These high-end customers have plenty of money and care more about performance and features than low cost.
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People of all walks of life reached out for mobiles, even if some mobile businesses started by selling services to high-end customers.
Oh, and Steve Wynn, who mercifully retired from poaching Caesars' high-end customers after selling out in 2000 to Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand, is back.
Fourth, high-end customers who want sophisticated phones drive the Japanese market, but the main growth in the wireless industry overall is in emerging markets, which need cheap phones.
The other reason is that many of these high-end customers want movie jukebox systems like those from Kaleidescape and as we all know, neither format has yet to deliver on the manage copy promise.
Like McDonald's, which attracted more high-end customers with spruced-up restaurants while not abandoning its dollar menu, Wal-Mart's trick will be to build on the early success of some upscale apparel lines while continuing to offer low price points across its products, Shapira indicated.
Jaguar Land Rover is hoping a high-end SUV can draw customers away from the Mercedes-Benz S-class, VW's Bentley and other high-price brands.
"All ships experience some challenges, " said Wetty, who traditionally books her customers on high-end cruises.
Customers at the high end of the market have overwhelmingly chosen the iPad.
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The joint venture, to be called SK-EarthLink, will lease its network from existing carriers and focus on attracting high-end, data-centric customers.
By contrast, Sun Microsystems, which has historically aimed its high-end servers at the financial customers, may feel a fresh round of pain.
Of China Mobile's 650 million subscribers, roughly a fifth are at the high end and look like good potential customers for the iPhone.
With a unique design, enhanced camera, world class maps with turn-by-turn navigation and free unlimited music streaming, the Nokia Lumia 822 provides Verizon Wireless customers with high-end smartphone features on America's largest 4G LTE network.
"There are firms bucking the trend, like Jaguar Land Rover who are positioned well in the emerging markets, and you see that those high-end brands aimed at richer customers are not doing as badly, " said Mr Stadler.
Taking a very " un-carrier" approach, Cricket and MetroPCS recently introduced financing programs that allow prepaid customers to purchase high-end smartphones with a reduced upfront cost.
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In the 1980s, the New York revenue officers raided a high-end jewelry store that was enabling customers with out-of-state addresses to avoid state sales tax on big-ticket items.
Sky saw its broadband customers rise to 553, 000 by the end of April, against 193, 000 at the start of January, and the company wants to have more than 700, 000 high-speed Internet customers by the end of June.
But the building was already familiar to high-end real estate agents and their likely customers: billionaires.
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Likewise, Apple can seem to do no wrong, picking up new customers with slick, high-end designs.
China's biggest state-owned lender by assets, set up a fund for customers to invest in high-end pu'er tea, marketing it as a low-risk investment.
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That's particularly true in the U.K., where customers are used to getting high-end phones free with carrier contracts.
And corporate customers have already signalled interest in machines equipped with high-end Intel chips.
AvalonBay Communities owns high-end rental apartments, and during the housing boom they lost scads of customers to the homeownership craze.
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High-end audio manufacturers are utilizing the very best in video processing to give their customers the best they can.
The higher end of that range would be considered pretty outrageous for anything but a high-end establishment that might also want a food truck presence to cater to its customers.
High-end physicians will practice in the front of the bus, serving cash-paying customers.
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Wal-Mart stumbled a few years ago with a push into high-end fashion, instead of sticking with cheaper clothing that suited its blue-collar customers.
It was the start of a shift, with high-end designers not only going online, but actually opening up social media channels to talk with their customers.
Which brings up another reason why Petra stays away from the market's high end: By doing so it stays out of the crosshairs of the multinationals, which are often its customers.
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