Is the SAGEM VS1 an indicator of Vodafone's strategy ?
A few web sites have been showing an interesting phone called the VS1. It is produced by Sagem for Vodafone. What is interesting is that the phone seems to have been optimized to target a new segment: Vodafone is going to fight the so-called Ultra Low Cost phones by the Ultra Targetted Phones ! The tendency is always to go up market with ever more sophisticated phones, and
the talk is usually all about smartphones. Here we have a manufacturer and an operator going the opposite way. Is it a one-off or a new strategy? How come this phone is actually produced by a French manufacturer? You would have expected a chinese one, if cost is so important. The key to such phones is of course to get the economics right while preserving the marketing value.
We don't know where it is manufactured, but either this phone will be produced in very large quantities, or Sagem found a way to reduce the design cost for short series.
We don't have many screen shots, but the user interface seems intriguing.
So many questions! The VS1 should be available in Q2, which is about now...
If you want to see it : slashphone. Or Google.
the talk is usually all about smartphones. Here we have a manufacturer and an operator going the opposite way. Is it a one-off or a new strategy? How come this phone is actually produced by a French manufacturer? You would have expected a chinese one, if cost is so important. The key to such phones is of course to get the economics right while preserving the marketing value.
We don't know where it is manufactured, but either this phone will be produced in very large quantities, or Sagem found a way to reduce the design cost for short series.
We don't have many screen shots, but the user interface seems intriguing.
So many questions! The VS1 should be available in Q2, which is about now...
If you want to see it : slashphone. Or Google.
posted by BB | Permanent link
2 Comments:
He ! Vodafone has officially released this product:
http://www.vodafone.com/article/0,3029,CATEGORY_ID%253D500%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D258643,00.html
AFAIK, this is the very first device to be 100% specified by a telco.
Isn't this the beginning of a new era, too ?
Ramon.
Hi Ramon,
In fact no. Orange (France) completely specified a phone with Microsoft and HTC back in 2002 (called the SPV) and continue to do so. So to my knowledge, Orange is most advanced along this route; we don't know to what extent Vodafone specified the VS1; maybe they specified Live! plus a Live! look as well as the "simple" concept, which to me is the real interesting stuff.
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