, they're often fairly standard products that have just been plated in gold or covered in crystals--serving only to make them ugly, as well as expensive. A distinct exception, however, is the work coming from Russia's innovative Gresso.

The company came out of nowhere last fall with a stunning phone made of gold and African Blackwood, generating a lot of interest but offering scant details about features and availability. But now it's preparing to release an MP3 player made with similarly rare materials, and Gresso isn't being quite so secretive this time around.

The "Symphonia" line is scheduled for release this spring, made with the same 200-year-old wood as Gresso's phone with accents in 18k white or pink gold, according to Gizmag. Even more distinctive is its shape, a tetrahedral case that measures only about 1.5 by 1.5 inches and less than half an inch thick, with a patented coating that the company says is as hard as diamond.

Now for the price: The four Symphonia models range from $4,000 to $6,500. And that's for just 1GB of memory. But if you think about them as pieces of fine jewelry, it may not be as bad as it sounds.

[simonethan]

Pay attention

Think about it: 200 year old African Blackwood. That?s ebony. That?s in all
likelihood recycled 200 year old piano keys. This is a scam ? a pretty scam, but
a scam. And at 1GB, the base cost of these little boutique mp3 players is
probably significantly less than that of an Ipod. If you want to blow some extra
money on a rustic ipod pimp-out, go for the Iwood nano.

[Yavrey]

Gresso is unlikely to be a Russian company

(a) The trademark 'Gresso' is not registered to anybody in the Russian Federation;
(b) No company called 'Gresso' (Latin or Cyrillic) applied within the last 5 years to Gosstandart Rossii (National Standardization Agency) with a certification request;
(c) There was a series of private adds in Moscow newspapers in the early 2000s, advertising customization of cell phones. Among other things, cases from rare sorts of wood and complete custom themes, starting from the startup screen were offered.

[Yavrey]

Further to my previous post

The company who placed those adds is ALAN Abris; it is located in Penza, Russia, and manufactures a number of industrial products, packaging machinery, and cellular accessories. ALAN Abris is also the registrant of 'gresso.com'

http://www.cfe.ru/eng/news/?nid=25
http://www.nic.ru/whois/?query=gresso.com