A battle in budget smartphones erupts in India
The budget smartphone wars have suddenly gotten intense almost overnight. Yesterday, I wrote about the impending launch of Motorola’s Moto E, a phone that from all speculation looks to be an outright winner, much like its predecessors the Moto G and the Moto X. The Moto G in particular has outshone the competition with its performance and specs.
And now, just hours after news broke about the E's specs and pricing a few days before its launch, Nokia, or should we say Microsoft Mobile Oy (the last word incidentally being able to instantly cater to Jewish people and North Indians) has tried to blindside Motorola by introducing the Lumia 630 at an attractive price of Rs 10,500 (US$175).
The device from all accounts is a winner with a 4.5 inch touchscreen, a 1.2Ghz quad core Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB storage, microSD slot (support up to 128GB cards), a 1,830mAh battery, a 5MP autofocus rear camera that does 720p HD video recording but no front-facer—all in all offering a larger screen and more juice compared to the popular Nokia Lumia 520 for a few thousand more.
It just gets better though. All accounts as of yesterday assumed that the Moto E was going to be priced at a little under Rs 10,000 (US$166) but according to this bombshell dropped by the Times of India, the Moto E’s price has been announced at a rock bottom Rs 7,000 (US$116), almost US$50 below what the industry was expecting
At this price, it's tough to imagine anyone competing with the E anytime soon.