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'.

Comments

Amazon Fire Phone all over again

[johanw]

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.

Call me clueless

[Archangel Michael]

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?