Celling Point

“BlackBerry imitations are some of the most popular models. Micromax ,Fly,Spice are the ones in demand. The good part is that they look like expensive mobile phones ,yet come at prices that are affordable for everybody. So the replica of a branded phone that costs Rs 10,000 is available at less than half the price,” says Zahir Bhanvadaniya of Big C Mobiles.

While the BlackBerry qwerty imitation of Spice is available for Rs 1800,the one by Fly comes for Rs 3200. One of the most in-demand models is the Micromax Bling which has sliding keypad with an imitation- diamonds studded trackpad. “They say brand and quality go hand in hand,but I decided to take a risk and buy a Fly B430 DS. I must say that the risk has paid off. I haven’t really faced any problems till date,” says Atul Shinde,a student as he further adds,“This is a qwerty enabled phone and comes with an extendable memory of up to eight GB with a mini browser for internet use. With a 1.3 MP camera and bluetooth,it is quite a steal for Rs 3500.”

“Last week,I wanted to buy a mobile phone and what grabbed my attention was the Micromax Bling. It is an amazingly girly model that looks like a BlackBerry when the keypad slides out. The colour combination,the shape,everything just goes with my personality,” says Ritika Chandran,finance professional.

Some of the most important USPs of high- end mobile phones are the features and what caused the initial rise in demand of branded phones such as BlackBerry,Nokia,LG,Samsung and Sony were features like touch screen,high quality cameras,Wi-Fi and 3G accessibility, qwerty keypad,access to networking sites and so on. “Thankfully,the same features are there in the affordable options as well . For instance,one can access Facebook,Twitter,email accounts and other such facilities even via a Micromax or a Spice mobile phone. And that,amalgamated with the price is the USP of the lesser known brands in the market,” says Azeem Kadu of a mobile shop in Camp.

However,when Mihir Mekal,a student at ILS Law College wanted to buy a mobile phone within a budget of Rs 7000,he chose the expensive,lower- end model of Nokia over the high- end lesser known brands. “I am brand conscious and firmly believe that quality never comes cheap. I believe that it takes years to build the trust amongst customers and I prefer to wait till the lesser known companies gain that kind of reliability,” says he.