Obi Worldphone, previously Obi Mobiles, was a Silicon Valley smartphone manufacturer founded in 2014 by Neeraj Chauhan, Shane Maine, Gordon McMillan, and John Sculley.[3] Obi Worldphone manufactures smartphones aimed at the emerging markets[4] rather than very competitive developed markets.[5][6]
History
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.[7] Ammunition subsequently designed the chassis and operating system skin the phones run on, "Obi Lifespeed".[8]
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.[9]
The newly branded company launched two of their pioneer low cost smartphones on August 27, 2015.[10] Both models are based upon Android as their operating system.[10] Their third phone, the MV1, was announced in February 2016, and was released to Asian, African, Latin American and European markets in March 2016.[11][12]
In July 2015, Obi had a 5.7% smartphone market share in the UAE, making it the company's strongest global market.[9]
In September 2017, Sculley distanced himself from Obi and said his name was used for PR only.[3]
Products
SF1
Launched on August 27, 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).[13] The phone comes with a self-developed fork of the Android Operating System called "Obi Lifespeed".[8][14] 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 32GB + 3GB / 16GB + 2GB (respectively Storage and RAM) combinations,[14] and a choice of black or white. The initial retail price for the device is $199 and comes unlocked.[15]
SJ1.5
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.[15] The device is all plastics in a range of colors and comes with 16GB of storage and a 3,000 milliamps battery.[16][17] Both the SF1 and SJ1.5 feature a dual SIM tray.[17]
MV1
The MV1 has a 5” Gorilla Glass 3 display with 1280 x 720 (HD) resolution, it runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16 GB of Storage. It features a dual SIM tray.
Awards
In 2015, Obi Worldphone's SF1 was voted the 5th best smartphone available in Vietnam in VNExpress' "TechAwards 2015" (Sản phẩm Công nghệ xuất sắc 2015).[18][19][20]
