YotaPhone (“Yotafon”) is an LTE-compatible smartphone by Yota Devices, released in December 2013. The device is equipped with two screens that function independently. The first screen is a traditional LCD, the second screen is an electronic ink display.
In December 2014, the next version of the phone, YotaPhone 2, wa
s released.
Story
In August 2010, Denis Sverdlov, CEO of Scartel, shortly before the launch of a test 4G network in the LTE standard in Kazan, spoke about plans to create a Yota smartphone for a 4G network, which was supposed to appear no earlier than mid-2011.
In September 2010, the head of the Rostec state corporation, Sergei Chemezov, at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, said that the corporation plans to release its own mobile phone with support for fourth-generation communication networks. At this meeting, Chemezov showed the president a prototype smartphone. Scartel CEO Denis Sverdlov confirmed this information and specified that this phone will belong to the premium segment, with the corresponding price for this segment, which, as a rule, is 25-30 thousand rubles.
In mid-2011, Scartel announced that the start of production of a new phone was being delayed due to the lack of LTE networks in Russia.
The world premiere of the smartphone took place at the International Consumer Electronics Show CES-2013 in Las Vegas, where YotaPhone won in the Mobile Devices nomination.
Yota Devices' investments in the creation of a global business and two models of the YotaPhone smartphone amounted to about $50 million, only private funds were invested. The project will reach self-sufficiency in a year and a half, according to the forecasts of the company's general director Vladislav Martynov.
In 2019, the YotaPhone manufacturer was declared bankrupt (the Supreme Court of the Cayman Islands declared bankrupt Yota Devices, the parent company of the YotaPhone smartphone manufacturer), owing $ 1 million.
Sales
In December 2013, the smartphone went on sale in Russia and some European countries, its cost was 19,990 rubles. or 499 euros. Over 10,000 YotaPhones were sold in the first 3 weeks.
In March 2014, the YotaPhone was launched in the UK for £419.
In mid-May, the smartphone went on sale in the United Arab Emirates for AED 2,199.
In total, as of May 2014, about 40,000 smartphones were sold.
At the beginning of December 2014, sales of the next generation device YotaPhone 2 started at a price of 32,990 rubles. Since December 23, 2014, the price of YotaPhone 2 has been increased by 21% to 39,990 rubles due to the devaluation of the ruble in Russia.
By March 2016, the YotaPhone 2 was priced at RUB 20,437 [RUB 72.99]. - 1 euro].
By December 2016, the price was 18,200 rubles [65 rubles]. - 1 euro].
Technical details
The smartphone is designed to work in LTE networks. It is equipped with two 4.3-inch screens. The screens are located on different sides of the smartphone, the rear screen uses electronic ink, which consumes almost no electricity. LCD screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, screen resolution of E-ink 640x360. Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with a clock speed of 1.7 GHz. 2 GB of RAM and 32/64 GB of internal memory (without microSD support). 12-megapixel rear and HD front cameras, 1800 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth modules. Satellite navigation GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS. Google Android as operating system. Micro SIM card. Sensors are installed in the device: accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, proximity sensor, light sensor. There is also support for FM radio. To support specialized gestures, YotaPhone has additional touch zones. Additional touch zones on the front side of the device are located above and below the screen. The touch zone on the back of the phone is located under the screen, made on the basis of Electronic paper technology.
Awards
In January 2013, YotaPhone received the CNET Best of CES award at the Las Vegas show.
In 2013, the smartphone was awarded the highest Golden Lion award in the Innovation category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Further development
* YotaPhone 2 - In February 2014, Yota Devices announced a second-generation smartphone. Unlike the first model, the new YotaPhone has both touch screens.
* YotaPhone 3 is the third generation of a smartphone.
Criticism
According to IFC Metropol analyst Sergei Libin, the statement made by Sergei Chemezov in 2010 during a meeting with Dmitry Medvedev that smartphone assembly would be moved from Taiwan to Russia in the near future looks populist: “Even if Yota manages to create a high-quality a smartphone, assembly in Russia will make it uncompetitive in price with the offers of foreign manufacturers, who produce all the "iron" in Southeast Asia, where labor is cheap" [source not specified 2836 days]. He also noted that even in this case, one year for such a transfer would not be enough.
The editor-in-chief of the site Mobile-review.com Eldar Murtazin initially believed that “it is impossible to say that this is a Russian phone”, since in his opinion this smartphone has practically nothing to do with Russia. Then, after seeing the prototypes, he changed his mind:
This product can be fully called a Russian development, for the first time in a long time. Our design, concept and idea, which are fine-tuned and brought to a "live" state. It is this fact that causes me delight, the prototypes have been brought to the stage where they can be used, and this happened for the first time for a Russian company.
