Pepsi to start selling smartphones and accessories in China

PepsiCo may have a brand value of $19 billion, though seemingly none of that comes from smartphone sales. That may be about to change, as the world’s 29th most valuable company has just confirmed rumors of a new business plan that will be unveiled on October 20th. The products? Smartphones and accessories.

One of the new offerings, presumably the first to be announced, will be the Pepsi P1 according to a recent leak. The phone will include a 5.5-inch FHD display, a 1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board storage, a 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front facing camera. It will include a 3000mAh battery, be 7.7mm thick, run on Android 5.1, and retail for just $205.

According to Reuters, Pepsi isn’t actually making the devices. Instead, the beverage giant will license its branding for use on an otherwise “template” piece of hardware from a partner company. “Available in China only, this effort is similar to recent globally licensed Pepsi products which include apparel and accessories,” said a Pepsi spokesperson.

For reference, this is a similar approach to what VAIO Corporation did earlier this year when it launched the VAIO Phone, as well as what Nokia did with its Android tablet.

What do you think? Could Pepsi have some real potential for those specs at that price point, or is the product marred by the corporate beverage branding? Let us know your thoughts below.