Russia's Yota Devices to set up joint venture in mainland

Russian smartphone maker Yota Devices revealed plans to set up a joint venture (JV) in the Chinese mainland over the weekend during the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia.[Special coverage]

The venture, which will be formed by Yota Devices in partnership with Hangzhou Jielan Information Technologies Co, aims to market phones made by the Russian firm in the mainland market.

As yet, the respective amounts of investment in the new JV put in by the two sides remains unknown.

There has been much hype about the Russian handset maker since its dual-screen YotaPhone 2 was given by Russian President Vladimir as a goodwill gift to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in November 2014 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Touting the new JV as a breakthrough in Sino-Russian cooperation in the field of consumer electronics, Vladislav Martynov, chief executive of Yota Devices, told the Global Times on Saturday while unveiling the partnership that he hoped YotaPhone could become the Apple of Russia.

Stating that his company has high hopes about mainland sales of the YotaPhone, Martynov did not reveal the phone's sales target for the market.

The phone is slated to hit the mainland market in the second quarter of the year, after having been available in more than 20 markets across the world.

When asked about the phone's price tag for the mainland market, Martynov said it won't be disclosed until a few days before the phone's official launch in the market.

The YotaPhone 2, sold for more than 39,000 rubles ($675) in its home market, retails for HK$5,999 ($773) in Hong Kong.

Despite the phone's uniqueness of having an e-ink screen on the back in addition to a regular front display, its pricing is considered an unfavorable factor for the phone to appeal to mass consumers, analysts have said.

While Apple Inc's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are among the best-selling models in the premium segment in the mainland market, going for at least 5,288 yuan ($851) and 6,088 yuan, respectively, other phone makers' efforts to take on Apple in the premium segment have yet to be convincing.

In a sign of its increased clout in the smartphone arena, the California-based iPhone maker dethroned South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co as the world's top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the latest available statistics from US-based market research firm Gartner Inc.

Apple posted its best quarter ever in the fourth quarter of 2014, selling 74.8 million units globally, grabbing the top spot that Samsung had been in since 2011, the research firm said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times on March 5.