Gionee books orders for its A1 device worth Rs 150 crores

Smartphone maker Gionee on Monday said it has booked orders worth around Rs. 150 crores in the first 10 days of opening registration for its Gionee A1 smartphone.

"Gionee A1 is our first flagship of the year and we have received as many as 74,682 units pre-orders worth around Rs. 150 crores in the first ten days, till April 9, 2017. The pre-booking figures, [are] the highest for any phone in the Rs. 8,000-25,000 range," Gionee India Country CEO and MD Arvind R Vohra told PTI.

The company has been running advertisement Selfiestan campaign featuring brand ambassador Alia Bhatt. It has also recently roped in Dulquer Salmaan, Shruti Hasan and Diljit Dosanjh as its regional brand ambassadors.

Priced at Rs. 19,999, Gionee A1 was first unveiled alongside the Gionee A1 Plus at MWC 2017 last month. The company's new A-Series smartphones have two major USPs - a big battery, and, superior selfie photo quality. Also included on the two models launched at MWC is Waves MaxxAudio processing. The Gionee A1 will be available in India in Black, Gold, and Grey colour variants.

To that end, Gionee has put a 16-megapixel front-facing fixed focus camera on the A1, with an f/2.0 aperture, a 1/3.06-inch sensor, a 5P lens, and a selfie flash. The dual-SIM Gionee A1 smartphone runs Amigo 4.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat, and is a dual-SIM smartphone. It bears a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display and is powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755) SoC. As for the rear camera, the Gionee A1 bears a 13-megapixel camera with a 1/3.06-inch Sony IMX258 sensor, and dual-LED flash.

"Most of the bookings have been done offline where customers are registering for A1 by paying Rs. 2,000. Booking from online channel is very small. This shows people in high end category are willing to pay for good technology," Vohra said.

Gionee has started handing over A1 phones to customers in select cities and will open for others from midnight at its authorised stores.

The company has 42,000 retail outlets and 555 exclusive service centres to cater to its customers.

"Starting March 2017, all Gionee phones sold in India are Made in India," Vohra added.