While this phone's specs aren't impressive, the symbolic nature of MTK finally breaking into the N. American marketplace with a phone that supports 4G LTE on T-mobile and 3G is pretty big news.
Now all those hundreds of Chinese manufacturers can flood the US like they've done in Europe and India. XIomi, Oppo, ZTE, THL, Huawei, IUNI, Lenovo, rise up and break the stranglehold QCOM and its cartel have had on the marketplace.
taiwanese mtk is doing quite well selling nearly half a billion units a year to customers in china and india, why bother with such a small market sector in north america?
They sell the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 in the US at 250$ ( 5.5 inch 1080p. SD615, 2GB RAM, 16GB NAND , 13MP cam) and they price this one at 150$? Could have been cheaper. 4GB of NAND is rather stupid now above the very low end . The difference in pricing is so small between 4GB and 8GB (or even 16GB). 2-5-3$ for 4GB while 16GB is 6.5$ more or less. So 2 extra bucks for 8GB in the BOM would have made it look less cheap. It's interesting that T-Mo is bringing in more exotic devices but got to wonder why they are avoiding the good deals. Right now it looks like they are trying to not cannibalize the high end where they must sell certain volumes.
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webdoctors - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
The dragon has awoken.While this phone's specs aren't impressive, the symbolic nature of MTK finally breaking into the N. American marketplace with a phone that supports 4G LTE on T-mobile and 3G is pretty big news.
Now all those hundreds of Chinese manufacturers can flood the US like they've done in Europe and India. XIomi, Oppo, ZTE, THL, Huawei, IUNI, Lenovo, rise up and break the stranglehold QCOM and its cartel have had on the marketplace.
fc1204 - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
taiwanese mtk is doing quite well selling nearly half a billion units a year to customers in china and india, why bother with such a small market sector in north america?hans_ober - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
It's a faster (most probably) Moto E (2015) with less storage and a dated OS.thejaredhuang - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
I think this phone also has VoLTE support which is pretty rare for something this low on the pole.jjj - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
They sell the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 in the US at 250$ ( 5.5 inch 1080p. SD615, 2GB RAM, 16GB NAND , 13MP cam) and they price this one at 150$? Could have been cheaper.4GB of NAND is rather stupid now above the very low end . The difference in pricing is so small between 4GB and 8GB (or even 16GB). 2-5-3$ for 4GB while 16GB is 6.5$ more or less. So 2 extra bucks for 8GB in the BOM would have made it look less cheap.
It's interesting that T-Mo is bringing in more exotic devices but got to wonder why they are avoiding the good deals. Right now it looks like they are trying to not cannibalize the high end where they must sell certain volumes.