Reports out of Russia are indicating that the country now has a smartphone company with the hopes that it will compete on the world scene. Yota Devices was once a part of Russian state-operated defense corporation but now the company is betting big on a dual screened device. On one side of the phone, there will be an LCD screen and on the other side, “electronic-paper display”. Additionally, Yota Devices says that its phones have better battery life than the average smartphone.
CEO Vladislav Martynov, has a lot of confidence about the success for his company’s new phone. “Most phones nowadays are boring-they are just boxes. This is a phone for people who want to be outside that box” (WSJ). Since May, Martynov has had a 35-man team of engineers and $25 million to work with and develop the phone.
Unfortunately, there is no real reaction from consumers because the phone is not out yet, making it difficult to gauge the product’s success. However, the company says that they will be showing the new phone (not named yet) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this coming February. If everything goes to plan and there are no big glitches, the company says they expect to have the phone on sale in Russia sometime around summer.
This is my belief because of the report from the company that states that the following quarter will begin “cooperation with global carriers”. Essentially, Yota is going to Barcelona to start some buzz about its new product. Once the kinks have been worked out, the phone will be released in Russia sometime around midyear with the international distribution occurring sometime in the second half of the year.
Unfortunately, the smartphone market is highly competitive and it can be extremely difficult for a new firm to enter the market and make its presence known. Still, CEO Martynov promises to innovate and change the smartphone landscape. The CEO argues that other smartphone companies have not innovated in five to six years. It should be interesting to see what kind of innovations the CEO is talking about and whether or not they are relevant to the consumer.
From what I am able to gather, the phone will feature the same sort of styling as the e-paper screens, which are widely used in devices like the Kindle. While the company totes of the streaming possibilities that it is planning, I can’t help be realize that dual screen phones have never been a big hit in Asia. Furthermore, the region is starting to see a ramp up of demand for the iPhone 5. This will absolutely hurt Yota coming out of the gate.
To make matters worse, the starting price (as of this writing) is $500. This is much larger than the much less $199 for an iPhone. The bottom line here is that it should be interesting to see if Russia can be competitive in the smartphone marketplace or whether the usual suspects will come in and take the cake.
Disclosure: None
