Tags: Mobile Phone Industry, Technology Industry, Telecommunications
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – After months of teasing the local market for what may be the cheapest Windows Mobile-based phone, Philippine-branded mobile phone manufacturer Cherry Mobile has finally introduced the Eclipse.
This phone puts it almost in the same rank as Sony Ericsson, HTC, and Samsung that have smartphones powered by the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.
The company gave a sneak peek of the Cherry Mobile early this year, through a press conference held by Microsoft Philippines. Abe Olandres of Yugatech was among the first to see the Cherry Mobile Eclipse. Elijah Mendoza of Techie.com.ph said that the Eclipse is the cheapest smartphone running on Windows Mobile, adding that the OS is the latest 6.5 version.
The Eclipse has just about every feature found in branded phones with Windows Mobile, such as touch screen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a 416 processor to run resource-hungry Windows applications. Pre-installed third party applications include Facebook and Mobile Office. It also has GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, and an FM radio.
Staying true to its main highlight of being a dual-SIM phone manufacturer, Cherry Mobile added dual-SIM capabilities on the Eclipse. Even with two SIM active, the Eclipse is supposed to run for at least two days on a single charge.
The phone has an SRP of P9,999, a third of the cost of the more expensive Windows-based brands.
Now that Cherry Mobile has successfully launched the first sub-P10,000 Windows phone, will it be challenging the more established brands? During the official launch, Jose Reginald Ramos, product development manager of Cherry Mobile Distributor Cosmic Technologies, said they still aim for a niche market in the Philippines, which are budget-conscious buyers that aspire for a full-featured phone at an easy-to-reach price range.
Ramos stressed that many Filipinos in the lower budget segment are hoping to buy phones that have many of the features of more expensive smartphones. “This is an advantage for us because we’re targeting exactly this kind of market.”
Now with the Eclipse in the market, will they be introducing the Android, which is supposed to be a close rival of Windows Mobile? Ramos kept mum about it but said that it could be in the pipeline, along with the introduction of other full-featured smartphones. Other Cherry Mobile models waiting to be launched would have 3G connectivity and QWERTY phones with Windows Mobile.
Competitors of Cherry Mobile in the Philippine-branded phone segment are MyPhone and Torque, which have yet to release their own Windows Mobile phones. But with cost of mobile phones going down, it would be highly likely that these brands are on their way to introducing their own smartphones.
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