Lenovo A7000, the 5.5-inch entry-level smartphone, could get a price cut after the launch of the K3 Note by the Chinese later this week, an industry source said.
He said the price cut would be prompted by two factors – the launch of the Lenovo K3 Note itself, and last week’s reduction in the price of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G – the A7000’s biggest competitor.
The A7000 has long been the cheapest 4G handset with a display size of 5.5 inch or above.
However, with the reduction in the price of the RedMi Note at the beginning of this month, the phone has lost that distinction to the Xiaomi model.
A large part of the attraction of the A7000 was that it was priced at just Rs 8,999. Now that the Redmi Note is coming in at Rs 1,000 below that, some could switch their loyalties to the Xiaomi model even though it offers Android KitKat, while the Lenovo phone is built around Lolipop.
Moreover, at least some feel that the Redmi Note has a better, more vibrant display compared to the one on A7000. Part of the reason could be that the Redmi Note was built with a higher price bracket in mind compared to the other phone.
The second factor weighing in favor of a price cut is the launch of Lenovo K3 Note.
The 5.5-inch phone has much superior specifications compared to the A7000 and is priced at just Rs 9,999. Of course, it would difficult to get one’s hands on the K3 Note considering that the first month is going to see only around 1 lakh or so phones being sold, while the A7000 is available on demand.
Still, many would rather wait their turn for the K3 Note instead of going for the A7000.
For the extra Rs 1,000 that you pay, you get double the storage (16 GB vs 8 GB), double the display pixels (full HD vs HD) and a superior 13 MP camera compared to the basic 8 MP one on the A7000.
In fact, just the difference in the display resolution alone is worth an extra Rs 1,500. The comparable Meizu M1 Note is priced at Rs 11,999.
However, the person does not expect the cut to be very large, like Xiaomi implemented. “It would be Rs 500 or Rs 1000,” he said.
In fact, this wouldn’t be the first price cut implemented by Lenovo in response to rising competition in the entry-level market. When Coolpad launched its Dazen 1 smartphone at just Rs 5,999, Lenovo promptly cut the tag on its A6000 Plus from 7,499 to 6,999.
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