Insanity in India; Samsung Launches a Fake Galaxy S3 Feature-Phone

[dgstorm]

[video=youtube;tWgEfOAzFJY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tWgEfOAzFJY[/video]​

This is so bizarre and hilarious, we just had to share it. Apparently, India has a highly competitive lower-end market, (which is likely not surprising given the volume of poverty in that country). To that end, Samsung has released a new series of feature-phone devices in India called the REX series that indirectly compete with and mimic their own products. The above video is for the REX 90 which is effectively a fake Galaxy S III feature-phone. Yes. Feel free to read that again... a fake SGS3 feature-phone. It is designed to look like an SGS3 smartphone, but is actually just a very inexpensive "dumb-phone," although it does use a few java applications to mimic some of the features. Even the rest of the series copies their other phones. They range from an SGS2 knock-off to a Galaxy knock-off. One last thing... they all lack 3G support, and are designed to cost less than 100 Euros.

What's especially hilarious about this is that Samsung is doing it themselves. Certainly we have seen knock-offs of phones in China, India and Brazil, but those are usually small local manufacturers trying to cash in on copying someone else's device. When have we ever seen a company do that to itself? Priceless!

Lest you think this is a joke, here's an official press release from Samsung - Samsung Press Release.

Thanks for the tip, grenefroggie!

Source: AndroidAuthority

 

[trestevenson]

Samsung might as well make the knock-off phones themselves and get the money for it! I think it's a genius idea. Cater to the market.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

I think it would work well for them in the US too. They could market them to pre-teens. The wee kids would then have a phone that looked like their parent's but couldn't run up a hugh data bill.

 

[xsylus]

If you can't beat the "fakers" join them... :blink: Actually there are a few good reasons behind this. 1) To market to those who can't afford the "real-deal" and still make some profit. 2.) To create in a interest in the product and possibly have the low-end device be a gateway for consumers to decide to buy their high-end devices.

Samsung is so profitable at the moment they can afford to take risks like this. Google takes risks that are far more outlandish than even this; and while you'll seldom here of Google's failures they've had plenty of them.

 

[johnomaz]

This is what feature phones should be these days. I'd totally buy this for my kids if they were old enough for a cell phone.

 

[liftedplane]

this is a pretty cool idea, I'd love to see better feature phones in the US instead of some of the garbage they peddle to us. I'd buy one for sure.

 

[xeene]

i'd buy these for my parents.

 

[comk4ver]

I completely agree! Perfect for parents and pre-teens! It's like a Wi-Fi lo-fi tablets with calling features! We'll never see this on Verizon...