New version of Russian smartphone YotaPhone 3 will soon be released to the market: the Chinese participants of the project has not allocated the necessary funding. Co-investor of the China Baoli Technologies lost interest in a joint project, which promised to compete with the iPhone 8.
It was expected that third-generation YotaPhone will be on the shelves in summer 2016 last year. Later it took about 2017. However, it seems the third “Yota phone” chronically unlucky with the budget. Major shareholders, China Baoli Technologies used in the project is owned 30% of shares, still can’t find funds to start.
Another 25.1% of shares controlled by rostec. The head of the Corporation Sergey Chemezov confirms anything concrete about the date of the presentation of YotaPhone 3 at the moment impossible to say. And to still start production, the Chinese partners will have to “persuade”.
The so-called “launch window” is missed, admitted fall, the other close to the company source. Now, because of a hitch with the financing, the smartphone will have to actually redo it.
“It makes no sense to release with the specs that were made. Phones tend to become obsolete within three to four months”, – said the expert.
It seems that the Chinese side is generally lost interest in the project. The previous model of the YotaPhone 2 wasn’t very high sales. “It takes a lot of money. But today, unfortunately, the Chinese are not actively followed,” – said the head of Rostec.
At the end of 2015 has sold 96 000 “yodafone”. Yota Devices managed to sell about 20 000 smartphones of the first generation and 55 000 of YotaPhone 2 smartphones. 21 000 managed to sell the Chinese manufacturer Jiliean. For the first nine months of 2015 losses Yota Devices was $30.7 million, and revenue was $15.8 million.
The current Chinese partners in the project for the production of Russian smartphones launched in the spring of 2016, when the holding Rex Global, late pereimenovaniya in China Baoli Technologies, for $46 million bought one-third of the shares in Yota Devices from the Fund Telconet. For Telconet left 34,9% of the shares, 25.1% – in “Rostec”, 10% of the shares belong to (through the company MTH) management of the company. Target markets for YotaPhone called China and Russia; and it was expected that the new generation of smartphones will be produced on the basis of the Chinese company ZTE.
It was also expected that by 2018, the year in global markets will be “Patriotic iPhone”, comparable in performance with appleskin device, but much cheaper. Unfortunately, the constant changes of release dates of new models to make sure that the YotaPhone 3 will even come off the Assembly line.
What could be a YotaPhone 3
The developers have promised that the new smartphone, like the iPhone, will be available in two variants. One with the standard screen, the other with a larger (YotaPhone 3 Plus). And if iPhone 7 front screen – 4.7 inch, standard YotaPhone was supposed to be 5 inches; the iPhone 7 Plus – 5.5 inch, the “big” YotaPhone – a 5.7. A second screen with e-ink, had to have a size of 4.7 or 5.5 inches. The value of Russian smartphone for the end user would be 2-3 times lower than the iPhone: 350-400 dollars for a “small” phone, 450-500 for a big.
“Iron” YotaPhone 3 also promised to do more advanced: “a much longer battery life, one of the best on the market on the camera and a complete set of communication interfaces”. The developers decided to focus on the “business user”, that is, the person must keep a track of various information streams, working with a multi-screen interface required by the application “to manage their working day, travel, tasks and events and many other aspects of their life.”
