 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications equipment |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 2018 [1] |
| Headquarters | , US |
Area served | |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 70 (2016) [2] |
Obi Worldphone, previously Obi Mobiles, was a Silicon Valley smartphone manufacturer founded in 2014 by Neeraj Chauhan, Shane Maine, Gordon McMillan, and John Sculley. [1] Obi Worldphone manufactured smartphones aimed at the emerging markets [3] rather than very competitive developed markets. [4] [5]
The company was launched as Obi Mobiles in 2014. Sculley saw a gap in the market for well-designed budget handsets and got in contact with former Director of Industrial Design, Robert Brunner (now a co-founder of Ammunition Design Group) who came up with the raised screen design found on all Obi smartphones. [6] Ammunition subsequently designed the chassis and operating system skin the phones run on, "Obi Lifespeed". [7]
Obi Mobiles started operations in India in July 2014. Following an unsuccessful launch, the company withdrew from India at the beginning of 2015 (with plans re-entering at the end of the year) and relaunched the brand as Obi Worldphone shortly after. [8]
The newly branded company launched two of their pioneer low-cost smartphones on 27 August 2015. [9] Both models were based upon Android as their operating system. [9] Their third phone, the MV1, was announced in February 2016, and was released to Asian, African, Latin American and European markets in March 2016. [10] [11]
In July 2015, Obi had a 5.7% smartphone market share in the UAE, making it the company's strongest global market. [8]
In September 2017, Sculley distanced himself from Obi and said his name was used for PR only. [1]
Launched on 27 August 2015, this phone with a raised 5-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at a PPI of 443 pixels per inch (PPI). [12] The phone comes with a self-developed fork of the Android Operating System called "Obi Lifespeed". [7] [13] The device also features Dolby Audio multi-channel audio, noise cancellation, and utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, an Adreno 405 GPU, and a 3000 mAh battery. It can access 4G networks. The device comes in 32 GB + 3 GB / 16 GB + 2 GB (respectively Storage and RAM) combinations, [13] and a choice of black or white. The initial retail price for the device is $199 and comes unlocked. [14]
This device was launched at the same time as the SF1, and also has a 5-inch touchscreen display, however a lower resolution, lack of 4G, and lack of some luxuries lends this phone a cheaper $129 retail price. [14] The device is all plastics in a range of colors and comes with 16 GB of storage and a 3,000 milliamps battery. [15] [16] Both the SF1 and SJ1.5 feature a dual SIM tray. [16]
The MV1 has a 5-inch Gorilla Glass 3 display with 1280 × 720 (HD) resolution; it runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage. It features a dual SIM tray.
In 2015, Obi Worldphone's SF1 was voted the fifth-best smartphone available in Vietnam in VNExpress' "TechAwards 2015" (Sản phẩm Công nghệ xuất sắc 2015). [17] [18] [19]
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