Lenovo will launch and exlusively retail a new 4G smartphone on Flipkart, a move that reinforces the growing propensity of brands to have separate product portfolios for online and offline retail channels.

Lenovo A6000, the budget smartphone will cost $169 but the price for the Indian market will be announced later this month, said Colin Giles, Vice-President (Sales), Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group.

All indications are that the company will price the A6000 under ₹10,000, so that it can compete with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note and the Yureka Yu.

It is highly unlikely that the A6000 will be available in brick-and-mortar shops. Once a product starts retailing online, it becomes difficult to replicate the same pricing through the brick-and-mortar channels, Giles said on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronic Show 2015 in Las Vegas.

Consumer brands are trying to ensure that products retailing on e-commerce platforms, such as Flipkart and Amazon, are different from those at brick-and-mortar outlets.

In India, there is growing friction between online and offline retailers over heavy discounting.

Online Only

Michael Adnani, Vice-President, Retail & Head, Strategic Brand Alliances at Flipkart, says that several brands have shown interest to have ‘online only’ products. This is happening across categories such as smartwatches and smartphones.

For instance, US-based smartwatch maker Martian recently made its ‘Notifier’ line available in India exclusively through Flipkart.

“Going forward, I think we will have such exclusive deals in all product categories,” said Adnani.

The A6000 will be powered by the 1.2GHz 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and will have a 5-inch HD IPS display.

It comes with 8GB internal memory, a RAM of 1GB and a 2300 mAh battery.

The writer is visiting the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the invitation of Broadcom India

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