According to an article on BGR dated 25th May, Reliance smartphone brand has come up with one of the world’s cheapest 4G phone, LYF Flame 3, humbly priced at Rs. 3,999. The official website has not listed the device yet, but it is up for pre-orders on Homeshop18.
Specifications:
- 4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) WVGA IPS display
- 1.5 GHz quad-core processor
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card
- 1700mAh battery
- dual-SIM
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
- 5 MP rear and 2 MP front camera
The LYF brand has been on a launch spree in the last four months, including devices like LYF 2 which was launched only last week. The four different categories of smartphones that LYF offers are Water, Earth, Wind and Flame (I think Captain Planet fans know what’s next).
This seems to be an out of the box marketing strategy by Reliance as the phone is launched on Homeshop18 before being launched on the official website. The smartphone world has seen some extraordinary marketing stories in the recent past, but they were mostly for phones on the higher price range. Not much has been said about the other features but it is clear that the lower income groups and students are being targetted.
Compared to LYF’s other phones like Flame 2 and J, this one is relatively less priced and targets a different population. This systematic approach by companies launching products in different range can be attributed to PM Modi’s ‘Digital India’ campaign.
The local investments in the startups and smartphone industry have not been as much as from international sources ($5 billion), but such initiatives by companies like Reliance are bound to go a long way in making it successful.
