Page 29 - bne_Tech_03_2019

Telecom
March 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 29
is a post-holiday wave of smartphone purchases in the annual sales period.
February and March will also be tough months as Chinese manufacturers are due to present their new product lines on the Russian market. To be successful the Yandex phone needed to either compete on price or to offer a unique service or feature and the phone does neither.
This was not the first attempt by a Russian firm to break into the smartphone market.
Russian internet provider Yota launched its Yota smartphone in 2011, which did have a unique fea- ture: two screens. The front of the phone is a regu- lar phone screen, but the back of the phone was an e-ink screen typical of e-Book readers like Kindle.
The second generation of the phone was launched in 2014 in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and costs around $500. Its main difference from the previous model is that its second screen is touch- sensitive, can send text messages, respond to calls and perform other basic operations. A third generation of the phone came out at the end
of 2017.
However, sales of the Yota phone have also been disappointing and with a price that is twice that of the Yandex phone, they are considered expen- sive on the Russian market.
Yota sold a 65% stake to Hong Kong-based REX Global Entertainment Holdings for $100mn in October 2015 and the company is concentrating on building up a customer base in China.