With the Micromax Bolt A51, phones are still launching with Gingerbread
It’s 2013, folks, but some OEMs seem to be stuck in 2010. Micromax has announced the Bolt A51, a new entry-level smartphone that looks like it will appease mighty nicely to those who don’t want to break the bank. It’s a 3.5 inch HVGA smartphone with an 832MHz Broadcom chipset, has 256MB of RAM, 512MB of internal storage, a 2 megapixel camera on the back and a VGA camera on the front. With those dated specs — they’re quite low even for entry-level standards these days — comes the real disappointment: this smartphone will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
I understand Micromax appeals to a very niche market of those looking for affordable smartphones, and that people in that market might not care about having the latest and greatest, but how hard is it to launch with at least Ice Cream Sandwich in this day and age? It’s bad enough that Gingerbread still commands almost 50% of the Android version market share, and fresh device launches with the obsolete version don’t help anyone at all.
Predictably enough, the phone won’t be aimed at many regions. Our friends in India will have a crack at it, though we’re not sure how much they’ll be asked to pay for it just yet. For comparison’s sake, the slightly more powerful Micromax Bolt A35 (with a 1GHz processor and a 4-inch display) costs around $78. The Bolt A51 should be a good deal cheaper, and that certainly better be the case if Micromax expects anyone to pay for such an antiquated experience.
[via NDTV]