The home bred smartphone maker of India, Micromax is launching its first smartphone under its second brand Yureka along with its existing brand. Yu Televentures, a wholly owned unit of Micromax Informatincs, launched its first smartphone under the Yureka brand on December 18 priced at around $130. In fact, this step marks the interest of Micromax to create a mark in the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia Pacific region. Let’s dig deeper to get an insight into the new offering from Yu Televentures in India.
The intricate features
The device comes with a 5.5 inch HD screen, 2 GB RAM, A 53 cortex, Qualcomm snapdragon octa-core processor and 16 GB expandable memory via microSD card up to 32 GB. It will be a dual-sim smartphone that would feature a 250 mAh battery and also have a 13 MP rear camera. It would also have the typical Gorilla Glass 3 protection feature and a 5-megapixel fixed-focus front camera. The device dubbed as the “Yu Yureka” would run on a custom-build of Cyanogen OS, Cyanogen OS 11 which is referred to as “the temple of customisation” and “Android on steroids” boasting several features over and above the stock Android. The Cyanogen OS 11 build is based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, and an Android 5.0 Lollipop-based build is promised to be launched soon sometime later.
Micromax claims that the battery could support 8 hours of continuous talk time, standby time up to 310 hours, video playback time of up to 6 hours, and gaming up to 4 hours.
The Yu-Yureka features connectivity options which includes Bluetooth 4.0, Micro-USB, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3.2 mm audio jack. Onboard sensors would include an accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and gyroscope.
Taking a leap to target today’s youth
This LTE enabled dual sim device would be available on a flash sale model, akin to China’s Xiaomi in India, on Amazon (AMZN, Financial) India from January 8 next year. However, registrations on the website for the purchase of this smartphone are opening on December 19, this Friday.
Rahul Sharma, co-founder of Micromax and Yu Televentures, stated that Yureka is targeting today’s youth clan who want the best at a reasonable price and love to shop online. Today’s generation is tech savvy who like to keep abreast of new technologies and innovations. He further added while speaking to Economic Times, “Tech enthusiasts will be able to use open source that the company will share to customized the device according to their requirements from the ground up, while warranty will remain intact…”
Tackling competition
The specs are the first in any device launched globally and such a thing will aid in keeping pace with rivals. This Yureka smartphone is expected to provide faster processing, better download speeds even in patchy areas and the A53 cortex allows lower power consumption improving its performance with a single power charge.
As of now, Micromax seems to be emphasizing on personalisation, performance, security and privacy aspects in the new devices that are out from its stable to make it most relevant for the customers. The Cyanogen OS is expected to compete with Google’s (GOOG, Financial) Android OS and might become a favorable alternative in a few months. However, it’s too early to make such a statement because things will be clearer after the flash sale in early January.
But as the new operating system is used by over 50 million devices across 250 smartphone models, Cyanogen may really challenge the dominant Android OS as per the company’s management.
The top brass have mentioned, “We believe that we have a serious shot at getting a respectable market share… We're enhancing stock Android and taking it to a different level.” So after the launch of the Yureka device in the Indian market, it could create a storm via its OS which resembles Android in similar instances.
Last word
In fact, Micromax’s move is a smart one in India and will see rosy days in the country where there is a craze for smart devices among the youth class and as the price is also kept pretty reasonable it will see a positive sales wave soon after its formal release in the market.
