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The Pepsi P1 Smartphone Takes Consumer Lock-In Beyond the App (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: On the 20th of October Pepsi will launch its own smartphone in China. The P1 is not just a cowling brand, but a custom-made device running Android 5.1 and costing approximately $205. At that price it's almost a burner, but even so it represents new possibilities for a brand to truly control the digital space for its eager consumers in a period where mobile content-blocking is becoming a marketing obstruction, and where there is increasing resistance on Google's part to allow publishers to push web-users from the internet to 'the app'.
Instead of "Pepsi...it's what you drink when they don't have Coke," it'll now be "Pepsi...it's what you dial when they don't have Apple."
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
You either have no children, or are in the 1% (or, naturally, both).
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I don't talk through my Royal Crown cola cans -- why would I drink a telephone?
They seemed not to have learned from Amazon's failure. The only buyers of this device are probably those who will replace the adware with a custom rom.
I saw this over the weekend and simply shook my head thinking "what is the goal here Pepsi?"
And looking at the specs, it isn't anything that hasn't already been done before (and better) for less. Unless they are going to be giving these away as some weird promotion I don't get it (right now).
Here is the one real question I have, how is a Pepsi phone going to make people drink more Pepsi?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
A playboy or hustler phone would be cool for guys. Playboy would do well for women as well, since they like the bunny icon.
$200 is a burner? What billionaire world are you from? Here burners are $10...
If you can think of a $200 phone as a "burner", then you are the 1%. Congratulations! But can you try not to be such a dick about it?
Agree with you AC 100%.
When did $205 become "almost a burner"? That's "almost a decent mid-end smartphone off contract", not "almost a burner". And this is in China to boot...
Coca Cola has trounced them in advertising for decades--I easily see Coke ads 10:1 over Pepsi logos anywhere I go...
And I see Coke-product-fountains in about the same ratio in restaurants to Pespi-product-fountains--about 10:1.
Too much syrup.
They'll be competing with the successor to the Xiaomi mi 4i at that price, somehow I'm thinking they'll lose.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Yes I want to know..
What is next??
"I light my cigars with $100 bills, so a $200 phone is almost a burner! BULLY!"
People dumb enough to eat and drink junk food probably aren't going to use the phone the way you would like them. Using an app to find your products is way too much executive function and effort.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Submitter must be a privileged Silly Valley cocksucker who has never experienced a minute of hardship in his life.
A very solid phone, will run android 5, and no Pepsi tie-ins.
And XiaoMi will eat them for lunch everywhere but the US. Well, until XiaoMi sells here.
How decadent is this society becoming if throwing away $200 is nothing? Or perhaps the AC is just another shill PR tool?
As you said, Coca-Cola has doubled down on advertising full-sugar soda, as soda consumption has been falling. Pepsi instead followed demand, marketing bottled water, tea, Gatorade, nutrition bars, etc.
Coke sells more soda, but that's a declining market. Pepsi is ahead in the healthier options which have seen increasing sales.
$205. At that price it's almost a burner
Written by someone who obviously does not go through burner phones. A dozen or so $205 phones in a week and you're not making any profit at whatever the hell it is you're doing.
Do we have to reach the smart phone event horizon before the singularity?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
No kidding, what a douche. Especially in China where people live on nothing. Most Chinese can't dream of this.
and browsing experience. Its all catering to the inept generation which only wants quick media fix and nothing more.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
As you said, Coca-Cola has doubled down on advertising full-sugar soda, as soda consumption has been falling. Pepsi instead followed demand, marketing bottled water, tea, Gatorade, nutrition bars, etc.
Coke sells more soda, but that's a declining market. Pepsi is ahead in the healthier options which have seen increasing sales.
What healthier options do they market?
It's all high fructose-corn/sugar-laced products and/or grain-based/soy-infused poison.
No, selling Lake Michigan water doesn't count. Oh, wait, that's Nesle.
Tea *could* be healthy, if it were just tea, not tea plus gobs of sweetener.
On the 20th of October Pepsi
How much did that pay to rename that?
That reminds me, though, not long until Thanksgiving in November-Facebook. Then I'll have to start thinking about buying Christmas gifts before the 25th of December-Coca-Cola...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
...look up anything about Coca-Cola.
Yeah, this...
Add also- lives in their own Universe, with its own language:
WTF is a "Cowling Brand"?
More gibberish:
"...it represents new possibilities for a brand to truly control the digital space for its eager consumers..."
WTF does this _mean_?
The fact that samzenpus passed this on, without translating into English, just shows the sorry state that Slashdot has sunk to.
Although I think the Pepsi thing is dumb you could see a market for something like [your favorite football] team pre-configured with apps that aggregates tweets, stats and news about the team. Logo on case, background etc....
love is just extroverted narcissism
Pepsi realizes that modern app appers drink apps using apps! Therefore, they're introducing an APP APP that lets appers app even more apps with apps! Only LUDDITES drink soda!
Apps!
> What healthier options do they market?
I> t's all high fructose-corn/sugar-laced products and/or grain-based/soy-infused poison.
Coke has 150 calories in a 12-ounce serving.
Gatorade's current product, G2, has 30 calories.
So 80% less than Coke. If you think sugar is bad, Gatorade is 80% healthier than Coke. (Water is probably better - and Pepsi sells water under it's Aquafina brand).
Regarding "grain based", look in your mouth to see what kind of food your body was designed for. You have 8 incisors for slicing (fruit, fleshy vegetables, meat), 4 canines for tearing and puncturing (meat), and 20 flat molars and premolars for grinding (grain, starchy vegetables). So of your 32 teeth, 20 are made for grains and starchy vegetables, 4 are made for meat.
It means that the submitter is trying to stealthily advertise the phone.
Pardon me, but did we have a hyperinflation over the weekend? In what world is $205 an amount that you would spend on a throwaway product?
really! saw it on The Onion! it has issues, though... only thing its music app will play is "rice, rice baby."
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
No Coke... Pepsi
I think it's a mark you apply to baby cattle so you know who owns them.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This is a tech site about tech conscious people not some green peace bleeding heart BS where we must be made to think about each and every wide-eyed starving little bumbkin in the world.
If tech guys want to discuss how a sub-optimal locked down phone is pretty shoddy when compared to basic offerings and a complete joke when compared to premium offerings, let them and leave your politics out of this. People who have to inject their political views into everything are the real dicks.
By your metric, the average homeless person in the US will be in the top 15 - 20%.
Ask me how I can tell you've never travelled outside the U.S. to any even moderately poor country.
The homeless in the U.S. are in FACT better off than many people in Africa or South America or heck, even rural China (all of which I have seen in person). They absolutely have better access to food and healthcare. They have access to libraries during the day to study anything they like, or simply to read if they wish...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Notice, no battery specs! Why? Because it runs on Pepsi! Requires 10oz for a recharge that lasts about 4 hours.
X
I guess a $200 Android phone really is amazing to someone who has never seen a Windows phone for +/- $100. Like $49 for a 530 on T-Mobile or $129 for an unlocked 635. No contract on either.
MS or Pepsi: tough choice.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
So I pointed out that Coke has 150 calories of sugar, while Gatorade has 30.
You argued that I'm wrong because "A calorie is not a calorie". So you think Coca-Cola calories (high fructose corn syrup) are healthy calories. Uhm, okay.
You then say butter and lard are healthier than vegetables.
And you think grains are bad.
Fyi, you just provided evidence that grains are good. See if you can figure out why.
If you want to get a general idea of what prehistoric human ancestors may have eaten prior to agriculture, you can easily look at the other great apes - who have human-like teeth and don't have agriculture .
You'll see they spend their time eating plants, and if a lizard or other morsel of meat happens by, they'll eat it. They. Don't hunt like lions (or have teeth like lions). Meat is a very small portion of their diet.
So you think Coca-Cola calories (high fructose corn syrup) are healthy calories.
No, when did I ever say that I thought HFCS is healthy? HFCS is very *unhealthy*--as are other forms of grains.
You then say butter and lard are healthier than vegetables.
No, I said butter and lard are healthier than *vegetable-based-oils*. *Very* different than actual vegetables.
Not sure what logic you were invoking there--more like poor reading comprehension.
Take 30 seconds sometime to look at pictures of teeth from a carnivore such as a dog or cat, an herbivore such as a horse, and a human. You'll see for yourself which is more similar.
I think you'll see that our teeth are much more like horse teeth than lion or wolf teeth (or house cat). Unlike horses, we DO have a pair of canines. 85% of our teeth are the same types that horses have, not the types that carnivores have. Look and see.
$200 phones get given away when you sign up for service, no one actually pays for a $200 phone, they get them for free.
You pay $200 for an $800 iPhone. You don't pay shit for a $200 POS that no one wants.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
This is a desperation move on Pepsi's part. Soft drink sales are tanking because people are getting wise to how bad refined sugar is for you. Pepsi knows it can't persuade people otherwise, so is hoping to somehow rope them in with a smartphone. It won't work.
As you said, Coca-Cola has doubled down on advertising full-sugar soda, as soda consumption has been falling. Pepsi instead followed demand, marketing bottled water, tea, Gatorade, nutrition bars, etc.
Coke sells more soda, but that's a declining market. Pepsi is ahead in the healthier options which have seen increasing sales.
Hate to be the one to break this to you but bottled tea, Gatorade, so-called nutrition bars often have as much sugar in them as soda. Bottled tea is particularly bad (and tastes terrible to a decent pot of tea).
These drinks are advertised as "healthy" because there's no laws against deceptive advertising in the US.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
> Gatorade, so-called nutrition bars often have as much sugar in them as soda.
12 ounces of Coke has 150 calories, all sugar
12 ounces of Gatorade G2 has 30 calories, mostly sugar
So Coke has more than FIVE TIMES as much sugar.
I thought burner phones were cheap phones you could toss or "burn". $200 is not cheap, even for poor Americans.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cowling
a metal covering for the engine of an airplane
I mean by cowling, they mean it's not just a repackaged phone. It's not just some manufacturer's phone with a new case and branding. It's truly a unique phone in a sense. I think.
Right, I'm going to sign a 2-year contract in order to get a $200 phone for free so that then I can discard it ...