Tesco to launch Hudl smart phone that might challenge Samsung Galaxy S5
Tesco will launch its first ever smart phone by the end of the year. The phone will run on Google’s Android operating system and its specifications will be comparable to nothing less than the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Washington: According to Tesco’s Chief Executive Philip Clarke, in Wake up to Money programme on BBC 5, the smart phone will be pre-installed with Tesco’s services such as Blinkbox video streaming. The smart phone follows the launch of Tesco’s Hudl tablet which sold half a million units so far. And updated version of the Hudl tablet — Hudl 2 — will be released in September, Clarke told the BBC 5.
The Hudl tablet is for the low-end market with low specifications and priced at just Pounds 119. However, the smart phone is expected to be for the high-end market but priced “aggressively.” Through this announcement Clarke seemed to hint that when your core business is under pressure, you need to diversify.
However, the phone is coming at a time when smart phone sales are actually slowing in the UK and other developing countries. Basically most of them have got rid of their smart phones by now. So Tesco is not about to compete with Apple. But the Supermarket is losing its grocery market share to discounters Adli and Lidl and the middle class Waitrose. Its idea is to lure customers on to its new phone so that they will spend more time on its services like online shopping. For example, Pounds 60 of Clubcard vouchers will buy you a Huld. Some such deal is expected with the smart phone as well.
Comparing it with Samsung S5 though cannot be taken too optimistically until Tesco comes out with a spec sheet for the new phone. Tesco trademarked the Hudl brand in February 2013, to cover tablet computers as well as accessories such as cases, screen protectors, stands, earphones and in-car battery chargers. The trademark also covers electronic devices such as wireless speakers, TV-set top boxes, electronic heart-rate monitors, scales, energy control devices and even HDMI cables.
Tesco had impressed with its cheap Hudl tablet which against all odds managed not to be crap. It looks forward to do just the same with its own-brand smart phone. Tesco already offers smart phone contracts as an MVNO, making use of O2’s infrastructure.
Clarke also said that Tesco plans to launch smartphone-based banking services in the near future, so it is likely to figure prominently on the new phone when it arrives.
