It's Nano all over again — in smartphones. In August last year, Intex launched the world's cheapest smartphone in India. Priced at Rs 1,999 and running on Mozilla Firefox operating system (OS), this phone was supposed to be a winner in a fast-growing but price sensitive market.
Three other brands, Spice, Zen Mobileand Alcatel One Touch also sold ultracheap smartphones running on Firefox OS. There were online deals with Flipkart and Snapdeal. But the data is in, and the Nano of smartphones, just like Nano the car, has flopped. Data from Cybex Solutions, a firm that tracks exportimport data, shows between August and December, only 154,000 Firefox phones were imported.
And in January and February, Zen, a really small player, imported around 10,000 of these phones. These are minuscule numbers compared to average monthly sales of 7 million smartphones in India. The market verdict has been as quick and as harsh for ultra-cheap smartphones as it was for the ultra-cheap car. Mozilla responded to ET's questions by saying "the information (on poor sales) is incorrect" and that "Firefox devices have a steady demand".
Firefox phone vendors agree
But Firefox phone vendors ET spoke to were unambiguous in their agreement that the ultracheap phone hadn't taken off. Firefox phone-sellers say imports are somewhat more than Cybex data but they don't deny the failure of 'Nano' smartphones. "There was little commercial viability," said Sanjay Kalirona, head of mobile business at Intex.
http://m.economictimes.com/tech/hardware/ultracheap-smartphones-running-on-firefox-os-gets-cold-shoulder-in-india/articleshow/46628157.cms
Three other brands, Spice, Zen Mobileand Alcatel One Touch also sold ultracheap smartphones running on Firefox OS. There were online deals with Flipkart and Snapdeal. But the data is in, and the Nano of smartphones, just like Nano the car, has flopped. Data from Cybex Solutions, a firm that tracks exportimport data, shows between August and December, only 154,000 Firefox phones were imported.
And in January and February, Zen, a really small player, imported around 10,000 of these phones. These are minuscule numbers compared to average monthly sales of 7 million smartphones in India. The market verdict has been as quick and as harsh for ultra-cheap smartphones as it was for the ultra-cheap car. Mozilla responded to ET's questions by saying "the information (on poor sales) is incorrect" and that "Firefox devices have a steady demand".
Firefox phone vendors agree
But Firefox phone vendors ET spoke to were unambiguous in their agreement that the ultracheap phone hadn't taken off. Firefox phone-sellers say imports are somewhat more than Cybex data but they don't deny the failure of 'Nano' smartphones. "There was little commercial viability," said Sanjay Kalirona, head of mobile business at Intex.
http://m.economictimes.com/tech/hardware/ultracheap-smartphones-running-on-firefox-os-gets-cold-shoulder-in-india/articleshow/46628157.cms
