Yu Televentures will launch Yutopia, one of the most expensive phones from any Indian brand, today at 12 pm.
The phone, which is expected to have a 5.5-inch quad-HD 4 MP display and 4 GB of RAM, is touted as the most powerful in India, despite costing less than half of what normal flagship phones from international brands cost.
UPDATE: Full specifications and pictures of the phone have been given out. Click here.
The price of the phone is seen at Rs 25,000.
Interestingly, the company will also launch a companion device — possibly a smart watch or something similar — along with the Yutopia. Details of the second device have been jealously guarded.
Yutopia was originally scheduled to launch on Dec 7, but the launch had to be pushed back by ten days. Three days before the scheduled launch, the Delhi High Court held that Yu Televentures was also supposed to pay the same royalty on its phones that its sister company Micromax was supposed to.
This added last-minute complexity to the launch.
It is not clear whether the ruling and any subsequent negotiations with Ericsson will impact the pricing of Yu Yutopia. A 2% royalty on a Rs 25,000 phone comes to Rs 500.
Most of the details of the phone are known, and it leaves nothing to be desired.
Yu Yutopia will help the Indian brand take a step ahead of Lenovo, which has been its biggest competitor in the entry- and mid-segments.
Yu has mostly launched phones in the Rs 6,000-10,000 price range, including Yuphoria, Yureka, Yunique and Yureka Plus. However, all these phones have been met with ‘counter launches’ from Lenovo, often with slightly better specifications.
In the prized Rs 10,000 range, Yu launched the Yureka Plus only to be hit by the Lenovo K3 Note, priced at the same level. The Indian company was forced to cut the price of Yureka Plus after users started going for K3 Note.
However, in the Rs 25,000 category (upper mid-range), Lenovo has nothing to offer. Its sister brand Motorola, however, has the Moto X Play priced at Rs 18,499 and the Moto X Style priced in the Rs 30,000 range.
Yutopia’s true competitor would be the Moto X Style. However, with an expected price difference of over Rs 5,000, it would be difficult for Motorola to truly take on the Indian phone.
The Indian company is also targeting Chinese players like LeTV and OnePlus with the new launch. OnePlus is arguably the most successful start-up brand in India in the Rs 20,000-25,000 price category — the only one in which it operates.
You can watch the live webcast of the Yutopia launch at this link or click on the picture above. Streaming will start at 12 pm.
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