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Pepsi (yes, that Pepsi) is trying to fund its own cheap smartphone
The soft drinks company is using a crowdfunding site in China to fund its own budget Android device.
PEPSI IS LOOKING to launch its own smartphone in China by crowdfunding it.
The soft drinks company has started promoting a new Android smartphone in China called the P1.
The device is a standard budget smartphone and comes with a 5.5-inch screen, a 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13MP rear and 5MP front end camera and a fingerprint scanner.
There is another model called the P1s but the only difference is it has an extra SIM card slot.
Pepsi is taking pre-orders through the Chinese crowdfunding side JD+ where it plans to raise 3 million yuan (€440,000) by 3 December.
It’s starting off with 4,000 units and the first thousand who pledge can purchase the P1 for 499 yuan (€73). The next thousand can purchase the P1s for 699 yuan (€102). After that, the prices increases to 999 yuan (€146) for the next thousand backers while the final thousand will have to pay 1,299 yuan (€190) if they want it.
Like all crowdfunding campaigns, whether people will get the phones will depend on whether it reaches its target or not. If it doesn’t, nobody who ordered will get one.
The device is practically identical to any normal Android smartphone except it has a Pepsi logo engraved on the back of it, but the phone is more for marketing Pepsi as opposed to it making a serious entry in the market.
Back in October, a spokesperson told Reuters the move was “similar to recently licensed Pepsi products which include apparel and accessories”.
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