Mobile World Congress - the largest and arguably the most important mobile industry event – is taking place in Barcelona, Spain from Feb 26 to Mar 1, exhibiting plethora of smartphones, multiple launches of new devices and setting the hottest trends in 2018.
As usual, Strategy Analytics will have a large team of analysts across smartphones, drones, robots, tablets, wearables, components, smart home and connected cars in attendance.
Although the event doesn’t officially kick off for another couple of days, vendors were eager to showcase their new devices in advance.
Chinese vendor TCL launched three series of smartphones - Alcatel 1, Alcatel 3 and Alcatel 5, and even created a word to describe them – simganic ( simple & organic). All devices have 18:9 screen ratio (which is now becoming the norm in the industry) and are filled with premium features at very affordable prices.
With Alcatel 5 you can get bezel-less display and dual front camera for wide-angled selfies for €229 (retail price), Alcatel 3V offers dual rear camera and a 6-inch 2K display for €189, and if that’s still too expensive for you, Alcatel 1X will get you a fingerprint sensor and dual SIM for only €109.
Innovative new features are aslo included. Different fingerprints can launch different apps on the new Alcatel smartphones. Although it seems like an interesting idea, it will most likely lead to confusion for consumers. Also, it will be rather inconvenient to scan your punky or your thumb on the back of the phone.
The new TCL-Alcatel smartphones redefine affordability and should inject new life into the slipping sales of the company, that moved down to 14th place in the global ranking of smartphone shipments in Q4 2017.
Stay tuned for
Day Two blog tomorrow when we expect Samsung, ZTE and HMD-Nokia to unveil their new set of mobile devices.