Tesco has reportedly shelved plans of releasing its own Hudl brand smartphone in favour of the soon to be launched Hudl 2 tablet, citing ferocious competition in the smartphone market.
The company had earlier announced its plans for an own-branded affordable Android 4G smartphone by the end of the year, following the surprising success of its budget Hudl tablet, with over 500,000 units sold in less than a year time.
However, on Monday, Robin Terrell, group multi-channel director at Tesco, in a blog post announced the company has put the smartphone plans on hold and will instead concentrate on the upcoming Hudl2 tablet.
Terrell said that the company announced the smartphone plans in May when it was “confident” to offer an affordable, quality 4G handset in the phone market. But, when the idea was gradually put on paper in the first few months of the year, a number of affordable 4G smartphones from leading smartphone makers were released in the mobile market.
He said the fast changing technology sector and the intensely growing competitive mobile market forced Tesco to abandon its smartphone plans. He said the company finally decided to put the phone on hold and concentrate on the Hudl2 tablet in early July.
Talking more on the next generation Hudl tablet, Terrell said that the device will be an “enhanced” version of the original, with much bigger screen size, greater memory and a broader line-up of apps than the original. He said the second iteration has the potential to “take its place as customer’s primary tablet.”
Although Terrell did not disclose much about the tablet’s specs, he said Hudl 2 is expected to be launched in the coming few weeks.
