Micromax and Vodafone to launch a 4G smartphone at an effective price of Rs 999

In order to compete with Jio 4G mobile phone, Micromax has teamed up with Vodafone to launch a smartphone named Bharat 2 Ultra at an effective price of Rs 999. The 4G smartphone will be available in India from November first week onwards.

According to the company's offer, one will have to buy the smartphone at Rs 2,899 and will have to recharge their new or existing Vodafone numbers with a minimum denomination of Rs 150 every month for three years. The buyer will then get a cashback of Rs 900 at the end of 18 months and a cash back or Rs 1,000 after the next 18 months in his/her Vodafone "M-Pesa" wallet, thereby making the effective price of the handset Rs 999.

“The Bharat-Series has been aimed for the acquisition of the first generation smartphone users. This partnership with Vodafone will help bring in the next phase of smartphone adoption by hand-holding consumers to upgrade them from feature phones to smartphones. We believe that greater device affordability and low-cost data packs will drive increased smartphone adoption, as there is still a huge gap. At Micromax, we want to give superior device experience in an affordable way and Bharat range is a testimony of the same, having already sold more than 2 million handsets,” said Rahul Sharma, co-founder, Micromax.

“This will help fulfill the aspirations of several million phone users across the country who desire a smartphone but couldn’t afford one. It will also encourage current nonusers of 4G to upgrade and enjoy a richer user experience with Vodafone SuperNet 4G,” said Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director-Consumer Business, Vodafone India.

In terms of specifications, Bharat 2 Ultra is powered by Spreadtrum SC9832  1.3Ghz Quad Core processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal memory. The device features a 4-inch WVGA display and has a 2 Megapixel rear camera with a 0.3 Megapixel front camera. The handset runs on Android Marshmallow with 1300 mAh battery and supports full video viewing, social networking, and chat apps to give a complete smartphone experience to users.

With the launch of Bharat 2 Ultra, Micromax and Vodafone have applied the same strategy as Airtel and Karbonn did with the newly launched Karbonn A40 smartphone. Also, Micromax had earlier this month teamed up with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL) to launch Bharat 1 priced at Rs 2,200