DataWind Mobile, Is It The World’s Cheapest Smartphone At £10

Priced at INR 999, the smartphone is aimed at disrupting the present price presumptions

Following in the footsteps of brands like Xiaomi which have found phenomenal success in the Indian market with their premium-looking affordable smartphones, manufacturers are looking forward to India as an attractive market segment to launch their futuristic projects.

A Canadian manufacturer, Datawind, in collaboration with Indian service provider, Reliance Communications (RCom) is all set to launch the world’s most affordable smartphone by the end of 2015. Priced at INR 999, the smartphone is aimed at delivering a smooth smartphone experience by disrupting the present price presumptions and thus opening up the smartphone market to millions more. The handset packs a single-core processor with a standard definition display, and offers 2G connectivity.

Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, shared, “Our target is to bring a smartphone under Rs 1,000. The new smartphone will be a Linux variant and the consumers can get 12 months free Internet browsing.” He explained that, “Our big focus is on network services, apps and content. Hardware today is a customer acquisition tool. Once people start using it, we can make money through service offerings.”

Through this project, Datawind wants to target the first-time smartphone users who wish to access the Internet affordably. Free mobile-internet access for 12 months comes in partnership with Reliance Communications’, offering Facebook, WhatsApp and Email to the subscribers. “The sliding prices of processors and memory have made such a low-price possible,” said Tuli.

“There are 900 million mobile phone subscribers but only 18 million broadband connections are available,” added Tuli. “This gap segment is our priority. We create products that create the optimum balance between usability, performance and affordability for the Indian population. Instead of the small niche of high-end tablets and smartphones, our focus will continue to be on affordable devices that can empower the masses of India. Future specifications will include expansion to 3G and 4G networks. We want to replace feature phones with low-cost smartphones and hope to shrink the future phone market base to 5–10% from the existing 60–70% in the next one to two years.”

Originally published at Chip-Monks.