Pepsi’s readying a $200 smartphone, other accessories to boost brand

You know that soft drink company called Pepsi? Well, it’s about to start selling a line of smartphones and accessories in China.

The American company, with a soft drink market valuation of US$144-billion on Monday announced that the company will not be actively involved in manufacturing the phone, but will definitely be going ahead with the previously rumoured move.

“Available in China only, this effort is similar to recent globally licensed Pepsi products which include apparel and accessories,” a spokeswoman noted.

According to a MobiPicker report on Sunday, the company is readying its Pepsi P1 smartphone which, rather hilariously, has better specs than most offerings from actual smartphone manufacturers.

Rumours state that there’s a 5.5-inch screen, with a 1920×1080 resolution. Behind the scenes, there’s a 1.7 GHz MediaTek MT6592 processor, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Powering it is a 3000mAh battery and in terms of imaging, there’s a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front snapper.

But the kicker? Initial pricing rumours suggest that the Pepsi P1 will cost just US$200.

Sources suggest that the phone will be announced on 20 October, but we have our doubts about Pepsi’s push into the smartphone industry. According to the company’s share price at the time of writing, investors don’t quite care either. Additionally, we’re not completely sure who is actually putting the phone together yet but the device looks strangely like a smaller Huawei Mate 7.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that Pepsi’s using the ever growing mobile phone space to broaden its global appeal. Whether this is a fruitful move that others will likely follow, we’ll have to wait and see.

Feature image: Mike Mozart via Flickr