'Obi Worldphone' to launch two new smartphones with Silicon Valley design
New company Obi Worldphone, started by former Apple CEO and ex-Pepsi CEO John Sculley, is set to launch two new smartphones - the SF1 and SJ1.5 - for developing markets. These high-end smartphones are geared specifically for the younger crowd in fast growing markets of Africa, Asia and Middle East.
The smartphones have been designed by Ammunition, a product studio based in San Francisco, and the phones are a combination of the best in the business. Corning, Qualcomm, Dolby, Sony, Samsung and MediaTek all have come together in the production of these premium smartphones.
The rationale behind these smartphones is to soak up the demand between high-end, high-priced smartphones and the low-end, budget-priced ones. Obi Worldphone wants to be the first to jump in this zone with a high-end, budget-priced smartphone.
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According to Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a market analyst and research firm, "Over the next three years one billion users will upgrade from low-end, starter smartphones to models with more power and greater functionality."
The SF1 and SJ1.5 have different specs.
Design and display: The SF1 has a unibody with metallic accents and a raised glass display, 5-inch Full HD with 1080x1920 pixels, 443 ppi . The SJ1.5 has a polycarbonate body and sports a curved touch panel. It has a 5-inch HD display with 720 x 1280 pixels,
Operating system: SF1 runs on an Android OS version 5.0.2 Lollipop while SJ1.5 runs on Android OS version 5.1 Lollipop.
Camera: The SF1 has a primary camera of 13 megapixels, automatic focus with LED flash, and a front camera of 5 megapixels with LED flash. The SJ1.5 has a primary camera of 8 megapixels, automatic focus, while the rear camera is same as of SF1 with 5 megapixels.
Inside: The SF1 runs on a Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 processor with 1.5 GHz Octa Core with Adreno 405 GPU, while SJ1.5 has a MediaTek MT6580, 1.3GHz Quad Core processor.
Price: The SF1 is priced at $199 USD for 16 GB/2GB version. People who want the 32 GB/3GB version would have to pay $249. The SJ1.5 is priced at $129 USD.
It is apparent that Obi has endeavored to offer the best at attractive prices. According to Reuters, Sculley further elaborated on this, "Obi has taken the best of Silicon Valley – innovations in design, state-of-the-art technology and high standards for manufacturing – and fused them into beautiful, powerful tools at attractive prices."
