

No-Name Companies Selling More Phones Than Samsung, LG, and Apple Combined - NonEUCitizen
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-no-name-companies-selling-more-phones-than-samsung-lg-and-apple-combined/245232/

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GeneralMaximus
Spice and MicroMax are huge in India. The handsets are dirt cheap[1], support
up to 3 SIMs in the same device, have battery lives measured in days, do
nearly everything except browsing the web[2] and are incredibly rugged. The
appeal is huge. And now both companies have their own Android offerings which,
surprisingly, are not complete pieces of crap. I'm not a fan, but I see these
companies being pretty huge in the future.

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[1] So cheap some people keep extra handsets at home. Some people will buy a
handset on their way to the airport because they need a cheapo device for
their trip.

[2] Most of them come with a Facebook app, a multi-protocol IM client, a
YouTube app, an email app and a lightweight version of Opera that works fine
for simple websites. All of them support J2ME apps, so you also get to use
GMail, Google Maps, Twitter, etc. Some of them have this weird office suite
that lets you read, but not edit, Microsoft Word documents. All this for $100
or less.

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dexen
_> The handsets are dirt cheap[1], support up to 3 SIMs in the same device,
(...)_

This is it, the killer feature: two or three SIM cards. Why don't mainstream
vendors provide such phones, ever?

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NonEUCitizen
Nokia does; e.g. [http://mobile.engadget.com/2011/05/25/nokias-promised-
dual-s...](http://mobile.engadget.com/2011/05/25/nokias-promised-dual-sim-
handsets-arrive-look-strangely-famili/)

It seems more popular in developing countries, where 1 physical phone may be
shared by multiple users.

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vlado
It's not about multiple users using the same device. It's about calling a
contact with the card of her respective carrier in order to reduce the bill.
Making a call inside the carrier's network is almost always free with the
cheapest plans.

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nextparadigms
Huawei has been building better and better phones lately. I could definitely
see them becoming like HTC in the future (as in a popular brand with high
quality products).

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yxhuvud
Or expressed in other words - the mobile market is getting very commoditized
in the lower parts of the market.

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lclaude01
Nigeria Gives Huawei a Place to Prove Itself

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190427900457652...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904279004576524742374778386.html)

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lclaude01
no-name = huawei

[http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwide/productHomeAction.do?m...](http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwide/productHomeAction.do?method=index&directoryId=5000)

