Bharti Airtel said it has tied up with HMD, the maker of Nokia smartphones, to offer cash back of Rs 2,000 on the Nokia 2 and 3 smartphones.
The initial price of Nokia 3 will be Rs 9,499 and that of Nokia 2 will be Rs 6,999.
To get the cash back of Rs 2,000, the customer has to consume at least Rs 7,000 worth of services on Bharti Airtel over a period of three years, or about Rs 195 per month on average.
If the customer spends as much, he or she will get Rs 500 as cashback after 1.5 years and another Rs 1,500 as cash back after another 1.5 years, taking the total cashback to Rs 2,000.
However, it remains to be seen if people will go for the Nokia models, given what is available in the market in the same price range.
For example, the Nokia 3 costs Rs 9,499 and offers only 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory, along with a 5-inch display.
However, competing smartphones in the Rs 10,000 range come with 3-4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage, as well as 5.5-inch full-HD displays.
Similarly, Nokia 3 comes with the low-end MediaTek 6737 processor, while competing devices offering mid-range chipsets such as Snapdragon 625.
Nokia 2, priced at Rs 6,999, comes with just 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. However, unlike Nokia 3, which has a 2.6 Ah battery, this one comes with a 4.1 Ah battery. It is powered by Snapdragon 212 chipset.
Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said the devices offer exciting and affordable options to customers planning to upgrade to a 4G smartphone.
“Nokia devices have a solid brand resonance amongst customers and we believe that the partnership offers a great proposition to customers looking for quality devices at great prices,” he said.
Airtel has partnered with multiple mobile handset manufacturers to build an ‘open ecosystem’ of affordable 4G smartphones and bring them to market at budget friendly effective prices.
The move is seen as a counter to Reliance Jio’s strategy of procuring handsets at a large scale and then offering them on 2-3 years contracts with low or no initial deposits.